Anyone who wanted to travel abroad by train had to reserve a seat this summer. This was an advantage during the European Football Championship. Now everything is back to normal.
From September, Deutsche Bahn (DB) passengers will no longer need to reserve a seat for many long-distance train connections abroad. In June, the reservation requirement was introduced on all cross-border connections – the reason for this was the expected high demand due to the European Football Championship in Germany and the Summer Olympics in Paris.
“Despite the high demand, the arriving European Championship visitors were well distributed between the trains and were thus able to benefit from a relaxed arrival and departure,” said a spokeswoman for the federally owned DB. However, a permanent introduction outside of peak times is unlikely – the advantages of the open system outweigh the disadvantages, as the DB spokeswoman further stated. “There are therefore no plans to introduce a general reservation requirement.”
Seat reservation was included free of charge when purchasing a ticket. This arrangement already existed on some routes, for example to France, Poland, Italy and seasonally to Denmark and the Netherlands.
