You’ll lose out with the ICE
The 9 euro ticket has started. It is incomparably cheap to travel through Germany in local and regional transport. But the monthly ticket is not only ahead in terms of price. If you drive with IC or ICE, you can only dream of something that is standard in RE.
ICE and Co. don’t stand a chance: DB regional trains are much more punctual
Those who regularly rely on DB trains can usually do so sing a song of delays and cancellations. In long-distance transport, a new low has currently been reached. Never in the past 7 years have so many ICE, IC and EC departed late as in April 2022. A sign of inadequacy that comes at the wrong time, especially with the start of the 9-euro ticket. Because delays can add up and also affect other trains.
Lucky for the millions of 9-euro ticket buyers it looks much better in regional trafficas Statista shows using DB’s own data:
Although the regional trains are slower than the ICE, for example, many more trains arrive and depart at the scheduled time than on the fast long-distance connections. While the proportion of punctual long-distance trains has fallen to below 70 percent since the beginning of the year, on the shorter route it has almost been fantastic values of over 95 percent punctuality be booked.
What you should definitely consider before traveling with the 9-euro ticket:
Delays roll towards Deutsche Bahn customers
However, a few factors spoil the joy of this success: Punctuality in regional transport has also fallen from 95.5 percent in January to 93.9 percent in April 2022. Not even remotely as serious a slump as in long-distance traffic, where at the same time a decrease of more than 10 percent can be observed. Nevertheless he works trend in the wrong direction.
The likelihood that things will get better soon is slim. With the expected rush thanks to the 9-euro ticket, especially in the summer holidays, it will be more difficult for RE and Co. to keep to the times. It should still run better than long-distance traffic. It’s supposed to get really bad from 2024, because then the entire German rail network will be overhauled (source: extra).
