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The train set passenger records for years. The collapse came with the Corona crisis. Many clients would not return so quickly, believes EVG union boss Hommel. This is mainly due to the decrease in business travel.
From the point of view of the railway and transport union (EVG), Deutsche Bahn has to prepare for a longer difficult phase. Long distance passenger numbers will take several years to recover, EVG Provisional President Klaus-Dieter Hommel told the dpa news agency.
“We have learned that there is another way”
“We hope to reach the numbers we saw in 2019 in 2022 or 2023,” said Hommel, who has also been a member of the rail supervisory board for many years. Because workers now have more experience in video and phone conferences, there will initially be fewer business trips by train, the union member said. “We won’t do many of the trips we used to do. We’ve learned there are other ways.”
The supervisory board of the state company will discuss the consequences of the pandemic next Friday. With 151 million customer trips, long-distance transportation reached its fifth consecutive passenger record last year. Then came the fall in the crown crisis.
“Special responsibility”
Long-distance travel in April was 10 to 15 percent of the usual level, CEO Richard Lutz said. In regional traffic it was 15 percent: Since the beginning of the week, Deutsche Bahn has been running 90 percent of the regular offer there again.
Also in long-distance transport, the number of passengers is slowly increasing again, but many trains are still very empty. Although the railways slightly reduced supply here, Lutz repeatedly emphasized the “special responsibility” of the railways to make a contribution to the functioning of society in the crisis as part of the provision of general interest.
Financial gap of ten billion euros expected
The railroads and the federal government agreed to double the number of passengers on the railroads by 2030 in order to attract more people to dispense with cars and planes. “We should stay on target, but it will not be a sure success,” warned EVG chief Hommel. “We expect the federal government to be responsible for the losses suffered by Corona not only at Lufthansa, but also at Deutsche Bahn.”
Deutsche Bahn is discussing a financial gap of around ten billion euros by 2024. Half of this could be raised by Deutsche Bahn. However, Hommel declined such a part. In his view, this would jeopardize the necessary growth investments, for example in new staff and trains.
