From December 12th
Change of timetable: Deutsche Bahn is increasing its prices and relying on more ICE sprinters
Rail customers pay more for their long-distance tickets from Sunday
© Imago Images
December brings changes every year for rail passengers. This time it is mainly improvements, according to the passenger association. But there is also news relating to payment.
For German passengers there are new offers on the weekend – but also higher prices. With the timetable change, trips on the ICE and Intercity from Sunday (December 12) will cost an average of 1.9 percent more, as the railway announced in the fall.
It will be easier and, in many cases, cheaper to bring children under the age of 15 with you: In future, anyone can be the necessary companion, not just parents or grandparents. Additional Sprinter connections are new to the timetable. They should also attract people to the railways who otherwise use domestic flights.
Additional ICE trains with fewer stops, the so-called sprinters, are to run on eight of the ten strongest domestic German flight routes. Among them is the Berlin-Cologne connection. ICE trains there run three times a day without stopping in under four hours – and thus up to half an hour faster than before. It should go faster on the routes Düsseldorf-Cologne-Munich, Hamburg-Frankfurt Airport and Berlin-Munich.
IC from Dresden to Sylt is not applicable
Long-distance trains are now back on the Frankfurt-Siegen-Dortmund-Münster route after a long time. Holidaymakers can continue to Norddeich Mole on the North Sea once a day. The direct train from Dresden via Berlin to Westerland on Sylt, on the other hand, is no longer available – a mistake, according to the Pro Bahn passenger association.
“We need significantly more direct connections in tourist traffic,” said honorary chairman Karl-Peter Naumann. Holidays in Germany are trendy, they shouldn’t just be by car. “On the way to the other East Frisian islands you have to change trains forever.” Rügen alone is also really well connected in the east.
Milestones in long-distance transport: 30 years of ICE in pictures
21 images
In order for Germany to achieve its climate goals, significantly more people should take the train instead of getting into a car or plane. The SPD, the Greens and the FDP have stated in their coalition agreement that the transport performance should be doubled – a much more ambitious goal than before. The previous government wanted to double the number of passengers; this can partly also be achieved with fuller trains.
On its growth path, the railway has been buying new trains for years, every three weeks it receives an ICE4 with 13 cars and 918 seats. The new trains also have 50,000 more seats in Christmas traffic than in the previous year, when there were a good 500,000 seats a day.
The new Sprinter connections are also possible with additional trains. ICE is gradually replacing intercity trains, as is now the case on the Frankfurt / Karlsruhe – Stuttgart – Ulm – Munich route. For passengers this means more comfort, but also more expensive tickets. There are still routes on which IC and ICE alternate – confusing for customers, as Pro Bahn criticizes.
Anyone who spontaneously jumps on a train has to be prepared for an important change: There are no longer any paper tickets from the conductors. Spontaneous beginners will in future have to book their tickets quickly on their laptop or mobile phone, ten minutes will be left for it.
There are more options for people who like to travel at night. After 14 years there is again a night train between Paris, Munich and Vienna, and there is also a night connection between Zurich, Cologne and Amsterdam. Train operators are the Austrian Federal Railways.
Rail competitor Flixtrain is also expanding its range and will in future also travel between Frankfurt and Cologne. Further goals are planned for the spring. In total, the green trains will then stop in 70 locations. However, the Berlin-Munich night connection is no longer available.
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