Canceled flights, delayed trains, lost luggage: As the volume of travel increases, everyday traffic problems are also increasing again. The arbitration board noticed it in 2023.
Things don’t always go smoothly when traveling – if there is a dispute over reimbursement, passengers can contact the Arbitration Board for Public Transport (SÖP). Around 39,700 affected people did this last year, as the SÖP announced. This means that the office received almost a third more applications than in the previous year – and almost as many as in the previous record year of 2020, with more than 41,000 complaints. This year the number of cases could level off at a high level.
Most of the applications concerned air traffic
As usual, a large proportion of the applications, around 84 percent, related to air traffic. According to the SÖP, this was primarily about canceled or non-started trips, flight delays or lost, delayed or damaged luggage. Around 14 percent of all arbitration requests related to the railways. Here the conflicts mainly revolved around train cancellations and delays. “A new addition was the request for arbitration in the context of the Deutschlandticket,” the SÖP said.
According to the SÖP, the main reason for the significant increase last year was the chaotic conditions at German airports in 2022. Staff shortages in particular led to numerous flight cancellations and delays in the summer in view of the increasing passenger traffic.
These problems were also noticeable at the arbitration board in the first half of 2023 because it usually takes a few weeks for affected travelers to submit an application. Especially in the months up to and including July, the SÖP received twice as many arbitration applications as in the previous year. The numbers remained high in the second half of the year, but no longer reached the level of the same period last year.
Every third claim recognized immediately
In around 85 percent of cases, an agreement was reached in the interests of the travelers. “Many companies were particularly accommodating last year,” it said. “More than one in three claims were recognized immediately, so that the disputes could often be resolved within a few weeks.”
Not everything went smoothly at the railway last year either. What is striking is that the proportion of rail-related applications to the SÖP increased from 12 percent in 2022 to 14 percent last year. Converted, the number of rail disputes has increased from around 3,600 to more than 5,500. The SÖP refers to new cases due to the Germany ticket. She plans to publish more detailed analyzes of this in the annual report at the end of March.
Poor prospects for 2024
There were many problems not only in regional but also in long-distance transport. In November alone, almost every second long-distance train reached its destination late. Almost every third passenger was affected by delays. The main reason for the high level of unreliability on the railways is the poor condition of the infrastructure. In addition, there were a total of four warning strikes in 2023 due to various collective bargaining disputes at the railway.
This is likely to continue this year. On the one hand, the collective bargaining dispute with the German Locomotive Drivers’ Union continues. And it will probably take years before the infrastructure problems are resolved. The railway plans to completely renovate dozens of busy corridors starting this summer. It then starts on the so-called Riedbahn between Frankfurt and Mannheim. The routes are to be completely closed for months and then completely renewed. Things will initially become more stressful for passengers before things get better.
Refunds from the railway
For several years now, passengers have been able to request a refund of part of the fare online in the event of delays. If the delay is one hour or more, the train will refund a quarter of the price, and if the delay is two hours or more, half the price.
There are always calls to increase the reimbursement amount or to compensate passengers for even shorter delays. “We now need compensation that really represents a certain level of compensation for those affected and at the same time hurts the railway and encourages us to do better,” said CDU transport politician Thomas Bareiß to the “Rheinische Post”. The railway, in turn, defends its own regulations as the most generous of all means of transport.
Lots of complaints this year too
The SÖP is also expecting a high volume of applications this year. “We assume that we will receive more or less as many new arbitration applications in 2024 as in 2023,” the office said. More and more travelers were using the SÖP and the shortage of skilled workers and infrastructure problems, particularly on the railways, remained a challenge.
The SÖP has been taking care of problems with air, bus, train and ship travel since 2010. For the most part it is about compensation for delays or cancellations of flights and train journeys. Around 400 transport companies are taking part in the arbitration process, which they finance themselves.
Source: Stern
