A few things will change from August 15, especially for commuters who use the Germany ticket. Due to a new EU regulation, the 49-euro offer from the transport associations and the railways is then considered an “offer with a greatly reduced transport fee” – with many negative consequences for passengers.
In the event of a major delay or cancellation of a local train, commuters could previously easily switch to an Intercity-Express, Intercity or Eurocity if they arrived too late at their destination with the next regional connection. However, they first had to buy the ticket for the ICE, IC or EC themselves. They could then have it reimbursed at the service center or online by submitting an application.
This regulation only applies if travelers do not reach their destination with the last connection before midnight due to a failure or arrive at their destination in the early hours of the morning between midnight and five a.m. with a delay of at least 60 minutes. Only then can they change to a long-distance train. In all other cases they have to wait for the next local train.
Regional train too late and missed the ICE? Unlucky!
It is also explosive: If a regional train that actually takes passengers with a Germany ticket to a long-distance train station is late and they want to catch an ICE from there, there is no longer any compensation if they miss the train. Then the train simply says: bad luck.
The background to the new rule is an EU regulation. This stipulates that in the case of offers with “significantly reduced fares”, travelers are not allowed to switch to long-distance transport if the delay is more than 20 minutes. There is also no compensation for damages.
“It is completely incomprehensible why passengers who are delayed are not allowed to switch to higher-value trains free of charge, as is usual with other monthly and annual tickets,” protested the Federal Consumer Association.
What else is changing?
From mid-August, railway companies will no longer have to pay compensation if trains are canceled or delayed due to extraordinary circumstances.
Such circumstances include, for example, cable theft, emergencies on the train or people on the tracks. Normal weather conditions are also exempt from this rule.
Previously, passengers could get 25 percent of the fare back as compensation for delays of one hour and 50 percent of the fare for delays of two hours.