Status: 09/04/2023 16:44
Demand is huge: in the first three days of advance sales, 250,000 tickets to Germany were purchased on Deutsche Bahn alone. The company expects that one in five people will use the ticket in the future.
The Deutschlandticket for local and regional transport, valid from May, is already extremely popular. In the first three days of advance sales, 250,000 tickets were sold by Deutsche Bahn alone.
“On Monday we had twice as many hits as we normally get on our website,” Evelyn Palla, DB’s head of regional traffic, told Bild am Sonntag. The train is one of the many transport companies where the ticket is available. It can also be obtained via the Deutschlandticket app.
Prospectively up to 17 million users
The head of regional transport assumes that demand for the ticket, which is valid throughout Germany, will remain high in the future. “We expect around six million people across the country to subscribe to local transport with Deutschlandticket for the first time.”
In addition, around eleven million passengers who already use a subscription are expected to switch to the new service. “That’s a total of 17 million users.” The regular ticket costs 49 euros. Some federal states are planning cheaper fares for the ticket, which is only available with a monthly subscription – for school-age children or people with particularly low incomes, for example.
“You can only ask for understanding”
In view of delays and construction sites, however, train drivers will have to be patient. The situation is so dramatic that there is no alternative to a general overhaul of the network, said Federal Government Commissioner for Rail Transport, Secretary of State for Transport Michael Theurer.
One can only ask railway customers for understanding and also ask for forgiveness. He recommends that Deutsche Bahn communicate openly and honestly.
Only 65% of long-distance trains are on time
In Deutsche Bahn’s long distance transport, the punctuality rate last year was 65.2% and therefore ten percentage points lower than the previous year’s level. The reasons given by the railroads were outdated and scarce infrastructure, many construction sites and a rapidly growing volume of traffic.
When it comes to punctuality, things are better with regional and local transport. According to Deutsche Bahn, 92.6% of regional and S-Bahn trains were on time in March.
“As the federal government, we have articulated management expectations that punctuality should improve significantly,” said the railway official. Bahn boss Richard Lutz refers to the network, which must be described as completely overloaded. “Of course, the public sector is also responsible for the network and now we are doing our job”, guaranteed Theurer.
Delays: Railway official Theurer asks passengers for understanding
Jim-Bob Nickschas, ARD Berlin, April 9, 2023 2:27 pm