The German state-owned railway will offer a €99.99 family ticket from November 1, covering a round trip and including seat reservations. Sales will open October 26 under the same conditions used for the temporary summer promotion.
The deal allows up to five people to travel together, making it particularly attractive for families taking vacations or visiting relatives during periods when gasoline and other travel costs remain high.
Deutsche Bahn CEO Evelyn Palla said the summer promotion had generated a significant increase in family travel.
“We welcomed 100,000 more families on board than in the previous year,” Palla told newspaper Bild am Sonntag, announcing the decision to keep the offer permanently.
The ticket is being positioned as part of a broader effort to make rail travel more affordable and competitive with private cars.
Isabel Cademartori, transport policy spokesperson for Germany’s governing SPD parliamentary group, called the move a strong signal for affordable mobility.
“For just under €100 round trip, including seat reservations for up to five people, rail becomes a genuine alternative to the car for families,” she said.
Transport Minister Steffen Bilger also welcomed the decision, saying the railway should provide attractive family options for people traveling on vacation or visiting relatives.
The permanent ticket comes as Deutsche Bahn faces continued criticism over reliability, however. Palla warned that passengers should not expect a rapid improvement in punctuality, with the country’s rail infrastructure suffering from years of underinvestment.
A large proportion of the network’s infrastructure is aging, prone to failures and increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather, she said.
Particularly hot summers can worsen disruption because infrastructure such as switch mechanisms was not designed to withstand several consecutive days of temperatures above 35°C.
Palla said the railway cannot resolve decades of infrastructure problems within one or two years. The modernization program is expected to take at least 10 years, with meaningful improvements in punctuality dependent on replacing a substantial share of the aging infrastructure.
But despite the unreliable German train system, the family ticket still represents a relatively immediate incentive for travelers.
