“In international travel, we are currently exceeding bookings from spring 2019,” German rail operator Deutsche Bahn chief Richard Lutz announced on Sunday. “That was the record year in passenger traffic before the pandemic.”

Eleven per cent more people were travelling on international long-distance trains operated by Deutsche Bahn or its partners from abroad in March and almost 25% more in April than in 2019, he said.

The demand for journeys to Austria was particularly high. The number of passengers travelling to Austria in April was almost 60% higher than in the same month in 2019, while the number of passengers travelling to Belgium exceeded the pre-crisis level “by almost 40%.”

According to its own figures, long-distance rail transport makes around 13% of its turnover on international routes. As a rule, the railway cooperates with foreign railway companies.

“In German-French high-speed traffic, for example, the ICE and TGV are used together,” the company added, using the abbreviations for the German high-speed Intercity Express and its French equivalent.