New Deutsche Bahn rate system : Reasonable price setting in public transport?

Turnover in long-distance passenger traffic of Deutsche Bahn sank in the first half of 2003 by 13%. The drop can be explained only in part by weak economic activity. A contributing factor was the failure of customers to accept the new rate system introduced on 15 December 2002. Deutsche Bahn has adjusted the system, and since 1 August 2003 new rates apply, including the revived BahnCard 50. Dr. Andreas Brenck of the faculty for Economics and Structural Policy at the Technical University of Berlin describes the replaced "new" rate system which attempted to introduce a kind of yield management according to the model of the airlines: now with the "changes introduced in a near state of panic" Deutsche Bahn can expect revenue losses even if passenger volume increases. Dr. Arnold Berndt of the Swiss Federal Office of Transport in Bern, who has compared the different price systems from a theoretical standpoint, assumes "that Deutsche Bahn should be expected to make a profit, at least vis-à-vis the system that has been replaced". A particularly critical position was assumed, expectedly, by the federal chairperson of the passenger lobby, Pro Bahn e.V., Karl-Peter Naumann, regarding the rates that applied from 15 December 2002 to 31 July 2003. He points to the fundamental error of a price system "that was pieced together from the old kilometre-based rates with relatively free train selection (spatial limit) and the route-bound ICE rates.