The railway competitor Flixtrain is expanding its long-distance offerings step by step in the coming months: From December , seven new destinations will be connected to the existing network to change the timetable, the company said.
On the route Berlin-Stuttgart the stops Halle (Saale), Erfurt, Eisenach and Gotha are added. The former connection Berlin - Cologne is likewise extended - in the east around the holding Luther town Wittenberg and Leipzig, in the west the train drives from then to Aachen.
At the same time, the company wants to be faster on the route Hamburg - Cologne . "On the new express connection, the journey between the two cities takes just over three and a half hours," Flixtrain said. So far, travelers were depending on the connection according to the timetable information at least four hours on the road.
Flixtrain also offers a new connection between Hamburg and Stuttgart from the spring of next year. "The route will lead via Hannover, Göttingen, Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe, Fulda, Frankfurt, Darmstadt and Heidelberg," it said. Accordingly, three departures per day and direction are to be offered by the summer.
Deutsche Bahn is also expanding its offer in the east
Flixtrain is the train brand of Flixmobility, which dominates the market for coach travel in Germany with its Flixbus market. While there are already numerous competitors in regional and freight transport alongside Deutsche Bahn, long-distance traffic has so far remained firmly in the hands of the state-owned company: Flistrain has been its only competitor there so far.
At the beginning of September, Rheinjet from Meerbusch near Düsseldorf announced that it would offer a train service between Stuttgart, Munich and Frankfurt from the beginning of November . A train should approach the three cities every two weeks on Friday, one after the other, it said.
Neither the new competitor nor the now announced expansion of Flixtrain should change the high market share of Deutsche Bahn in long-distance traffic but much: This was recently according to the Monopolies Commission at 99 percent.
On Tuesday, Deutsche Bahn also announced that it was expanding its long-distance transport offerings in eastern Germany. From mid-December, a new intercity line will operate between Dresden, Berlin and Rostock. Six places along the route will thus again have a regular long-distance transport connection: Oranienburg and Elsterwerda in Brandenburg, Neustrelitz and Waren (Müritz) in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Warnemünde and Schönefeld Airport are to be added in May next year. As soon as the new capital airport BER opens, this stop will be relocated there, they said. First ten trips a day should be offered and from March 16 times a day in two-hour intervals.
