Make way for the nine-euro ticket: At the start of the promotion period, there is a lot more going on at Berlin Central Station on Wednesday than the day before. Many travelers are waiting for the trains to Stralsund and Rostock – but the platform is not yet overcrowded in the morning.

From the main station, the RE3 runs in three hours and 13 minutes directly to Stralsund on the Baltic Sea without changing trains. The campaign period for the nine-euro ticket began on June 1st: ticket holders can use local and regional transport throughout Germany in June, July and August for the respective month – for a total price of nine euros.

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Klaus and Petra Krüger set off in Brandenburg on the – still empty – train and from their seats they were able to watch the car filling up more and more. “We would have driven if the nine-euro ticket hadn’t existed,” says Petra Krüger. In Stralsund, the couple wanted to use the ticket to drive around the area with their three-year-old grandson. “He loves trains,” says Klaus Krüger.

But not all travelers are traveling with the nine-euro ticket on June 1st. A passenger on the RE5 to Rostock had already booked her ticket in advance and was therefore unable to use the nine-euro offer. Another family went to Rostock with the nine-euro ticket, but from there they continued with a regular ticket.

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The nine-euro ticket was in high demand even before it became valid. So far, Deutsche Bahn has sold 2.7 million tickets throughout Germany and around half a million in Berlin and Brandenburg. The concern that demand will lead to overcrowded trains is especially true on the RE3 and RE5 lines that go to the Baltic Sea. Additional trains are used only a few times.

Compared to the day before, things are actually a lot busier at the main station on Wednesday. On May 31, it was still very quiet on the tracks and on the intermediate levels. The few travelers waiting for their train on the platform had booked the journeys before the nine-euro ticket was announced for the summer. For a couple who were there in the morning, the trip went via Hamburg to Bremerhaven and then back to their home town of Aalen in Baden-Württemberg. The two tickets cost a total of 260 euros and were tied to a specific train.

A day later, around noon, the platforms are still operating quite normally. It’s only full in the main hall. There, music fans gathered in front of a small stage to listen to the songs of German singer Max Giesinger. Berlin is the second stop on his “Fastest Tour”, for which the musician travels to four train stations in Germany on June 1 and plays short concerts there – with the ICE4, without a nine-euro ticket.