9-euro ticket balance: Apparently many train problems at Pentecost

According to the railway works council, the Pentecost weekend with a nine-euro ticket caused problems and put a lot of strain on employees. There were significantly more disruptions than usual.

The train traffic on the Pentecost weekend was apparently much more prone to disruption than usual because of the 9-euro ticket. So there were about 400 trains nationwide every day with too much capacity, said the Vice-Chairman of the General Works Council DB Regio, Ralf Damde, the editorial network Germany. The high occupancy meant that passengers were turned away or bicycles were not taken. “Everywhere in Germany the platforms and the trains were full, in several cases overcrowded trains had to be cleared – but fortunately no stations,” said Damde.

Much stress for railway staff

In total, there were around 700 reports of overload, problems with passengers or disruptions to the operations center every day. That is significantly more than on an average weekend and also than on the Pentecost weekend before Corona. There were no fears of physical assaults against the railway staff, “but verbal abuse,” said Damde. The massive additional need for personnel made thousands of overtime hours necessary at Pentecost alone.

The fact that many travelers without rail experience could not find their way on the platforms or in large stations led to increased personnel and time expenditure, Damde explained. “Overall, the passengers needed significantly more help than usual. This also included the fact that many people who had not traveled by train for a long time did not know that masks were still compulsory in public transport.”