Operations came to a standstill during the pandemic.
Now Flixtrain is restarting its operations with more destinations and shorter travel times.
Berlin (dpa) - With the commissioning of the sixth long-distance train line between Munich and Frankfurt, the private rail competitor Flixtrain has, according to its own information, completed the restart after the month-long corona standstill.
The first lines from Cologne to Hamburg and Berlin started on May 20, and on Friday Flixtrain will travel between Frankfurt and Munich for the first time.
"Our full network with six lines is now in operation," said Flixbus co-founder and managing director André Schwämmlein of the Funke media group. The demand is growing week after week. “We are therefore very satisfied with the new start. And we are very optimistic about the summer. "
“There are significantly more destinations and shorter travel times. On existing routes, the Flixtrain is up to an hour faster than before and is almost on par with ICE, ”said Schwämmlein. While operations were at a standstill during the pandemic, the fleet was completely revised and standardized. There are now only open-plan cars with new seats. Flixtrain does not want to copy the ICE and does not want to take any passengers away from Deutsche Bahn. "If a total of 300 million long-distance passengers are to be traveling by rail in 2030, then that will only be possible with Flixtrain, DB cannot do it alone," said Schwämmlein.
The railway brand of the company Flixmobility, which is best known for the long-distance bus brand Flixbus, relies on price-conscious customers.
According to Schwämmlein, Flixbus is also ramping up its operations again.
The route network is currently even smaller than it was before the pandemic.
This is due, among other things, to the many different regulations for border crossings, for example: "In Germany we have half of all stops back on the network - around 200 - and a third of the journeys compared to the pre-crisis level."
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210618-99-40984 / 2
