EN ROUTE TO BERLIN — As the 12:06 p.m. Intercity Express train to Berlin leaves the Swiss city of Bern and crosses the border into Germany, passengers reluctantly bid farewell to punctuality — a guarantee in the Alpine republic where trains run like clockwork.

Fifty-seven-year-old Elisabeth Eisel regularly takes this seven-hour train journey. "Trains in Switzerland are always on time, unless they're arriving from Germany," she says. "Harsh but true, sadly. It didn't used to be the case."

Chronic underinvestment in Germany has derailed yet another myth about Teutonic efficiency. The German railway Deutsche Bahn's long-distance "high-speed" trains are now among the least punctual in Europe . In October, the national rail operator broke its own poor record with roughly only half of al

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