Until now, rail passengers have been able to book tickets for their journeys six months in advance. The railway now wants to extend this period – and make other adjustments to ensure greater reliability.
Deutsche Bahn is extending the advance booking period for train tickets. Instead of the previous six months, tickets will now be able to be booked twelve months before the journey, the state-owned company announced. The change will come into effect on October 16. The new timetable will then be set, according to which the trains will run from mid-December.
The new advance booking deadline is one of several measures with which Deutsche Bahn wants to increase the attractiveness of long-distance travel. So far, 2024 has been a difficult year for the state-owned company. Long-distance travel has recently been severely slowed down by strikes, extreme weather events and the dilapidated infrastructure, said Michael Peterson, Deutsche Bahn’s board member responsible for long-distance travel. “As a result, we have lost trust among our guests.”
Current punctuality “extremely bitter”
In 2023, demand growth was “extremely strong.” The problems in the current year have now put a strain on demand. In August, punctuality in long-distance traffic was 60.6 percent – an “extremely bitter figure” according to Peterson. By 2027, punctuality is expected to rise again to more than 75 percent. “The basic prerequisite for this is a functioning infrastructure,” said Peterson.
Many areas of the line are to be renovated in the coming years, with a particular focus on 41 particularly important corridors. In addition, construction work is to be scheduled with greater consideration for the timetable in the future.
More Sprinter connections from timetable change in December
Peterson also promised an expansion of long-distance transport services in the coming years. Given the limited capacity on the heavily used network, cutting back on long-distance transport is not a solution, as it only accounts for a fraction of rail traffic in Germany.
According to Peterson, the 2025 timetable will already include slightly more Sprinter connections, i.e. ICE journeys with only a few stops between the start and end stations. “By December 2026, 20 major German cities will be connected to the nationwide long-distance transport network with an ICE service every half hour,” said Peterson.
Peterson: Passengers want more international connections
More international trips are also planned in the medium term. “This is another way we are responding to passengers’ wishes,” said Peterson. From mid-December, for example, there will be a new direct connection from Berlin to the French capital Paris. The journey time should be around eight hours.
Source: Stern
