Europe wants seamless international train travel. Deutsche Bahn says it’s getting there

This autumn, Deutsche Bahn (DB), Germany’s nationwide railway firm, will start rolling out a brand new digital infrastructure that it says will streamline worldwide rail bookings. 

The transfer is a part of a long-awaited push to simplify journey throughout Europe’s patchwork of nationwide railway networks.

“[You will] have the ability to e-book a global journey simply as simply as a home one,” Michael Peterson, DB’s board member for long-distance transport, informed German press company DPA. 

“This brings us nearer to a significant purpose,” he continued: seamless cross-border rail journey throughout Europe, powered by a unified digital system and laws backed by the EU.

What’s altering, and when?

Beginning this autumn, DB will undertake a brand new data-sharing normal often known as OSDM (Open Gross sales and Distribution Mannequin). This EU-endorsed interface is meant to offer European rail operators prompt entry to one another’s ticketing methods. 

Utilizing the OSDM as a framework, DB says it goals to supply built-in ticketing for just about all main European railways by the top of 2026, together with native transport, by means of its web site and DB Navigator app. 

Rail skilled Jon Price is fast to level out that this is not going to be a single ticket, however fairly “a greater method to sew collectively tickets from totally different railways,” nevertheless.

DB will initially combine with Austria and Switzerland’s nationwide operators – the ÖBB and SBB, respectively – with different operators to observe within the coming months.

At present, reserving worldwide prepare tickets by means of DB’s platform could be complicated, restricted and, in lots of circumstances, costly. 

Whereas passengers can already purchase some cross-border tickets operating by means of Germany, many standard routes nonetheless require piecing collectively fares from totally different firms or making sense of a number of nationwide rail websites. No single rail supplier can cowl a journey from Berlin to Barcelona, for instance.

Why does this matter?

Apart from comfort, the brand new system might start to handle a niche in passenger rights. 

At present, travellers utilizing separate tickets for various legs of a cross-border journey danger dropping safety if a delay causes a missed connection. Addressing this situation – and making certain full passenger rights all through the journey, together with rebooking and reimbursement – is such a precedence that European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen has made it a cornerstone of her second time period.

“Cross-border prepare journey continues to be too troublesome for a lot of residents,” she wrote in 2024.

“Folks ought to have the ability to use open reserving methods to buy trans-European journeys with a number of suppliers, with out dropping their proper to reimbursement or compensatory journey.”

However such safety isn’t but assured.

Price says that the OSDM doesn’t compel rail operators to promote unified tickets. It additionally doesn’t guarantee constant enforcement of passenger rights. 

“What DB is doing is welcome for Germany, particularly, however it’s inadequate,” he explains. 

“To get real portals on which you’ll e-book any prepare wherever in Europe, we’d like greater than a technical normal – which is what DB is implementing, primarily – however [rather] binding guidelines for knowledge sharing, commissions for ticket re-sale and higher passenger rights if one thing goes improper in a multi-operator rail journey.”

Cross-border rail journey nonetheless faces some friction

The initiative comes amid growing stress from Brussels. 

EU Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas has stated he plans to suggest laws to create unified platforms and make full passenger rights necessary.

That’s inflicting some concern for DB – “already top-of-the-line” rail operators in Europe, in line with Price. 

Peterson warned {that a} digital normal aside from the OSDM might undermine years of funding. “That prices cash, that prices time,” he stated.

Regardless of the lingering challenges, DB is optimistic. The corporate lately launched a direct high-speed ICE route between Berlin and Paris and plans additional expansions. 

In 2024, DB additionally noticed a 22 per cent improve in cross-border ticket gross sales in comparison with pre-pandemic ranges – its greatest 12 months but.

Now, with higher instruments, extra collaboration and upcoming laws, Europe’s railways might lastly start to meet up with the expectations of climate-conscious travellers – and ship on the promise of a really related continent.