Christmas trips: Almost five million rail passengers over the holidays

Around 4.9 million passengers traveled on Deutsche Bahn’s long-distance services over the Christmas holidays. That was eight percent more than in the same period last year, as the railway announced to the German Press Agency. “The capacity utilization on DB’s ICE and Intercity trains was 60 percent,” it said. The federally owned company evaluated the booking data for the period between December 18th and 28th.

“My special thanks go to our colleagues who worked around the clock over the Christmas period to ensure that our passengers got to their destination safely,” said Long-Distance Transport Director Michael Peterson.

Trains are surprisingly on time

According to the company, Christmas traffic was largely stable and smooth – and surprisingly punctual. According to a spokesman, on December 24th and 25th the punctuality rate in long-distance transport was more than 80 percent. That would be significantly more than the expected annual value, which is likely to be below 65 percent. “Even on the days with the highest passenger volumes, December 20th and 22nd, there were no significant restrictions,” it said.

The main reason for this was probably the lower construction activity during the holidays and less freight traffic with which the long-distance trains share the tracks. The railway was also able to expand its range of seats on long-distance transport this year thanks to new trains.