Germany regional trains experience

"I am wondering if the packed trains is as a result of the 9€ ticket?"

That is the general consensus. And of course the month you chose to travel is a big month for Europeans vacationing in Europe, so with the huge increase in oil/gas prices and the fact that the Rhine/Mosel region is a big vacation destination to begin with, it's no surprise that inflation-ravaged Europeans looking for some R&R are hopping on the train with their nearly-free €9 monthly passes.

"inflation-ravaged Europeans"?? Seriously Russ?

People are just living totally normal lives, there is nothing different here. But a bargain is a bargain, so people take advantage of it, no matter what the economy would be doing. It is called common sense. Yes, the trains are crowded, but not all of them and not all of the time. We went to Oberammergau and only the train from Nuremburg to Munich was packed, the other trains were just fine. I ride on the regional trains all the time and they are fine, but if you are in a tourist area, like the Rhein, they will be full.

Is the EU not experiencing an annual inflation rate of around 10%? Rates like that typically result in vacations closer to home for many folks.

we had a forecast the other day to expect 18 percent inflation

We travelled by train in April - May, before the 9 euro ticket. We often travel this time of year. The train usage this spring seemed a little lighter than usual. We do try to avoid the Nürnberg to München line that Jo mentioned, especially the first train after 9AM when the Bayern Ticket can be used.

There are occasional issues with track repairs, etc. However, we have only a few times in 19 trips been inconvenienced. We lived in Germany for 6 years in the 70's and 80's with our own car. We had similarly bad experiences with Autobahn backups.

We are heading back for the 2022 Christmas Markets. For our sake, I might hope they do not extend the 9 euro fare. Still, with the oil/gas issue, we would live with the crowds and understand it.

For our sake, I might hope they do not extend the 9 euro fare.

This will not happen, despite all the fuss currently being made in the press. The government simply cannot afford to throw three billion out the window every three months. The ticket has completely failed in its alleged goal of attracting more commuters to the trains (in fact, it has even put off many) and has been nothing more than a subsidy for leisure summer activities. If a successor ticket comes along, it will be considerably more expensive. There is talk of one for €69 per month.

The regional trains are highly variable from region to region, and honestly, overcrowding and problems with scheduling/delays on them are common in some areas, even outside of the 9-Euro-Ticket and the general August issues. But--August is always particularly bad, so there is that to add in.

Basically, the system is great in that it really goes nearly everywhere. But, and I say this as someone who commutes with regional trains daily, one should be prepared for delays and crowding. Or, take ICE-EC trains if you want to avoid this.

Or, take ICE-EC trains if you want to avoid ....

... crowding and prefer delays.

My friends across Germany have nothing but horror stories of the 9Euro ticket scheme. From garbage on Baltic beaches from punks (quote) who went for a cheap vacation, to the chaos in the booking systems that prevent routine bokigs only and in person. Am still trying to book a train into Germany from Zagreb as usual every year, with no success. Trainine claims to refund my bookings paid but not made, but not all refunds show up. Unless my patient friend at the counter has better luck, I will be buying my point to point tickets at Zagreb station on arrival. The German train system was already overloaded and losing its reputation before the war broke out. I expect regional trains to be their usual price in October, and may be able to advance book online in Germany and print off an E ticket as I have done for year. Recommend no one books any quick connections, better wait than sorry. Flights that are not cancelled may be one way to crisscross Europe trouble free. Srrry, just dreaming in technicolor. Easyjet worked for me last year. But no one was travelling much. This year is a perfect storm. Off season may be better...

Not surprising that the 9 Euro ticket was only valid on regional trains, which is fantastic if your trip rides are primarily limited to riding the RB and RE. I do that too but a good number of my rides zipping here and there are on the ICE and IC. No luck there with the 9 Euro ticket. Lots of times on regional trains (pre-pandemic), I stood or if I got a seat, it was just packed like sardines/herring.

At 69€/person/month, that would still be a bargain, considering that a Quer-durchs-Land-Ticket is 42€ for one person and includes the same trains for just one day.

chaos in the booking systems that prevent routine bokigs only and in person. Am still trying to book a train into Germany from Zagreb as usual every year, with no success.

You are probably referring to the direct train Zagreb-Munich EC 212. The fact that it is not yet bookable for October is not due to DB, but to the Croatian railroad, which this year always releases the train only at short notice because of the pandemic. That problem has been discussed here several times (also concerning train traffic between Croatia / Slovenia and Austria). The only thing that helps is to check again and again. Trainline is no help, because they depend on the booking system of the national carriers. As a frequent train traveler, I can say that there is no question of chaos in the DB booking system. The main problem is the shameful lack of punctuality of long-distance traffic. Local traffic will return to normal from Thursday (end of the 9€ ticket) and hopefully also return to its usual punctuality rate of over 90%.

Lee: "At 69€/person/month, that would still be a bargain"

Four of us are traveling to Germany this Nov-Dec, primarily Bavaria. I made a quick calculation and the Bayern-Ticket is still a better deal. I only make this point to say that trains can be a bargain for U.S. visitors as things stand - without any additional discounts.

Well we happen to be on the train right now and it’s a disaster! Packed, delays, changes. Very very difficult to utilize, relying on nice Germans as all announcements are in German and tracks, stops, changes keep happening along with the packed cars standing room only for 4 hours. The 9€ ticket is an issue.

Hearing all these issues with the trains has me rethinking my day trip from Salzburg to Munich in a couple of weeks.

Carrie, the 9€ ticket special ends on 31 Aug. School vacation in all the states should be over in 2 weeks too. Both of those mean smaller crowds on the trains.

Read an article here in the states that the 9 Euro ticket was making train travel in Germany miserable.
We are headed there in November and hope things will improve.

You're going in November, right Donna? If it's the €9 ticket that's causing the crowding and delay problems, and it's going away 3 days from now, then I think we can assume regional train service should return to normal (barring any new bone-headed government mandates!) And of course November is not a heavy tourist month at all. You'll be fine. Normal on-time performance on DB's regional train system is reported to the public annually, and it has been outstanding for many years - something like 95% of trains arrive on time, which is far better than the high-speed rail system (which comes in at around 75-80% most years.)

What regional train trips are you planning to take? If it's the typical day trip, you'll normally be using a day pass (like the Bayern Ticket or the Rheinland-Pfalz ticket) which automatically provides you with travel options during the less-impacted hours of the day since morning rush hour travel is not available (on weekdays you must travel from 9 am onward.)

You know, people outside of Germany have long thought that our train system was magical, while we have been complaining about it for years. Complaining about Deutsche Bahn/your regional train operator is kind of a national pass time, and one that I engage in frequently.

However, the views inside of Germany about the 9-Euro-Ticket are more complicated than the negative ones presented in this thread, and it will take a while to know what the effects of this really were on the transportation landscape--and I am sure it will just give us more to argue about. But, I personally applaud my government for trying out new ways of structuring things like public transit, in an effort for a more equitable and climate-neutral future (if only we could put a speed limit on the Autobahn!)--and I say this, even if I do not agree 100% with the experiments they try.

I know that none of this matters directly for tourists, who just want to get wherever they are going with minimal hassle. But, for all stuck on our trains in the next few days, it is perhaps worth thinking about the larger issues that are at play here, rather than just dismissing the whole thing out of hand. (Genuinely not directing this to anyone in specific, by the way!)

You know, people outside of Germany have long thought that our train
system was magical

By comparison with ours, it is. We don't bother to complain about ours because it isn't a worthy topic, hardly worth the expelled breath. Whine about Amtrak's performance, and the only possible response is, "And what exactly did you expect?"

sla019 wrote,

The ticket has completely failed in its alleged goal of attracting
more commuters to the trains...

If this is true, it's not surprising. Commuters are perfectly capable of figuring out what's best for them. It's not as though they'd never heard of trains or they'd never considered train travel for their commuting circumstances prior to this promotion, which assumed cost alone would pry them out of their cars. They aren't stray dogs going after snacks, and they aren't going to alter their entire routine permanently just because a rail commute is offered at next to nothing for 90 days. If oil prices go nuts, they may in fact change their habits, but that choice will be driven by both their commute circumstances AND a comparison of fuel/driving costs against NORMAL rail costs, not an unsustainable monthly pass at €9. I think those behind the roll-out of the €9 ticket should have understood this already.

@ Lynn...What you describe pertaining to the "mess" on German regional trains is like that I experienced in the summer of 2015...the worst ever up until then. When I went back in the summer of 2016, nowhere as bad, much improved. In 2015 if I was not affected by the late train, ICE or regional, someone else was. The electronic screens showed train after train late. This was in Düsseldorf Hbf. I watched this.

The platform announcements on late or delayed trains were constant. Only ICE announcements are made in English plus German. No announcements in English for regional trains. Worse still are the announcements saying that departure track has been changed.

In the 1970s and '80s none of the train announcements was made in any other language except German...maybe in Frankfurt in the early 1970s. Nothing unusual to see regional trains in the summer standing room only, just packed, people sit on the floor in the bike area too.

Fred: Yes, the regional trains in my area are always terribly full in the summer, and especially in August. And, it depends on whether they are doing construction work, something that in my region right now is responsible for most of the late and cancelled trains. Also, I think it is the norm on regional trains to have announcements only in German. Certainly, the super local trains--the ones that stop at every milk can, as we say in German--are a pretty all-German-language environment.

Russ: As this is not the right forum for debating the details of German politics, I won't get into a more detailed conversation about what the wider scope of intentions behind the 9-Euro-Ticket were, and of how they are currently being evaluated in the German-speaking world, but there is a huge mass written about it in our media from all points of view, for those who read German and want to follow up. It is frankly a complicated issue and will take time to assess after the summer.

My point was only that there is, in fact, a rather hearty debate about these issues, and the attitude from residents within the country is rather more complicated than that seen in this small selection of posts--although of course there are many who are fiercely critical.

I think that being aware about this wider context is perhaps of interest to tourists who are interested to see how a different country tries to confront the current challenges we all face.

and at the end of the day, all those sardines on the train are not driving in automobiles using precious fuel. These are not normal times we are in.

Trains, whether electric, diesel or bi-modal (both), contribute much smaller amounts of pollution and global warming, and use much less fuel than the cars they replace.

We spent August 16-29 traveling in Germany using the 9euro ticket, and while we benefitted tremendously from the ticket, we would reconsider it's use going forward. Not only were the trains OVER-crowded, but our previous experiences with regional train travel--the consideration of allowing people to depart a train before entering a train (common courtesy), followed by the push and shove to load, the overall rudeness (this is not subjective) of those while on the train--was truly disheartening. Truly. We witnessed elders having to stand for hours, while younger people continued to sit without even offering to change places with the elders. We too, were disappointed in the fact that grown, able-bodied men, had a total disregard for elder men and women.
This had never been our experience in the many times we have trained while in Germany.
I will have to say though--there were several times that my sister and I both offered to give up our seats to our elders (we are 64 and 61) and were told 'nein, danke'.
At any rate, although the 9euro ticket did benefit our travel budget, it has severely called into question what we had considered one of the most considerate of societies.
Come at me--this was just our experience and observations.

jchurch: "...it (the €9 ticket) has severely called into question what we had considered one of the most considerate of societies."

The traditions of being patient with exiting passengers and showing deference to the elderly are just two of many shared cultural practices that German society has gradually been giving up on over the last 20-30 years or so. I think you're quite correct that it's not the same place anymore - but I think maybe you're comparing today's Germany to the one you remember from many years ago; nowadays, reflexive politeness and the "enforcement" that used to encourage that sort of behavior (scowls and stare-downs for offenders, the occasional verbal reprimand) are rarer and rarer. But I think there are MANY reasons such customs have waned... the €9 ticket didn't cause these behavioral changes, but it certainly has "showcased" them.

Yeah…I am a daily commuter on regional trains in my late 30s and have to say that the complaints of not letting people off crowded trains etc have been around since my Uni days. This is nothing new. I also wonder to a certain degree whether more foreign tourists were simply using regional trains this summer than usually, because of the price, and so had more contact with this Ort of the system than before. Things like changes of tracks on regional trains and German-only announcements are really normal in this system. And never ending construction. To be honest, if I were a tourist (and when I vacation in Germany far from home) I take long distance trains, because they are way more comfortable.

Also: as I am reporting from my commute home on the first day after the end of the promotion, I can confidently say that the train is…just as crowded as it was yesterday, which is to say standing room only. (Also: they are checking tickets very aggressively today it seems. I saw three people be fined for trying to ride in 9-Euro-Tickets just on my ride home. So…make sure you have the proper ticket!)

As tourists we usually have an advantage over commuters taking Regional Trains. We do not have to travel during the rush hours, to include the first train after 9:00 when the Bayern-Tickets (Länder-Tickets) become effective. My wife and I usually plan to leave after 10:00. We have only had to stand in rare, special circumstances (and on ALX trains).

We just plan ahead. For example Saturdays during Christmas Market seasons are good times to avoid taking a train.

I prefer RE's over RB's as they are faster but generally have had good luck with either.

I saw three people be fined for trying to ride in 9-Euro-Tickets just
on my ride home.

Any new promotional giveaway that extends for 3 full months will redefine what "normal" means and will mis-train the public; once habituated to the new, overly-generous terms of transport, many will find the old and pricier "normal" unacceptable when it returns. It's human nature - they feel let-down/cheated, then get p-o'ed and belligerent, while the image of public transport suffers. Not a great PR move.

A zillion times, ever since my first trip in 1971 I rode commute trains when I was traveling in Germany always in the summer especially during rush hour, have been on regional trains mostly in North Germany, the Rhineland, and the Ruhr where they were packed, you were sometimes squished in , full of commuters, pupils, a few tourists, but almost exclusively local speaking German and other languages.... just depends on the line. I've seen those who caught too....good.

Nowadays, since I am a senior, I don't expect to be offered a seat, the one most egregious behaviour was being lied to in 2017 on the long distance train (IC?) from Jena to Rostock via Berlin regarding an empty compartment seat. The guy next to it said it was reserved but that was only after Berlin according the reservation tags outside this compartment. I was getting off in Berlin. Since I was too slow, I fell for his lie, and had to look for another seat in that crowded coach. I should have sat there anyway to see if he would say anything to the contrary, ie taking him up on his dare, was too passive, not aggressive enough.

Maybe the 9 Euro ticket made the problem of normally summer crowded trains more acute. I should have seen it.

"...the never ending construction...." How true, and along with announcements only in German.

In just about every city in Germany there are hotels offering the guest a free combi-ticket valid on the buses, the U and S-Bahn, no need for buying any sort of pass within that city and its net.

I have been offered this combi-ticket. You were at those hotels that did not offer this to the guests. In Düsseldorf and Hamburg I was offered that but didn't take them up on it since i was going elsewhere or on foot. In Berlin there is such a hotel, for sure.

I saw three people be fined for trying to ride in 9-Euro-Tickets just on my ride home.

I'm glad they are enforcing that - there is nothing more irritating than someone who tries to game the system and gets away with it.

Yes, this with ticket control is another thing that actually is not so surprising--the first day of the month is always a big day for ticket control, because so many people forget to get new monthly tickets or so on. So, this was just slightly more than normal, for the first day of the month.

I think it was too early for the 9 Euro ticket. Yes something must have been done in this direction but only when the system is up and running like before Covid. Those days everyboy claiming lack of employees including DB. So how should they've managed this challenge during summer holidays?
I do agree that DB always had some troubles but seemed to be compared to other European countries less. Nevertheless this does not help to convince people using trains more often.
And unfortunately I've noticed as well that people getting more rude. Hardly anybody still offering seats anymore to elderly people ..... and I've noticed this not only in Germany.