The head of the Federal Association of Consumers, Ramona Pop, calls for an expansion of the compensation for Deutsche Bahn passengers in the event of delays. “Unpunctuality is now unfortunately part of the norm in long-distance transport,” Pop told the “Handelsblatt” in Thursday’s edition. “If delays are increasing now, then the train should pay compensation from a delay of 30 minutes, not just from an hour.” For Pop, this could also be an incentive for the railways to improve their punctuality, she said.
Also, compensation should be automatic whenever possible. The fact that passengers can now apply for compensation online if they bought their ticket online is a step in the right direction. “But an automated compensation system would be the better and easier way,” said the consumer advocate.
Train passengers are currently reimbursed 25 percent of the ticket price for delays of more than one hour. If you are two hours late, you will get half of the money back. For a long time, it was only possible to apply for reimbursement by sending in the relevant passenger rights form by post. It’s now online too.
New EU passenger rights will also apply from 2023. According to them, train passengers should no longer receive any compensation in the future if delays or complete cancellations of train journeys occur due to circumstances of “force majeure”, such as extreme weather conditions. Circumstances such as the pandemic or “certain actions by third parties”, for example people on the track, were also included. After the agreement of the EU member states last year, the European consumer association criticized that the definition of what exactly falls under “force majeure” was too imprecise – that this then often has to be clarified in court, as can already be seen in aviation.
Sources: AFP, Handelsblatt, FAZ, Federation of Consumer Organizations
