The Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland has begun physically riding every regional train in Germany, around the clock, until the proposed 67-euro Deutschlandticket price is withdrawn, the organization announced on Monday. Volunteers in green vests now board at every stop, walk the length of each carriage, and ask passengers to confirm the fare they paid.
The campaign, called «Ride Until They Fold», has already put more than nine hundred BUND volunteers on the rails, working in eight-hour shifts with thermoses and folding stools. Organizers say the goal is to occupy every seat on every Regionalexpress until the transport ministers agree to keep the ticket at its current price. «We will ride the Berlin–Cottbus line until the last minister blinks», said a campaign coordinator at a training session in Potsdam, where volunteers practiced walking down a moving carriage without spilling coffee.
The logistics have grown accordingly. BUND has rented a former railway hotel near Hannover as a dormitory, hired a retired conductor to teach boarding drills, and printed a timetable that covers every regional service in the country. Local chapters now compete for the longest continuous ride; the current record stands at a Görlitz–Kiel run that lasted eleven hours and required two changes of socks.
Transport ministers have not commented, but one state official was seen buying a folding bicycle, apparently to avoid the trains altogether. BUND says the rides will continue until the fare is frozen, or until its volunteers have personally visited every station in Germany, whichever comes first.