Many European politicians believe that short-haul flights should be shifted to rail. At the same time, there is a repeated demand that tickets have to be cheaper. The Deutsche Bahn, however, is raising prices again with the change of the timetable.

With the timetable change, the state provider wants to create significantly more competition for the airlines in domestic German traffic. This is to be done with the help of the ICE Sprinter trains, which are subject to a surcharge. The offer is being increased on some routes. For example, the Berlin-Cologne route, which in the past was also known as the “official shuttle” by air, is affected. From mid-December 2021, DB plans to offer three daily train pairs that should run in under four hours.

Additional ICE Sprinter trains are also to run between Düsseldorf via Cologne and Munich and Hamburg to Frankfurt am Main Airport. An additional evening connection will be set up between Berlin and Munich, where it has already established itself as a serious competitor to the air route.

The additional offer also has its price, because the ICE sprinter trains are subject to a surcharge and can therefore be used with comparatively expensive tickets. In general, Deutsche Bahn AG will raise ticket prices again in mid-December 2021. On average, tickets are expected to be around 1,9 percent more expensive, which means that the cheaper tickets promised by politicians due to a reduction in VAT will gradually fizzle out.