What Deutsche Bahn's own numbers say about ICE reliability
Deutsche Bahn publishes its punctuality figures in its own interim and annual reports, and the most recent numbers are not flattering. In the first half of 2025, DB Long-Distance trains (ICE and IC/EC) arrived on time only 63.4% of the time, essentially unchanged from 62.5% in the same period the year before. DB Regional trains, by contrast, ran on time 90.6% of the time in the same period. The company attributes the long-distance shortfall to an aging, overloaded infrastructure, heavy construction activity to renew it, high traffic density at hubs like Frankfurt, Hamburg and Cologne, and staff shortages in operational roles.
That gap matters for trip planning: a regional or S-Bahn connection is a fairly safe bet, but an ICE journey that needs to make a tight onward connection, especially through Frankfurt or Cologne, carries real risk of a delay.
What happens if you miss a DB connection
If your arrival at the destination station is delayed by 60 minutes or more, you can claim a 25% refund of the ticket price for that leg; at 120 minutes or more, it rises to 50%. These are your rights under EU Regulation 2021/782, which applies uniformly across German and European rail travel.
Beyond the refund, if a train is expected to arrive 20 minutes late or more (national journeys), the restriction on which specific train your ticket is valid for is automatically lifted, even on a discounted Sparpreis ticket bought for one specific departure. You can then board the next available train on the same or an alternative route without buying a new ticket. If DB fails to tell you your onward options within 100 minutes of the scheduled departure, you gain the right to continue your journey with another operator entirely, including FlixTrain, a coach, or a regional bus, and claim back reasonable costs afterward. Taxis, flights and private pickups are not reimbursed under this provision.
What the Deutschlandticket actually covers
The Deutschlandticket costs EUR 63 per month, is cancellable monthly, and is valid nationwide on local public transport only: buses, trams, U-Bahn, S-Bahn, and regional trains (RB, RE, IRE) in second class. It is explicitly not valid on ICE, IC, EC trains, or on FlixTrain. You can use it before and after a long-distance leg of a journey, but you need a separate ticket for that leg, and if you miss the connecting long-distance train, the Deutschlandticket itself gives you no rebooking rights or refund for that missed connection.
This is the most common point of confusion for visitors: the ticket's near-total national coverage on local transport makes it feel like a general rail pass, but it stops exactly where Germany's fastest and most useful long-distance trains start.
Lufthansa Group: more than one airline
Lufthansa Group is not a single carrier. Its Passenger Airlines segment includes the network airlines Lufthansa Airlines, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and ITA Airways, operating from a multi-hub network centred on Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Vienna, Brussels and Rome. Eurowings handles short- and medium-haul point-to-point routes mainly from German-speaking countries, and Discover Airlines is the group's dedicated holiday carrier. In 2025 the Group generated EUR 39.6 billion in revenue with around 103,000 employees. For a traveller, the practical effect is that a single Lufthansa Group booking can combine flights across several of these airlines on one itinerary, since they share the group's hub network and, through Star Alliance, a wider partner network.
Where Flix fits, and how it grew
Flix launched its first bus route in Germany between Munich and Nuremberg in 2013, backed by its first investor, immediately after Germany deregulated its long-distance coach market, which had previously been tightly restricted to protect Deutsche Bahn's rail monopoly on long-distance travel. From that single line, the company expanded internationally within a year and now operates, under the corporate name Flix SE, in more than 40 countries across five continents through its FlixBus, FlixTrain, Greyhound and Kâmil Koç brands. FlixTrain itself launched in Germany in 2018, giving Flix a foothold in rail as well as coach travel on the same routes it already served by bus.
Which one wins for a given trip
Compares the three main ways to travel a mid-length route inside Germany.
| Option | Best when | Main trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| ICE (Deutsche Bahn) | Route has a fast, direct ICE and you book early for a Sparpreis fare | 63.4% on-time performance (H1 2025); build in buffer for connections |
| Flix coach or FlixTrain | No competitive direct train/flight, or booking last-minute | Longer travel time than ICE on most direct corridors |
| Lufthansa Group flight | Longer distances where flying saves several hours over rail | Airport transfer and security time can erase the time saved on shorter routes |
Before you book
Check the live connection and any construction-related disruption on bahn.de rather than relying on a schedule from a previous visit, since DB's own reporting flags construction activity as a recurring, shifting cause of delay. If your itinerary depends on a tight connection, build in the kind of buffer that a 63.4% on-time long-distance network suggests is prudent, and know before you travel that a Deutschlandticket in your wallet will not rescue you if the long-distance leg goes wrong.