April 24, 2024, 10:08 am | Read time: 4 minutes
The train is rolling, and you even have a seat–but how do you get home comfortably from the destination station? At this year’s “Experience Mobility” fair, Deutsche Bahn presented some innovations for the DB Navigator aimed at solving this very question. “Alternative mobility offers” is the buzzword of the moment.
Deutsche Bahn has a veritable jungle of different apps, few of which are widely known. Have you ever heard of the apps Zugportal, DB Ausflug, or DB MobiDig? Now, however, Deutsche Bahn apparently plans to integrate the practical functions of two apps into the DB Navigator. With over 10 million downloads in the Google Play Store, the DB Navigator is likely the most used DB app. Its core functions include displaying train connections and delays, purchasing tickets, and soon, the purely digital BahnCard. In the future, customers will also be able to find and book alternative mobility offers here.
DB Mobility from Door to Door
At the DB fair “Experience Mobility” 2024, Deutsche Bahn announced the “DB Navigator App with solutions for integrated everyday mobility that works from door to door.” Moving beyond the tracks in your own car is no longer a necessity in many regions. With car sharing, rental bikes, or e-scooters, there are alternatives for various target groups and situations. Express and on-demand buses are also part of this, especially in rural areas. These offers will soon be accessible and bookable in the DB Navigator.
Whether and to what extent the DB Navigator will become a cross-provider platform or focus solely on Deutsche Bahn’s offerings and close cooperation partners is not yet clear. A DB spokesperson told TECHBOOK: “We are currently working on expanding the bookability of intermodal travel with additional mobility offers from DB and, prospectively, also with offers from external partners.”
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The railway already maintains the alternative mobility apps Flinkster and Call a Bike, which have only about 100,000 and 500,000 downloads in the Google Play Store, respectively. Flinkster is a car-sharing company founded in 2001 and a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn. Around 23,000 vehicles are available in over 250 German cities. The situation is similar with Call a Bike’s rental bikes, although the distribution is still limited to about 10,000 bikes in 50 cities.
If Deutsche Bahn combines the functions of these two separate apps into the DB Navigator, it could indeed be a convenience gain for customers within the DB ecosystem. However, the app would only become the ultimate travel all-rounder if major third-party sharing providers like Miles, Bolt, or the e-scooter provider Lime were also integrated.
If Deutsche Bahn successfully integrates the functions of Flinkster and Call a Bike into the DB Navigator, shutting down the two apps in the future would be the logical consequence. This would make the company’s app offerings in the app stores more straightforward for consumers. However, according to a DB spokesperson, there are currently “no plans to discontinue the standalone DB apps Flinkster and Call a Bike.”
Further Innovations in the DB Navigator
Another innovation, set to launch in summer 2024, concerns the reservation display on the train. Those who log in via the Comfort Check-in in the DB Navigator, with or without a seat reservation, secure their seat “with a digital towel,” as stated on the Deutsche Bahn website. From that moment, the seat display shows the respective seat as reserved until the destination station. Spontaneous seat changes are therefore not desired. Whether this real-time occupancy appears not only on-site but also in the system and prevents confusion with online seat reservations is not clear from the announcement.
Another upcoming feature will allow trips planned in the DB Navigator to be paid directly via Bonvoyo. This does not refer to the Marriott Bonvoy rewards program but another DB-owned app. Through this application, employees receive a mobility budget from their employer. This should make booking and, if necessary, reconciling train tickets, rented cars, or rental bikes easier. Theoretically, it will soon be possible to pay for tickets and rental fees via Bonvoyo directly in the DB Navigator.
However, a DB spokesperson told TECHBOOK: “A specific date for the new functions cannot be named at this time.” It is certain, however, that the app Streckenagent will be discontinued on May 2, as reported by TECHBOOK.