German Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder has announced that he will not intervene in the decision to abolish the family reservation at Deutsche Bahn (DB).
According to a ministry spokesperson, the regular exchange between the ministry and the state-owned company due to its ownership structure does not extend to the pricing of the company’s services, as this is a business decision made by the company itself. However, the spokesperson did suggest that the decision could be questioned in terms of whether it is the right signal to send.
Despite this, the spokesperson denied the likelihood of a specific discussion on this topic between the ministry and the DB and referred further inquiries to the transport ministry.
Deutsche Bahn recently announced that the family reservation will be discontinued from this Sunday, with passengers, including children, now required to pay for a separate seat reservation if needed and the price of a reservation increasing. For families, this change will make train travel with reserved seats significantly more expensive, with the cost of a family reservation in second class rising from 10.40 euros to 22 euros and the total cost for a return journey reaching 44 euros.