Status: 07.10.2021 11:03 a.m.
With additional sprinter connections on selected routes, Deutsche Bahn wants to make domestic flights less attractive with its new timetable. However, the group is also increasing prices.
On eight of the ten strongest domestic German flight routes, the train will offer a “fast and environmentally friendly alternative to the plane” from 2022, Deutsche Bahn announced today. The new train timetable is valid from December 12th, tickets are available from October 13th.
Between Berlin and Cologne, sprinters will drive three times a day in under four hours and thus up to half an hour faster than before. It will also be faster on the Düsseldorf-Cologne-Munich route and in the morning from Hamburg to Frankfurt Airport. There should be new sprinters in the evening between Berlin and Munich.
Business customers should be addressed
With the “new sprinter connections on the edge of the day”, the railway is also attracting business customers. This makes it possible “to keep earlier appointments in the morning and be home again in the evening”. In order to cope with the increasing number of passengers, the company also wants to use more ICE 4 trains in the coming year, which can transport 918 passengers. The IC is to be replaced step by step. The XXL-ICE can “transport five times as many people as a medium-haul aircraft”, advertises the railway.
The long-distance route Dortmund / Münster-Siegen-Frankfurt / Main is new to the 2022 timetable. Double-decker intercity trains are to run there. ICE trains replace Intercitys on other connections, for example on the Frankfurt / Karlsruhe-Stuttgart-Ulm-Munich route. “We want even more rail in the area of Germany,” said the head of long-distance rail transport, Michael Peterson.
The prices are rising
With the new timetable, Deutsche Bahn is also increasing its prices. As the group had already announced at the beginning of the month, they will increase by an average of 1.9 percent in long-distance transport when the timetable changes. Train travelers also have to be prepared for higher fares in regional traffic. For trips outside of transport associations, an average of around 1.7 percent more will be due from December 12, as the tariff association of federal and non-federal railways in Germany (TBNE) announced yesterday. In addition to Deutsche Bahn, these include their competitors Abellio, Benex, National Express, Netinera and Transdev.
The price increase affects around 20 percent of journeys in regional transport, otherwise the tariff of the regional transport associations applies. There, too, the first increases have been announced, in Rhein-Main, for example, by an average of 1.5 percent and in Munich by an average of 3.7 percent.