German railway lures customers with cheap tickets (News Feature)

By Sascha Meyer Jun 10, 2007, 2:11 GMT

Berlin - Cheap tickets and a fast cross-border connection to France: just a few weeks ahead of the summer holidays the German railway uses the start of its new timetable on Sunday to challenge airlines and motorists.

In the face of high petrol prices, special offers starting from 29 euros are intended to lure travellers to take a long-distance train, says Deutsche Bahn AG Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Hartmut Mehdorn.

In future, German high-speed ICE (InterCityExpress) trains will speed to Paris at 320 kilometres an hour on the new billion-euro tracks in France, while its French counterpart TGV (Train a grande vitesse) is due to cross the river Rhine for the first time.

For the home market, this new cooperation also means new rivalry. The ICE could woo French customers, while German travellers get the chance to test the TGV. So far, competition between long-distance trains has been minimal.

To launch the Franco-German track of pride both sides count on the spirit of cooperation. 'Europe's leading railway lines are joining forces for the first time,' Mehdorn said during a symbolic opening tour at the end of May.

'Together we will win new customers,' his French counterpart Anne- Marie Idrac added.

Harmoniously, the two share the running of the new connections, which will significantly reduce the travelling time to Paris, which so far has been more than six hours.

It takes the ICE 4 hours and 11 minutes, which from December will be shortened further, to only 3 hours and 49 minutes, on a northern route from Frankfurt to Paris. The TGV takes over a southern route between Stuttgart and Paris, with a travelling time of 3 hours and 39 minutes.

Whether there's enough demand or not will have to be seen. Expectations are high: until 2012, the planners expect a 50-per-cent growth to an annual 1.5 billion travellers on the international routes. But also the national routes on either side of the border will change.

The ICE will not only stop at the Paris Gare de l'Est train station, there will be another two new stops in Lorraine - the 23,000-strong town of Forbach near the border and Lorraine station between Metz and Nancy.

The TGV on the other hand will add the 300,000-strong Baden metropolis Karlsruhe to its network. From December platform announcements in Ulm, Augsburg and Munich might say: 'The next train to arrive is the TGV.'

Given that ICE and Intercity trains are still running much more frequently, the shiny, silver TGVs are unlikely to attract enormous numbers of new passengers. But if departure times suit, people might soon find themselves travelling from Munich to Stuttgart 'a la francaise.'

'Competition keeps you on your toes,' says Karl-Peter Naumann, chair of the passengers' association Pro Bahn. Railway expert Heidi Tischmann of Travel Club Germany thinks: 'It's good that German travellers realize that there are other long-distance trains.'

While Deutsche Bahn competitors have a 15-per-cent share of the local and regional market, their share in the long-distance market is less than 1 per cent.

With the help of a special tariff, Deutsche Bahn is planning to fill up in particular those ICE and Intercity trains that are not currently used to their full capacity. There will be 750,000 tickets a month by the end of the year, the state-owned company promises.

Depending on route and time of day, the tickets will cost between 29 and 69 euros on the internet and between 34 and 74 euros at the ticket office and be valid for a single trip.

The planners have experience in doing the sums: special offers always catch the bargain hunters, although regular tariffs have been rising in recent years, not least due to the rising cost of fuel. The most recent price hikes of January 1 increased ticket prices for long-distance routes by an average 5.6 per cent.

But Bahn CEO Mehdorn is already looking beyond the new timetable with an eye on the strictly sealed-off French market. 'Why shouldn't our ICEs run a regional connection in France in cooperation with the SNCF (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais)?' he wonders.

The ICE is totally up to scratch with is high level of travel comfort, including electrical sockets in first and second class, Pro Bahn head Naumann thinks.

But also the French are updating their TGV to go east with a new interior design - the seats are covered in red and light green, and there's more leg space than usual.