German railway
84 percent buy their tickets online – but the majority still don’t want to do without machines
Deutsche Bahn already no longer offers saver and super saver tickets at its DB machines (symbolic image)
© Rolf Poss / Imago Images
The calls for digitalization are loud – but on the customer side the desire seems to be limited. Although most train passengers book their train tickets online, many do not want to do without the well-known machines.
According to a survey, most Deutsche Bahn customers do not want to go without tickets in the future You can buy from machines or counters. 64 percent of citizens find it “rather bad or very bad” if they can only book train tickets via the Internet or apps in the future. This was the result of a representative survey by the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (vzbv) among 1,000 respondents over the age of 16.
Older people are particularly critical of purely online sales. 75 percent of people over 50 think this is bad. Even among younger people between the ages of 18 and 29, every second respondent (49 percent) is critical of purely online sales.
Deutsche Bahn should not discriminate against anyone
The head of the consumer advice center, Ramona Pop, calls on the railway not to disadvantage anyone through digitalization: “People must not be excluded from purchasing tickets or cheap fares just because they do not have online access or prefer to travel by train without providing private information want.” Deutsche Bahn must “do justice to its role and make its offerings available to everyone.”
According to the information, the railway no longer offers saver and super saver tickets at its DB machines. If you want to buy a saver or super saver ticket at the counter, you must provide an email address or mobile phone number. The vzbv boss criticizes this approach: “The fact that the purchase of cheap saver and super saver tickets is made more difficult also has social explosive power. Those who have to turn over every euro twice anyway must not be left behind and also be asked to pay with their data become.”
Train travel
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According to Deutsche Bahn, 84 percent of all travelers currently book their long-distance tickets using an app in the DB Navigator or on the Internet. The trend is “increasing,” added a railway spokeswoman. Ten years ago only 51 percent did this. From what used to be over a thousand Deutsche Bahn service centers, there are now fewer than 400, as the “Westdeutsche Allgemeine” (WAZ) determined. Since January 2022, tickets can no longer be purchased on the train.