According to a survey, most Deutsche Bahn customers do not want to do without machines and counters – despite using digital ticket offers. There are also many supporters among young people.
Many rail travelers take advantage of the opportunity to purchase their tickets digitally. Nevertheless, a majority do not want to do without ticket machines and 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, which was available to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
“Make offers available to everyone”
Older people are particularly critical of pure online sales. 75 percent of people over 50 think this is bad. Even among younger 18 to 29-year-olds, every second respondent (49 percent) is critical of purely online sales.
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.”
There are already no more savings offers at ATMs
According to the information, the railway no longer offers saver and super saver tickets at its DB machines. If you want to buy such a ticket at the counter, you have to 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.”
Most train travelers book online
According to Deutsche Bahn, 84 percent of all travelers currently book their long-distance tickets via an app in the DB Navigator or on the Internet, as the paper continues. “The trend is rising,” said a railway spokeswoman. Ten years ago only 51 percent did this.
Online ticket booking has a number of advantages for Deutsche Bahn: In addition to the lower personnel costs, the company also has access to user data that can be used for marketing and advertising.
In addition, customers’ travel routes can be better understood than when making cash purchases at counters or ATMs. According to Deutsche Bahn, this is for the benefit of customers: they can then be more easily informed about the journey and any delays.