€9 ticket: Pentecost as an endurance test for Deutsche Bahn

The German passenger association Pro Bahn felt emphatic in its criticism. “During peak travel times, demand on the main roads was too high for trains to leave. Some rail companies – such as Metronom in northern Germany – have ruled out cycling because they could not afford to travel,” said Karl Peter Naumann of the Pro Pan passenger union on Monday. Rush “.

Anarchy in Germany was foreseeable and the result of a political show without the necessary capabilities of railroad traffic. “Not everything that is well-intentioned is well done,” Neumann said. The good thing about the €9 ticket is that it put local public transport back into the conversation. “But it only works if there is capacity,” Neumann says.

Expect more problems in the summer

With the ticket, you can use local transport throughout Germany for one month, the ticket is available for June, July and August. It is intended to support passengers, for example, as well as help convince new users to move to the train permanently.

Neumann expects more problems in the coming summer months. So he advised rail travelers, if possible, not to travel on the weekend, but to switch to midweek days and reconsider the destination. “Must it be Sylt, Warnemünde, or Lake Tegernsee – or are there no other beautiful regions where there is little demand?”

Also late on Monday

There were also delays in many places in Germany on Monday. “As expected, there have been and continue to be regional rises in passenger numbers, particularly to tourist destinations,” a Deutsche Bahn spokesperson said. Travelers report that trains are partially fully crowded, especially in the direction of the Baltic and North Seas, and some passengers have to disembark again. Bicycles are not often taken.

“It is still too early to make a detailed assessment,” a railway spokesman said. In general, operations have been stable across the country. For Whit Monday, DB passengers again recommended that passengers obtain information from transportation associations or via the DB Navigator app shortly before the start of their trip.

Transport Minister: We have to seize the opportunity

With a €9 ticket, travelers can use local transport throughout Germany for a month since Wednesday. Tickets are on sale for June, July and August. This is intended to support travelers due to the sharp rise in energy costs. In order to protect the climate, new users must be persuaded to commute to the train on a permanent basis. According to the German Transport Association, about seven million tickets were sold last Tuesday.

German Transport Minister Volker Wessing (FDP) said local transport services should be more understandable, more consistent and therefore more convenient for customers in the future. It also advocated practical local transportation applications and simpler rates. “We have to seize the opportunity to get more people interested in public transportation,” Wesing says. “We want to attract new passengers.”

In addition, small-scale organizational structures must be dismantled. Standardized tariffs and offers across transport associations are also a real added value for customers. People do not live in tariff zones. People want to go from A to B. “