Deutsche Bahn wants to bring so-called on-demand services such as dial-a-bus or shuttle services more into rural regions and is also relying on autonomous vehicles. "The plan is that we will transport around 200 million passengers in on-demand traffic by 2030," said Evelyn Palla, the group board member responsible for regional transport in Berlin. Every second trip in the country would then be handled with such a service.

Palla emphasized that it is about more flexible and suitable transport options for people in rural areas as an alternative to their own car. The existing public transport should be supplemented by the on-demand services, not replaced. There are currently 18 corresponding offers from the railway nationwide. The number of passengers is still comparatively small.

For the on-demand services, Deutsche Bahn will soon be testing autonomous vehicles as part of a pilot project in Darmstadt and in the Offenbach district. There is still a driver on board to check. In the medium term, however, such vehicles should be on the road entirely without their own staff, emphasized Palla.

For the expansion of the offer, the railway relies on corresponding orders from transport carriers such as federal states and associations. The so-called transport authorities of the federal states are already ordering the regional transport in their regions with certain specifications for the companies. There is still some persuasion work to be done here, said Palla.