February 10, 2020, 3:00 p.m.
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The international aviation industry wants to better connect with railway companies. “Intermodal” is the magic word with which traffic planners want to make short flights superfluous. But the offer at the airport train stations in Germany has been falling for years.
© Deutsche Bahn
/ Annette Koch
From the FDP’s point of view, the airports in Germany are only insufficiently accessible by long-distance trains. In large parts of Germany, the railway is far from being a substitute for domestic German feeder flights.
The number of long-distance train stops at the four airport train stations connected to the ICE and Intercity network fell to 79,800 last year, as the Federal Government now replied to a small request from the FDP.
That was around 3,000 fewer than in 2018. Ten years ago, there were even 93,600 long-distance stops at the train stations at Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Cologne / Bonn and Leipzig / Halle airports, according to the Ministry of Transport, according to rail data.
Cancellations and delays as an obstacle
And the FDP sees another problem. According to the request, a total of 2400 trains failed at the four airport stations last year, including almost 1900 at the long-distance train station of the largest German airport in Frankfurt.
The demand to do without feeder flights and to use the train runs in vain in view of the poor general connection and the unreliability of many trains, said the FDP transport politician Torsten Herbst. “The sufferers are precisely the rail travelers who depend on a reliable connection on the way to their vacation in a special way.”
There are only several ICE trains per hour in Frankfurt
In any case, only the long-distance train station of the airport in Frankfurt is fully integrated into long-distance traffic. This is a so-called system stop at which all ICE trains on the new route between Cologne and the Rhine / Main area make a stop. There are also trains in the direction of Kassel / Berlin. During the day, seven to ten ICEs stop at the station every hour.
Long-distance transport is already much thinner at the train stations at Düsseldorf and Cologne airports. The ICE trains to Berlin stop every hour in Düsseldorf and connect the Ruhr area, East Westphalia and Hanover with the airport. In addition, there are individual intercities to northern and central Germany every day. In Cologne there are individual trains of the ICE lines towards Frankfurt and Berlin.
The situation at the long-distance train station at Leipzig / Halle Airport is even more modest. All ICE trains that pass the airport every hour towards Dresden, Berlin, Erfurt and Nuremberg do not stop at the airport station. Only the hourly intercity between Dresden and Cologne or Emden / Norddeich stop and connect the airport with Dresden, Riesa, Köthen and Magdeburg.
The ministry did not provide specific information on how many long-distance passengers arrive and depart from the airport train stations. It indicates that this number of passengers increased by around 25 percent between 2014 and 2019, according to Deutsche Bahn. Overall, the number of long-distance trains stopping at airports every day is expected to increase in the coming years. The future capital city airport BER is to be connected to the long-distance train network. The commissioning of a new long-distance train station at Stuttgart Airport is also planned.
Iata and the railway association start cooperation for intermodal travel
There is no shortage of political expressions of will to make the train the most important feeder for major airports. Traffic planners dream of comfortable, intermodal and digitally networked trips that make traveling by car or short feeder flights superfluous. The upcoming increase in air traffic tax should create an additional incentive to take the train instead of the plane.
A goal that is being pursued worldwide against the backdrop of climate challenges. In line with this, the international airline association Iata and the international railway association UIC signed a cooperation agreement last week. The focus is initially on the development of data exchange standards for intermodal travel. These are intended to help network and standardize travel planning, reservations, the booking of additional services and the ticketing of airplanes and trains.
The partnership should also develop structures for the accounting and billing of intermodal travel, the legal aspects, joint check-ins and validation, the two associations announced in a communication.
For Iata boss Alexandre de Juniac, the cooperation with the railroad counterpart is part of the agreed efforts for climate-friendly aviation: “As customers are increasingly looking for sustainable travel options, it is important that providers work together to ensure a seamless exchange of passengers and passengers Enable passenger information, “said Juniac. Iata has extensive experience in developing standards to support intermodality. The cooperation with UIC is a logical step.
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