The number of passengers travelling without a valid ticket on long-distance trains in Germany has been rising steadily in recent years, according to data from the Federal Ministry of Justice shared in response to a minor parliamentary inquiry by the Left Party, as reported by the Rheinische Post in its Monday edition.
According to the ministry's figures, more than 268,000 people were caught travelling without a valid ticket on Deutsche Bahn's long-distance services in 2024. In 2023, around 264,000 passengers were found to be travelling without a fare, while in 2022 the number stood at just under 214,000. Only a small fraction of those caught were able to subsequently present a valid ticket.
Alongside the rise in fare dodging, the number of criminal complaints filed against ticketless passengers has also increased sharply. In Deutsche Bahn's long-distance network, 18,010 complaints were filed in 2024 under Section 265a of the German Criminal Code, which covers the offence of obtaining services by deception. In 2023, the figure was 17,125 complaints, while 2022 saw 12,648 cases recorded.
The federal government has stated that comparable figures for local and regional public transport are not available. However, across Germany as a whole, more than 140,000 cases of fare evasion were registered in 2024, higher than the figure recorded in 2022, which stood at just under 132,000, though slightly below the 2023 total of just over 144,000.
Luke Hoß, the legal policy spokesperson for the Left Party in the Bundestag, attributed the trend to growing financial hardship. "More and more people cannot afford a ticket for the bus," said Hoß. "The state harasses them with excessive penalties and even puts those who cannot pay in prison. Instead of continuing to punish poverty, the federal government urgently needs to abolish the prosecution of petty offences and the substitute custodial sentence," he demanded.
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