Record 151 million passengers on German long-distance trains in 2019

The number of passengers using long-distance rail services in Germany grew 1.9 percent in 2019 to a record 151 million people, writes the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) in a press release (find a brief English-language version here). At the same time, long-distance bus travel saw an 8 percent decrease in passenger volume to 21 million in 2019 due to a one-off effect, as some connections fell out of the statistics because they were shifted to a company headquartered outside Germany. Overall, Destatis counted 11.6 billion rides with scheduled local and long-distance rail and bus transport – an increase of 0.4 percent or almost 32 million rides per day.

The German rail service Deutsche Bahn (DB) and the country's transport ministry (BMVI) sealed a contract in January that will increase investments in the state-owned company to a record 86 billion euros over the next decade. The investments into DB were agreed upon in the framework of Germany's climate package in a bid to improve the country's lacklustre emissions reduction performance in the transport sector, which -- contrary to other sectors of the economy -- has not reduced its greenhouse gas output at all since 1990. A growing majority of German travellers say they are taking climate change and sustainability into account when planning vacations.