Deutsche Bahn to lower fares, order more ICEs

AlexNL · 20 Sep 2019

In order to reduce the environmental impact of transport and encourage modal shift, the government has decided to reduce the rate of Value Added Tax on rail travel from 19% to 7% for all journeys of more than 50 km. (...) DB immediately promised to pass on the whole of the reduction to its passengers, which CEO Richard Lutz said would equate to a 10% cut in fares, and also forego a planned increase. This would see the cheapest ICE journeys cut from €19·90 to €17·90, or €13·40 with a Bahncard discount.
(...)
To handle the extra traffic, DB announced that it would order a further 30 high speed trainsets suitable for ‘at least’ 300 km/h.

Source and entire article: Railway Gazette: DB to order more high speed trains as government cuts VAT on fares

Very nice, that's quite a reduction and will help boost DB's competitiveness against the long distance buses.

RailUK Forums

Giugiaro · 21 Sep 2019

Even right now those trains run full in and out of Frankfurt. It blows my mind just how do people afford so much to travel on these train en masse.

Harpers Tate · 21 Sep 2019

Is still 7% VAT more than we pay here.

LNW-GW Joint · 21 Sep 2019

Note that it is to be funded by increasing VAT on air fares (zero VAT here, although we do have APD instead).

F Great Eastern · 21 Sep 2019

From what I've read it's not confirmed these are new ICE4 trains, just that there will be 30 extra High Speed Trains of unspecified nature.

JonathanP · 21 Sep 2019

Harpers Tate said:
Is still 7% VAT more than we pay here.

In Germany we pay 19% on most things, and 7% on 'essentials'(groceries etc. + urban public transport). So 7% is effectively the German equivalent of the UK's 0%. As far as I'm aware, the UK and Ireland are the only EU countries to have 0% sales tax on anything, and the ability to do so at all is an special opt-out they have from EU taxation regulations.

Ianno87 · 21 Sep 2019

JonathanP said:
In Germany we pay 19% on most things, and 7% on 'essentials'(groceries etc. + urban public transport). So 7% is effectively the German equivalent of the UK's 0%. As far as I'm aware, the UK and Ireland are the only EU countries to have 0% sales tax on anything, and the ability to do so at all is an special opt-out they have from EU taxation regulations.

Bloomin' Unelected Eurocrats, granting special exemptions from European legislation to the UK.

Take back control, or something like that?

AlbertBeale · 21 Sep 2019

Ianno87 said:
Bloomin' Unelected Eurocrats, granting special exemptions from European legislation to the UK.

Take back control, or something like that?

In terms of control - as I understand it, EU rules do not allow switching any new categories from VATed to zero rate. Hence we're precluded, eg, from making it more cost-effective to repair buildings rather than knock them down and rebuild them (former VATed, new-build not).

Also, it's not the case that only the UK and Ireland have zero rate VAT. All EU countries do, though with a majority of them it's primarily or exclusively for international air transport!! (This - like the repair/new-build problem - might tie in with the fact that the policies of the EU are not, overall, good for the environment.) (Apologies - keep that can of worms shut.)

MarcVD · 21 Sep 2019

F Great Eastern said:
From what I've read it's not confirmed these are new ICE4 trains, just that there will be 30 extra High Speed Trains of unspecified nature.

Can't be, can it ? Original message says 'suitable for at least 300 km/h', and the ICE4 is limited to 250 km/h.

Running Pete · 21 Sep 2019

I've always found DB fares reasonable if booked in advance .

Deutsche Bahn to lower fares, order more ICEs

AlexNL

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Giugiaro

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Harpers Tate

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LNW-GW Joint

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JonathanP

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Ianno87

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