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Germany’s new DB timetable brings more trains but higher prices

Deutsche Bahn's new train timetable comes into force on Sunday, bringing more long-distance and international trains and price increases for some tickets.

Published: 10 December 2023 12:24 CET

Employees walk past ICE high-speed trains that are standing still in Munich's main station.

Employees walk past ICE high-speed trains that are standing still in Munich's main station. (Photo by Michaela Rehle / AFP)

There will be more frequent services on the routes between Berlin and North-Rhine Westphalia, between Berlin and Munich, and between Leipzig, Jena and Nürnberg, plus there will be a second direct ICE high-speed service between Berlin and Vienna.

The Saale valley area in Saxony-Anhalt will now have five IC train connections a day, compared with just one previously.

Magdeburg will also get its first connection to Hamburg and more direct services to Berlin and Rostock.

In a joint initiative with Austrian national rail services and other rail companies, Deutsche Bahn is also offering a night-train service between Berlin, Brussels and Paris three times a week.

READ ALSO: Why are German train stations among the ‘worst in Europe’?

The first of these so-called Nightjets will depart from the capital on Monday evening.

Tickets for the new timetable from 10th December have been available since October, but price increases come into effect on Sunday, making the ‘flexi tickets’, which give passengers more choice as to which train to take, 4.9 percent more expensive on average.

The price of the Bahncard 25 (which gives a 25 percent discount on every booked train journey) has also gone up – it now costs 3 euros more at 62.90 euros per year.

However, the Bahncard 50 (which cuts the price of single tickets in half) and saver and super-saver tickets remain the same price.

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Southern Germany sees explosion of mosquitos after floods

After severe floods in southern Germany, conditions are ripe for mosquito populations to explode, according to an expert in the region.

Rainer Bretthauer, environmental and climate protection officer at the city of Radolfzell on Lake Constance, told DPA that the popular holiday location is already seeing signs of a mosquito plague.

Bretthauer said that the floods have offered perfect conditions for egg laying, resulting in masses of mosquito offspring.

People living around the area or visiting should be prepared, Bretthauer said. He suggested, for instance, wearing loose-fitting and long clothing.

Timing also plays a role when you’re outside. “They tend to bite during twilight hours when the temperature is higher than 18C,” he said.

Mosquitos ‘not a bad thing for wildlife’

While growing mosquito hoards may ruin peoples’ camping trips and planned lake vacations, for local wildlife, the mosquitos are a good thing, according to the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (Nabu).

“All the insects that are now developing are a very important food source for many fish species and also for birds,” said Eberhard Klein from Nabu in Constance.

Around 50 species of mosquitoes are known in Germany. Some of them are counted among the so-called floodwater mosquitoes, which increasingly hatch after flooding.

According to experts, these mosquitos are particularly zealous blood hunters, as they have to reproduce quickly before the favourable conditions disappear again.

Floodwater mosquitoes like to lay their eggs on moist soil, often in riparian zones and floodplains. There they can survive in the soil for several years.

When these zones flood and the temperature is favourable, the eggs develop and hatch mosquitos. Therefore large-scale flooding, as seen recently in Southern Germany, can lead to mass hatching.

Mosquito borne illness is spreading to Europe as temperatures warm

Warming temperatures brought by human-caused climate change have allowed mosquito populations to extend further northward in Europe, including disease-carrying species that were previously limited to regions closer to the equator.

For example, the Asian tiger mosquito is not native to Europe but has already been observed in much of southern and central Europe, including Germany.

Tiger mosquitos are particularly concerning because they are known to spread diseases such as dengue fever, chikungunya and Zika virus. Mass outbreaks of these infections have been rising globally. Last year local Dengue outbreaks were recorded in France, Italy and Spain.

With reporting by DPA

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