Transport Enjoy Christmas to the full - including full trains

Berlin · Many railway stations and trains will be full, and delays are to be expected. Deutsche Bahn insists that there will be no chaos over the holidays, but passengers should be aware of a few things.

Deutsche Bahn is preparing for the Christmas rush.

Deutsche Bahn is preparing for the Christmas rush.

Foto: dpa/Hauke-Christian Dittrich

Have you already booked? The race for the best seats for Christmas has started. Deutsche Bahn has promised to run special trains, and more personnel should help to cope with the Christmas rush. There is no threat of chaos, the German railway group assured the Bild am Sonntag, saying that "The company is well prepared for Christmas."

It needs to be well prepared, because Deutsche Bahn needs to come up with some kind of reconciliation at the end of the year. It’s been a long time since the group has had to ask us to forgive them for delays as it has in 2022. But despite the current situation, the passenger association Pro Bahn is advising customers to take the train instead of the car over the holidays, and it gives tips on how to minimise risks.

Avoid the Friday and Saturday before the holidays

"It's probably even more crowded on the roads," says chairperson Karl-Peter Naumann. So let's get into the train hustle and bustle. "You should book in good time and reserve seats," advises the passenger representative. Another tip is to avoid the Friday and Saturday before the holidays and to take a day's holiday earlier. Tickets are cheaper then and the trains are not so full.

Other tips: plan for longer connecting times or try to find direct connections, because there’s risk involved every time you have to change trains; when booking, don’t only look at the ICE but also Intercity and Eurocity trains; consider off-peak times. "You can also travel at five in the morning and continue sleeping on the train," says Naumann.

The tips could be useful, because Deutsche Bahn can’t increase the number of trains or its personnel. Board member Michael Peterson announced 80 special trains that could be booked from Friday. However, no further details were given on Sunday. Last year, there were 100 special trains spread over 12 days - about 8 per day - compared to 800 long-distance trains running regularly on normal days.

More than 500,000 seats on offer every day

But regardless of this, Deutsche Bahn’s capacity is constantly growing because it will gradually receive new ICE4 trains up to 2025. By the end of the year, 360 ICEs will be running on the German rail network, about a hundred more than five years ago. More than 500,000 seats are on offer every day. By mid-December, 13,000 will be added, Peterson announced.

"And the service team will be ramped up." By Christmas, he said, some 800 new staff would be on board at stations and on trains. "All this will stabilise the situation," Peterson hopes. Because the rush is growing. At Easter, for the first time Deutsche Bahn counted more passengers than before the pandemic.

At the same time, punctuality plummeted: This year, trains were more unreliable than they had been for a long time. This is because so many of them are running on an overloaded network. A lot of construction work is being done to clear the backlog of repairs. In addition, there are pandemic-related staff absences. "The current punctuality figure of 66 per cent remains far below our target," Peterson said. "But, only 1.5 per cent of trains are more than an hour late, an average of twelve out of 800 per day."

Passengers have to dig deeper into their pockets at Christmas

Passengers will have to dig deeper into their pockets at Christmas. So-called flex fares will rise by an average of almost seven per cent from 11 December, as Deutsche Bahn announced in September. The reason is high energy prices.

Economy and super economy fares will remain unchanged. With these, you can even get long routes such as Cologne-Berlin from 17.90 euros. But it depends on the date and whether you buy your ticket early. And it becomes more difficult to get a bargain when passenger numbers increase. During the holiday season, the chances are slim. If you want to book a Berlin-Cologne ticket for the Friday afternoon before Christmas Eve, you'll have to reckon with more than 100 euros, even at the super-saving price.

Original text: Burkhard Fraune, dpa

Translation: Jean Lennox

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