This is good news for all passengers on the main rail lines in Germany. On 1 January, a VAT has come into force. The law was passed by the German parliament last September, when members of the Bundestag decided to reduce VAT from 19% to 7%. Visit Deutsche Bahn followed suit by lowering its mainline fares by an average of 10%. The introductory price of a journey in ICE drops from 19.90 euros to 17.90 euros. With a "Bahncard" subscription, this price even drops to 13.40 euros. This is the lowest introductory price since 1994, the year of rail reform in Germany.
As a result, Deutsche Bahn is planning a annual increase of five million passengers thanks to this VAT reduction. According to the company's CEO, Richard Lutz, " the more attractive fares will trigger an increase in demand, especially as Deutsche Bahn has decided to give up also to any price increase in 2020 ".
The railway company has therefore decided to order more trains to meet demand. From the end of the year 2022At a speed of 300 kph on major routes, they will considerably improve passenger service, with the aim of doubling the number of passengers on long-distance lines to 260 million a year. The 30 additional trains will create 13,000 extra passenger seats per day on a fleet of around 380 ICE trains - 100 more than today with orders already in hand.
For the new 2020 timetable, the German company is continuing to strengthen its offer, particularly on long-distance routes, offering trains at one- and two-hour intervals on routes such as Hamburg-Düsseldorf-Cologne, Berlin–FrankfurtBerlin-Munich and Rostock-Berlin-Dresden. Internationally, the company is strengthening its offer between Germany and Switzerland with new ICE trains - an increase in seat capacity of 20% - and between Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria with the creation from May of a Berlin-Dresden-Prague-Vienna-Graz route. Finally, new trains will reduce journey times between Berlin and Warsaw by 30 minutes from the summer season. The two capitals will then be only 5 hours 10 minutes apart...
The only bad news is that fares on regional and suburban trains went up on the first of January, and the same applies to urban transport. On average, they cost an extra 1.3% and 3.3%. In Hamburg and the greater Frankfurt region, the increases were 1.3% and 1.5% respectively, while in Berlin they reached 3.3%. On the other hand, the average price of public transport fell by 7% in Munich, due to a fare reform.
