The number of passengers caught without a valid ticket on Deutsche Bahn’s long‑distance trains has risen in recent years, according to answers from the Federal Ministry of Justice to a parliamentary question from the Left. The “Rheinische Post” reported the figures in its Monday edition.
In 2024 more than 268,000 travellers were found aboard DB long‑distance services without a ticket. The previous years show a similar trend: about 264,000 passengers rode in 2023 and nearly 214,000 did so in 2022. Only a small fraction of those affected were able to produce a ticket afterwards.
Prosecutions for fare evasion have also climbed sharply. In 2024, 18 010 criminal charges were registered in DB long‑distance for “transport fraud” under § 265a of the German Criminal Code. The numbers for earlier years were 17 125 charges in 2023 and 12 648 in 2022.
Data for local public transport are not available to the federal government. Nevertheless, nationwide in 2024 there were over 140 000 cases of alleged “transport fraud”-more than the roughly 132 000 registered in 2022, but slightly fewer than the over 144 000 in 2023.
“More and more people can’t afford a bus ticket, yet the state punishes them with harsh penalties and even sends those who can’t pay to prison” criticised Bundestag deputy Luke Hoß, the Left’s legal‑policy spokesperson. “Instead of further penalising poverty, the government must urgently abolish the prosecution of trivial offences and the substitute imprisonment”.