Letter from Germany: German hosts win big

Deutsche Bahn - one of the main sponsors of Euro 2024, has just announced that more than 3 million people (mostly football fans) have used ICE (Intercity Express - inter-city express train, connecting 180 ICE stations in Germany and 6 neighboring countries: Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Netherlands and Denmark) in less than 10 days of Euro 2024. Deutsche Bahn said that some national teams have used ICE trains to travel to matches such as Switzerland and Romania.

There are around 182,000 tickets available for football fans, including around 60,000 Fan BahnCards (railway cards) and around 7,000 Interrail cards (interstate and regional trains within the European bloc). The cities with the most fans are the German capital Berlin, followed by Frankfurt and Munich. With the strategy of offering discounts to football ticket holders, Deutsche Bahn said the number of tickets increases by around 10,000 every day.

Beer and snack sales boom on German high-speed trains for Euro 2024

Germany's national rail operator says that, along with around 3 million people using the trains, the boom in beer and snack sales on trains has been truly impressive. Deutsche Bahn doubled its beer sales in the first week of Euro 2024 alone, with around 44,588 litres of beer - double the usual volume - bought on trains between June 14 and 19. Meanwhile, sales of snacks and drinks, largely traditional German sausages called bratwurst, increased by around 63%.

However, host Germany also has a sad downside to Euro 2024. Germany was once considered a symbol of punctuality and efficiency, but now the country's rail network is receiving a lot of criticism. This stems from the lack of regular rail system enhancements, along with strikes by workers causing the rail transport system to stagnate. Deutsche Bahn admitted that the rail network in Germany suffered serious disruptions on major routes in the first few days of Euro 2024.

"The operator has planned to overhaul the entire rail system by 2030. The main items of this overhaul program will start as soon as Euro 2024 ends," Deutsche Bahn said.

The unfavorable weather also forced some fan zones to close. The unluckiest were probably the more than 10,000 Turkish fans. They were unable to gather in the fan zones to support their team because local officials decided to close some fan zones for "tourist safety". The reason why local authorities closed the fan zones is because this season often has heavy rains, sometimes even hail.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/thu-tu-duc-chu-nha-duc-thang-lon-196240626210901352.htm