More and more people are traveling abroad by train. Connections to neighboring countries such as France and Austria are in particularly high demand. For other destinations, however, there is a lack of attractive offers.
More and more people are using the train to travel abroad. Compared to the previous record year of 2019, international long-distance rail transport grew by 30 percent in 2022, Deutsche Bahn announced.
In total, more than 21 million people crossed the border by train. Between the pre-corona year 2019 and 2022, the share of trips abroad in total long-distance rail travel rose by three percentage points to 16 percent.
“Growing together Europe on the rails”
In the first quarter of this year, the group registered 4.4 million passengers abroad. “International long-distance transport is not only central to Deutsche Bahn, the strong popularity also stands for Europe’s growing together on the rails,” said Deutsche Bahn boss Richard Lutz. Around 200 destinations in other European countries can now be reached directly from Germany.
Most trips go to neighboring countries, especially France and Austria. “The routes Frankfurt/Stuttgart-Paris, Frankfurt-Brussels and Frankfurt-Amsterdam are the absolute strongest,” said Deutsche Bahn. As a rule, Deutsche Bahn cooperates with foreign railway companies for journeys abroad. For example, both ICE and TGV trains are used in German-French high-speed traffic.
Hardly any offers over several borders low
There is still a lot of catching up to do when it comes to rail services across several European national borders. Anyone who wants to travel from Germany via France to Spain and Portugal or to Eastern Europe, for example, has a hard time by train. The timetables are not coordinated, the tickets have to be booked with the respective national train providers.
It looks a little better in the direction of Italy. The Austrian Federal Railways also offer night trains there from Germany. There are also nightly direct connections from Berlin via Hamburg to Stockholm, which are offered by Swedish railway companies.
All in all, experts therefore continue to give poor marks to trans-European rail traffic. “You can get from Germany to Paris very easily,” says Karl-Peter Naumann, honorary chairman of the Pro Bahn passenger association. “But if you drive from Germany to Bordeaux, it’s a completely different story. It gets expensive there because you have to piece together tickets.”
No portal for the entire route
In fact, a train journey from Cologne to south-west France cannot be booked continuously via the Deutsche Bahn portal. “There are international connections where you still have to buy tickets on different platforms for the corresponding sections,” said the Pro-Rail Alliance on request. “Here it is urgently necessary to create a portal on which a ticket for the entire journey can be booked.”
“Germany is the only country in the EU without a nationwide authority,” says Matthias Gastel, spokesman for rail policy for the Greens in the House of Representatives. “This could coordinate the better international train offers and, in case of doubt, also help finance them.”
More night trains required
The infrastructure remains another obstacle to smooth rail traffic throughout Europe. In Germany, for example, there is a great need for renovation. Numerous construction sites on the network, which is ailing in many places, slow down traffic and ensure a high level of unpunctuality. In addition, there is a lack of overhead lines at many border crossings. “Currently, only 27 of 56 border crossings in Europe are electrified,” according to the Pro-Rail Alliance. “This means unnecessary restrictions for long-distance trains, which are exclusively electrically powered.”
The experts agree that more night trains could further improve the international rail service. The pioneer here is the Austrian Federal Railway, which travels from Germany with new and comfortable sleeping cars, mainly in the direction of Italy and Switzerland. To the north, two Swedish railways offer night train journeys from Berlin. But expanding the offer is not easy, says the Green MP Gastel. There are currently many problems with the approval of rolling stock. “That’s why our wish would actually be for the Austrians to become a European night train company,” says Karl-Peter Naumann. They can then coordinate the offers and order uniform new cars.
However, the Pro-Rail Alliance is confident that supply will follow suit as demand increases. “Train travel is becoming easier and more comfortable – so it can be expected that the number of users will continue to rise in the future,” the association said.