Local rail transport is projected to carry 2.8 billion passengers in 2025, up around 1% compared with 2024. Destatis attributes the increase partly to strike-related impacts in the first quarter of 2024, which had reduced the previous year’s figures.
Long-distance rail services recorded 146 million passengers in 2025, a 3% year-on-year increase. The growth is linked to the absence of major strike disruptions seen in early 2024 and to an expanded reporting scope that includes additional railway undertakings from the first quarter of 2025. Excluding the newly included companies, passenger growth in long-distance rail would have been around 2%.
Destatis noted that passenger statistics are subject to uncertainty due to limited use of automated passenger counting systems and data limitations related to the Deutschlandticket, which may have affected year-on-year comparisons, particularly in local transport.
