Italy’s Italo plans to run 30 trains on highly profitable routes such as Munich–Hamburg and Munich–Dortmund starting in 2028. The EVG sees this as a threat to the connectivity of many medium-sized cities. EVG chief Martin Burkert warned that if Italo engages in ‘cherry-picking’ and pushes Deutsche Bahn off the main lines, it would dismantle the entire long-distance network.
Deutsche Bahn would then no longer be able to cross-subsidize long-distance connections in the provinces, the union argues. Currently, the railway links many towns to long-distance services even though the routes are not profitable—this works only through a mixed calculation with the profitable main lines. According to the EVG analysis, cities affected include Aachen, Augsburg, Bamberg, Chemnitz, Cottbus, Freiburg, Ingolstadt, Jena, Magdeburg, Münster, Norddeich Mole, Osnabrück, Rostock, Saarbrücken, Schwerin, and Singen. In Trier, a planned IC connection would be dropped.
Burkert called on Federal Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder (CDU) to ensure fair competition. He proposes package solutions for route allocation: those who make profits on main lines must also serve cities like Schwerin, Augsburg, or Jena. Italo also wants to massively expand its offering alongside Flixtrain.
Source: www.spiegel.de
