Since June 1st, you can travel on local trains and public transport as you wish for a month for 9 euros. Overcrowded trains are expected for the Pentecost weekend. Especially on Sylt it could get crowded on the Pentecost weekend. FOCUS Online is on a trip from Munich to the Germans’ favorite island and reports live from the train.
Summer is finally approaching, the corona situation is easing significantly, Pentecost is just around the corner. And it’s been available since Wednesday – the 9-euro train ticket, which you can use to travel as often as you like on local trains and public transport for a month. The campaign lasts a total of three months, but people want to travel – now. It could be correspondingly chaotic on the trains, especially this weekend.
This applies in particular to the trains to Sylt. On the one hand, because the island had had bad experiences with rioters during a similar action in 1995, who really wanted to show the “rich” on the Germans’ favorite island. On the other hand, because traders on the island had already warned in advance that Sylt, with its around 4,000 commuters and already many tourists at Pentecost, was not prepared for such an additional rush. Which really spurred users on social networks to set off.
FOCUS Online is on the Munich-Sylt route from 5 a.m. today – and reports live for 15 hours from seven local trains via Nuremberg, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Uelzen, Hamburg and Elmshorn to Westerland.
Munich, 5.01 a.m .: At 5 a.m. in the morning before this first Pentecost weekend with a 9-euro ticket, the cozy railway station in the Bavarian capital is normal: normal operation. The regional train to Würzburg on platform 25, the first stage of the 9-euro Sylt trip across Germany, is already relatively well occupied. But judging by the clothes and the small bags, the majority of the passengers are more likely to be commuters.
Three already (or still) noticeably tipsy twenty-somethings with cropped hair and a bottle of Tegernseer Pils in their hands cheerfully board the train on their way to Berlin, where they look forward to “Atze und Keule”, which they wanted to visit anyway – and clink glasses to the 9-euro ticket.
On the other hand, the Munich father Florian (54) and his two boys Felix (10) and Julian (8), who are only sitting in the regional train because of the 9-euro ticket and are currently studying the timetable together, seem much more like a short vacation. “We’re going to Bonn over Pentecost, where we’re going to visit family,” says the 54-year-old. Normally they would take the ICE for the route, travel time: three hours. “But because of the 9-euro ticket, we decided differently today and take the regional train, which takes nine hours.”
For the two boys, this is an adventure in two respects. On the one hand, because their parents officially took them out of school for a day – “otherwise, if you’re unlucky, you’ll even have to pay a fine if the police stop you,” says Florian with a grin. And on the other hand, the two boys are now sitting on the upper floor of a double-decker compartment for the first time. “Cool,” the two confirm, grinning behind their masks.
