Traveling in the corona pandemic: how dangerous is a train ride with Deutsche Bahn?

Deutsche Bahn (DB) is trying to dispel fears of traveling by train in the corona pandemic with a study.

What the results say and what doesn't.

• The

  German track

  is struggling with declines in passenger traffic.

• Because of Corona *, many people lose the desire to travel with

  DB

  .

• But how safe is the

  train journey

  ?

  A study brings the first insights.

Frankfurt - Traveling with

Deutsche Bahn

(

DB

)

gives

many people stomach

ache in times of

Corona

.

Because the fear of infection goes with you.

You sit together in a small space and every blow of your nose is viewed critically.

But how safe is it really to travel by train in times of a pandemic?

It goes without saying that Deutsche Bahn is keen to ensure that travel is as safe as possible.

To ensure this, the

DB commissioned

a multi-part study.

Can the results take away the anxiety of travelers?

Number of passengers with Deutsche Bahn in total passenger traffic	year
4,874 million	2019
4,669 million	2018
4,652 million	2017
4,417 million	2016
	Source: Deutschebahn.com

Deutsche Bahn (DB): Traveling in Corona times - Safe despite a pandemic?

Because it is difficult to keep a constant eye on the health of passengers,

Deutsche Bahn

has focused on the train attendants.

Because they too are traveling by train in a confined space every day.

In the study, the authors compared the situation of train attendants with a lot of customer contact with

DB employees

who have little to do with passengers.

A total of around 1,100 people were tested as part of the study by the “Charité Research Organization”.

600 train attendants, more than 200 train drivers and over 200 maintenance technicians and craftsmen at locations such as Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt * took part in the study.

The scientists used various

corona tests

.

In addition to the classic PCR tests with nasal and throat swabs, the test participants were also tested for antibodies to check whether they had already survived an illness.

Traveling with Deutsche Bahn (DB): Around 1,100 DB employees tested for Corona

The

Corona-test

on Having had infection with the

coronavirus

was positive in 20 people.

The technicians were

most frequently represented

in the

Deutsche Bahn

plants

(2.5 percent).

Only 1.3 percent of the train attendants had antibodies from an infection that had already been overcome.

Only one technician was acutely infected, none of the train attendants tested positive.

From this, the study concludes that, contrary to expectations and despite the more frequent personal contact on the

train, they

did not get corona more often.

A secondary finding was that wearing a

corona mask

turned out to be an important factor.

79.3 percent of the craftsmen stated that they did not wear a face mask while working - in contrast to

DB staff

on the train.

The authors conclude that wearing a mask contributed to the low infection rates among train attendants.

"Overall, it can be said that the trains are not

infection

hotspots, as otherwise the train attendants would have to be affected more than the population average," the authors of the study conclude their report.

Deutsche Bahn (DB): What does the study on security in the Corona crisis say?

DB Passenger Transport Board Member Berthold Huber also expresses himself accordingly and states: “We must continue to be careful, but there is no reason to worry about

rail travel

.

Traveling by train is safe and the hygiene and protective measures that the federal government, the federal states and we as

DB

have taken together are working. ”But can you actually draw this conclusion?

Because the study also states that these results cannot be used to infer the safety of

passengers

directly

.

A different

corona risk

applies to

travelers on

Deutsche Bahn

.

“Whether this risk is higher due to, for example, prolonged contact with an infected

person sitting next to you,

or lower due to the overall shorter length of stay on the train cannot be answered with the data of the present study,” the authors say.

While conclusions can be drawn about the train crew through the investigation, this is not directly feasible for travelers.

Trip with Deutsche Bahn (DB) despite Corona: further test phases planned

Possibly the next test phases will shed more light on the problem.

While the already evaluated first test phase was collected between June 29 and July 3, 2020, the second test phase took place in October 2020 and the third was planned for February 2021.

The

DB has

not

yet published

any further results.

(Sophia Lother)

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