In view of the corona pandemic, Deutsche Bahn is increasing its range of trains at Christmas time.
"Around Christmas, from December 22nd to January 2nd, we are also running around 100 special trains, especially on the connections that are in high demand," said DB Fernverkehr CEO Michael Peterson to the newspapers of the Funke media group (Thursday) .
"This means that by the end of this year we will have more long-distance trains on the rails than ever before."
The special trains would be used on busy routes such as Berlin-Stuttgart, Berlin-Munich, from NRW to Berlin or Hamburg-Karlsruhe or Essen-Berlin.
"If you have to travel on the days, you should be able to do it safely and with a good feeling," said Peterson.
In addition, other measures such as the mask and 3G obligation, increased cleaning in the trains, but also random checks of the 3G obligation apply.
More and longer trains would allow passengers more space and distance on the trains, Peterson said.
"We also deploy around 40 service employees at each of the eight largest train stations - in Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt / Main, Munich, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Stuttgart and Mannheim."
These “traveler drivers” should help ensure that the passengers are evenly distributed on the platforms.
They also assisted passengers with luggage when getting on and off.
The long-distance trains were already booked quite well for Christmas: "The booking numbers for Christmas are above the figures of the previous year, but at 35 to 40 percent still well below the level of the pre-Corona year 2019," said Peterson.
Last year, bookings were more than 60 percent below the 2019 level.