DB Rad+ app throughout Germany: A free coffee for 30 kilometres of cycling

You practically get 10 cents per kilometre cycled - at least in Freising near Munich, one of the 16 pilot regions in Germany. Since October 2020, commuter cyclists there have been collecting their kilometres travelled on the DB Rad+ app. The result: the S-Bahn station is now a Deutsche Bahn "station of the future". The platforms have been fitted with digital displays, the pedestrian subway has been colourfully painted and the largest bike garage in Germany, with over 800 parking spaces, has been installed. In front of the station there is now a wooden pavilion with a small, vegan kiosk and a bicycle repair corner with the appropriate tools.

Deutsche Bahn is said to have invested one million euros in this conversion, with the rest being financed by the municipalities themselves. And what do the kilometres collected by cyclists contribute? Above all, data. Using heat maps, the municipality can see which routes are taken most frequently and which route upgrades are most necessary. In addition, commuters who cycle to the station no longer need a car parking space.

What do you have to do as a cyclist?

Simply download the DB Rad+ app to your mobile phone and start the odometer on your next bike ride. It is not necessary to enter any personal data. The kilometres collected can then be redeemed at registered partner businesses using the app's payment function. This could be a free coffee in a bar, a repair in a bike shop, a travel voucher with the railway or an online discount voucher with companies such as Adidas, Deuter, Vaude or even Vodafone.

A small fly in the ointment: the number of regional rewards providers participating still varies greatly depending on where you live. While there are already 89 companies taking part in the campaign in Berlin, there are of course significantly fewer in rural regions.

Exciting for all cyclists: the app not only counts the kilometres cycled from/to the station, but also all the kilometres cycled in the entire region. Even the 150-kilometre training lap from your own front door. And even if the rewards on offer in your own region are still somewhat meagre or you don't use the train to commute at all: The more kilometres you experience in a region, the more bicycle-friendly additional projects are implemented at the station. And that would definitely contribute to a visual improvement in many places.

Which regions are taking part in the campaign?

So far, the railway has found support primarily in these German cities:

• Augsburg
• Bamberg
• Berlin
• Coburg
• Freiburg im Breisgau
• Hamburg
• Heilbronn
• Lindau (Lake Constance)
• Potsdam
• Unterhaching
• Wiesbaden
• Würzburg

So there is definitely still a lot for Deutsche Bahn to do. The project was launched in October 2020 with 16 "stations of the future", by 2024 there were already 113 stations, with a further 100 to be added by the end of 2025 and a total of 1,800 stations in Germany to be completely modernised by 2030. The total number of German railway stations: 5400.

What exactly is a "future railway station"?

Deutsche Bahn writes on its homepage: "A station of the future is an initiative to modernise and improve railway stations in Germany by DB InfraGO AG. The aim of this initiative is to make railway stations more customer-friendly, efficient and environmentally friendly places that meet the needs of travellers and society."

The concept seems to have worked at the Freising pilot station. Over 22 million kilometres of cycling have already been collected in the north of Munich. The railway and the company that developed the concept for Freising are satisfied: "The result is a lively place that shows how mobility can work in the future."

Who is behind InfraGO AG?

DB InfraGO AG is a merger of DB Netz AG and DB Station & Service AG. Since January 2024, over 68,000 employees have been working on a more efficient rail network with attractive stations. The political goals are:

• Doubling of transport performance in rail passenger transport,
• Expansion of market share in rail freight transport from 19% to 25%,
• Implementation of the "Deutschlandtakt", a concept for an optimally synchronised timetable throughout the country.

Our suggestion for all cyclists around Munich: Download the app, cycle to Freising and take a look at the pilot project soon! Or, of course, at one of the more than one hundred other future stations across Germany. You can find out exactly where they are on the page radplus.bahnhof.de in an interactive map.