After a year of regular service on two routes, Flixtrain plans to add more German cities to its offer soon. In the spring, the Berlin-Cologne route will be included in the timetable, said André Schwämmlein, head of the parent company Flixmobility. The train is scheduled to stop in Hannover, Dortmund, Essen and Düsseldorf.
On the existing route Cologne-Hamburg should soon drive a third daily train. In 2020, additional routes are to be added. Flixtrain currently operates between Berlin and Stuttgart, and there is also a night train Hamburg-Lörrach.
Flixtrain is on the German market so far a rather small provider. Last year, Flixtrain sold around 750,000 tickets. In the long-distance traffic of the federally owned German course it was well 145 million.
Customers can hope for falling prices thanks to additional competition. The route Frankfurt-Berlin costs at Flixtrain partly only 19 euros, if you book early enough.
For the employees in the long-distance travel industry, however, the planned expansion could be negative. The union Ver.di has repeatedly complained about the exploitation of drivers and pay dumping at the company Flixmobility.
Expansion also abroad
The Flixbus brand, which also belongs to the Group, has continued: It already sells long-distance bus services in 28 countries. Even Flixtrain should not be limited to Germany: By 2020, they want to offer first train travel abroad, said Schwämmlein.
Flixtrain failed, however, with the attempt to get his trains on the new parade route of the Deutsche Bahn: Berlin-Munich. "That has recently died for us with the existing car material," said Schwämmlein. Because in the fleet is missing an ICE. The Deutsche Bahn travels on the track with up to 300 kilometers per hour.
Additional sales in Germany should not only bring the Flixmobility the rail. In the future, passengers should be able to reserve seats in all buses for a fee - so far the company is testing this procedure only on selected routes. But it should continue in each bus seats without reservation, it said. In addition, it is planned to rent entire buses with driver for group travel.