Two-person compartments are common on ICE trains in both first and second class. However, Deutsche Bahn (DB) is now offering a novelty: complete cabins that are designed exclusively for two travelers. These were recently presented in Berlin. The compartments are equipped with a frosted glass sliding door that provides privacy and protection from prying eyes.
They are intended to offer private and business travelers an undisturbed space for telephone calls or video conferences. The guests do not sit next to each other, but opposite each other. This means colleagues can sit in the cabin at the same time. According to the railway, the two-person compartments are being tested with different groups of people. Whether or how the compartments would be introduced will be decided later, a spokesman said. “Anyone who sits in the model of an ICE double cabin can already imagine what traveling by train could soon feel like,” says Dr. Michael Peterson, DB board member for long-distance passenger transport.
It is not the only planned innovation for the railway.
Digital towel for seat reservation is coming
Travelers who book a savings or flex ticket from the train and do not reserve a seat often have to look for the next best available seat. If this seat is booked by another passenger during the journey, you will have to vacate it again. However, from summer 2024, the railway will introduce an innovation: a kind of digital towel.
Using the comfort check-in via app, which has already been introduced, travelers without a reservation have the opportunity to secure a free seat and travel undisturbed. The display on the seat then shows which station the seat is occupied up to.
Travel centers at train stations are getting a new look
Over the next five years, DB Long-Distance Transport plans to invest a total of 60 million euros in modernizing the travel centers at the 25 most frequented long-distance train stations across Germany. Eight of these centers are currently under renovation. The newly designed DB Travel Center in Nuremberg will open this summer. Further openings are planned for late 2024 and early 2025. The first step was the travel center in Düsseldorf main station, which opened in July 2023.
The newly designed travel centers bring improvements for rail passengers: The reception area has been enlarged. This means that simple requests can be processed more quickly by staff. A new call system offers a waiting time forecast and the option of having the waiting number sent to your cell phone. Accessibility has also been improved through modifications such as lowerable switches for wheelchair users, induction loops for hearing aid wearers and tactile floor guidance systems.
The train app should also display buses and rental cars
Especially in rural areas, it can be difficult to keep track of available transportation options and know when they run. This is often because the offering is thinner than in urban regions and information about the various means of transport is not centrally available.
The railway is therefore expanding its own DB Navigator app and, from 2024, will also display other offers such as buses, rental bicycles and car sharing offers in a bundled and clear manner. Customers should be able to book transport directly via the app.
Night trains are being expanded
There are also improvements to the night trains. Since the end of 2023, DB and ÖBB have been offering Nightjet connections from Berlin and Vienna to Paris and Brussels. From autumn 2024, these connections will be increased from three times a week to daily. According to Sabine Stock, ÖBB board member responsible for passenger transport, the night trains are extremely popular: “The current issue is capacity. We are currently at capacity.” Many trains are completely full after the first day of booking. But the goal is clear: “We want to double the number of passengers in Nightjet traffic by 2030.”
Prices could rise from December 2024
It is still unclear whether Deutsche Bahn will increase its ticket prices. However, there are a number of indicators for this. The usage fees for the German rail network, also known as route prices, are expected to rise significantly next year.
Path prices are fees that the DB company InfraGo charges all users of the rail infrastructure, including its own transport companies. They are calculated per route kilometer and are used to finance operating costs, maintenance and investments in the German rail network, which is over 33,000 kilometers long. This additional burden on companies could affect both freight and passenger transport.
After all, InfraGo is also using the additional income to drive forward the modernization of train stations in order to improve all planned stations as part of a general renovation by 2030 and to develop them into sustainable train stations with more quality and capacity.