The message from the train consists of one word: "Drin" - followed by an exclamation mark of relief.

Half an hour later comes a second: "The air is still here." The ten-strong tour group had arranged to go on a wine hike in the Rheingau on Saturday.

That's why they met early in the morning at Frankfurt Central Station;

half an hour before the train departs.

At least the theoretical chance of a seat was given.

Marie Lisa Kehler

Deputy head of the regional section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

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Ralph Euler

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung, responsible for the Rhein-Main section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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The 9-euro ticket ensures busy trains, especially at weekends.

If you want to take a ride, you have to have a certain flexibility in terms of arrival and departure times, especially on the routes that are in demand, but also a certain willingness to distance yourself.

Especially after two years of Corona distance teaching, it feels absurd at first to stand skin to skin with strangers.

Never out, always in

In the evening in Rüdesheim, the tour group makes a pact.

At this point, people are crowded tightly together on the platform.

Many incoming trains are hopelessly overcrowded.

Hardly anyone wants to get off here, everyone wants to get on.

Only a few succeed.

The group agreed that the couple with the stroller should stay together and, if possible, board one of the first trains to arrive.

For the rest of the group, everyone is their own neighbour.

The two cyclists, who are also part of the group, have already decided to trust that their own muscle power, but not the 9-euro ticket, will bring them home.

According to Deutsche Bahn, there was a lot going on on the second weekend with the cheap monthly ticket, but overall train traffic was stable.

"We had expected a high number of passengers, especially along the tourist routes," said a company spokesman for the German Press Agency.

That has been confirmed.

300,000 9-euro tickets sold by RMV

Those travelers who want to take their bikes with them have particular difficulties.

The transport associations therefore call for tolerance and consideration and ask that you refrain from carrying bicycles.

But it can also be tight for parents with prams and wheelchair users.

The transport providers have reacted as far as possible to the exceptional situation.

The Frankfurt local public transport company Traffiq, for example, has expanded its range of services on numerous urban train and bus lines because of the 9-euro ticket;

in other words: longer trains and buses are used.

According to Deutsche Bahn, 50 additional trains will be used on tourist routes.

The additional trains correspond to around 250 trips a day.

The Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV) has so far neither exact figures nor estimates of the consequences of cheap tickets.

By the end of May, more than 300,000 of the 9-euro tickets had been sold in the RMV tariff area.

Of course there is "a noticeably higher demand for passengers," says RMV Managing Director Knut Ringat.

The "extremely generous regulation" in terms of price, validity area and bicycle carriage inevitably leads to a very high utilization of the trips in the RMV, especially for leisure traffic in tourist regions.

Long-term strategy is missing

If you take into account how quickly the 9-euro ticket was introduced and that the rail network is often overloaded, local public transport passes the current "stress test" with flying colours.

The low-price offer shows politicians the potential of bus and train.

However, Ringat points out, it is also becoming clear "that public transport cannot be turned on and off like water from the tap".

A strategy beyond the three-month 9-euro offer is missing.

"More public transport requires years of preparation, including the construction of new routes, the hiring and training of specialist staff and the ordering of additional trains - and of course the financing of this expansion."

To what extent the cheaper monthly ticket, as hoped by transport politicians, encourages commuters to switch from cars to buses or trains remains open.

There are no figures for this.

In regional traffic in the Rhine-Main area and in inner-city underground and suburban railway traffic as well as in the trams in Frankfurt, the trains are apparently only marginally more busy during rush hour than in times without cheap tickets.