Berlin. The mostly unwanted ICE transit routes in Wolfsburg are legendary. In the future, however, the Flixtrain will also not stop as often in the Volkswagen capital – quite officially. As of the timetable change, the long-distance trains of the private rail competitor on the Berlin-Stuttgart route will be assigned a new route, as a company spokesman confirmed on Wednesday.
Accordingly, the green trains will run from December 15th via Halle (Saale), Erfurt, Eisenach and Gotha to Stuttgart. The previous stop in Wolfsburg, but also those in Hanover and Göttingen, will be canceled.
Flixtrain justifies the route change with a planned expansion of the offer. Because from spring 2020 the company also wants to offer the Hamburg-Stuttgart connection. The journey then leads via Hanover, Göttingen, Fulda, Kassel, Fulda, Frankfurt am Main and Heidelberg to Swabia. The train takes over part of the old Flixtrain route to Stuttgart.
Flixtrain: Insufficient demand in Wolfsburg
But there are obviously also economic motives. “As a private provider, we of course have to pay attention to economic efficiency, the demand in Wolfsburg was unfortunately too low to be able to offer the stop economically,” said Flixtrain spokesman Sebastian Meyer of Morgenpost.
The company, which took over the business from the insolvent Berlin start-up Locomore just a year and a half ago, apparently sees the new route as an opportunity to attract additional passengers. Four new cities would be reached on the new route: Halle (Saale), Erfurt, Eisenach and Gotha.
Berlin-Stuttgart: Flixtrain should drive up to twice a day in one direction
Passengers from Leipzig and Lutherstadt Wittenberg could now also travel to Berlin, Dortmund or the likewise new stop Aachen with the Flixtrain. “We always had the goal of making our rail offer accessible to everyone. With seven new stops to change the timetable, we have come one step closer to this goal, ”says Flixmobility Managing Director André Schwämmlein.
As already today, the Flixtrain should run up to twice a day and in the direction on the Berlin-Stuttgart connection. This frequency will also be maintained for the Berlin – Cologne route, which Flixtrain has been offering since May. The exact timetables would have to be finalized, however, according to the spokesman.
Long-distance transport firmly in the hands of Deutsche Bahn
Flixtrain is the train brand of the company Flixmobility, which dominates the market for long-distance coach travel in Germany with the Flixbus. The company plans to travel faster on the Flixtrain route between Hamburg and Cologne in the future. “On the new express connection, the journey between the two cities takes just over three and a half hours,” said the provider. So far, travelers have been traveling there for at least four hours depending on the connection, according to the timetable information.
While there are already numerous competitors in regional and freight transport alongside Deutsche Bahn, long-distance transport has so far remained firmly in the hands of the state-owned company. Flixtrain has so far been the only competitor in this area. At the beginning of September, however, the Rheinjet company from Meerbusch near Düsseldorf announced that it would offer a train connection between Stuttgart, Munich and Frankfurt from the beginning of November.
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