Around the holidays, many more trains should run in Germany than before.

Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer announced a significant expansion of rail traffic.

“In Christmas long-distance traffic in 2021, the train offers 510,000 seats per day and thus 50,000 more than in the previous year,” said the CSU politician to the newspapers of the Funke media group.

In addition, the railway plans to use so-called amplifier trains for the days of Christmas traffic.

This again leads to "several thousand seats per day", announced Scheuer.

From the timetable change on December 12th, the offer of the railway will increase by eleven percent, it is said.

The railway is setting up new connections with the ICE Sprinter (express train that hardly stops) between North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin and between Munich and North Rhine-Westphalia.

In addition, a new IC line is to be built between Frankfurt am Main and Münster or Dortmund.

The rail offer is not only growing compared to the first Corona winter, but also to the pre-Corona period.

According to the Ministry of Transport, around 63,000 more seats will be offered per day in December 2021 than in December 2019.

Demand for more solar on railway roofs

For the FDP, the number of photovoltaic systems for generating electricity on the roofs of the railway station is too low. "While Germany is discussing compulsory solar power for homeowners, Deutsche Bahn AG has so far almost completely ignored the expansion of solar energy in its own properties," said Torsten Herbst, part of the FDP's coalition negotiating team for the economy, the editorial network Germany (RND). "This is not just a wasted opportunity, it also contradicts the carefully cultivated green image of the railway."

The group itself could make a far greater contribution to more renewable energies by massively promoting the construction of solar roofs.

The state-owned company operates its own solar systems on three station roofs, and DB has leased roof areas for green electricity generation at eleven other locations.

According to the RND, DB is currently examining whether additional areas on station buildings or railway systems are suitable for generating renewable energies.