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Families travel more expensively: Deutsche Bahn abolishes reservations!
Family trips with Deutsche Bahn from June 11, 2025: price increases and loss of family reservations. A look at the effects.
Families travel more expensively: Deutsche Bahn abolishes reservations!
Deutsche Bahn is the focus of criticism after it abolished family reservations from June 15, 2025. This has a significant impact on family travel, especially for parents with young children. A family that is thinking about a trip to Düsseldorf to visit relatives or to Mainz to visit friends now faces new challenges. The message from Northern Courier addresses this problem urgently.
Currently, all travelers, even children, now have to pay for seat reservations. The price for a reservation in second class increases by 30 cents to 5.50 euros. For first class the price climbs to 6.90 euros. This means a significant price increase for families. For example, the price for a family with two children increases from 20.80 euros to 44 euros for a return trip, like that Mercury reported.
Popular services are no longer available
The decision to abolish family reservations is not only met with incomprehension among users. Associations and political parties express their concerns. The Verkehrsclub Deutschland (VCD) calls for this reservation to be retained, as many families rely on fixed seats. The organization Pro Bahn and Greenpeace are also outraged by the increased reservation costs.
Politicians such as the Green Bundestag member Victoria Broßart and Christoph Ploß from the CDU described the pricing policy as scandalous and called for a rethink on the part of the railway.
Criticism of the pricing policy
The railway defends its measures by arguing that children up to 14 years of age can travel free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Nevertheless, social associations warn that the new price structures will particularly burden low-income households. Incentivizing green travel is failing due to the rising prices of family reservations and the inconvenience of traveling with children.
A common scenario that concerns many families is long waiting times and problems with luggage at the platform. Positive experiences, such as the family areas and on-board bistros, could be pushed into the background by the new regulations. The insight is clear: plans for a leisurely trip could turn into a challenge, leading families to consider the car as a mode of transportation.
Deutsche Bahn has also restored the old cancellation conditions for Flex tickets, but the question remains whether this will be enough to regain the trust of families and refute the ever-growing criticism of its pricing policy.