Anyone who has ever tried to travel across Europe by train knows the problem: instead of a single booking, you often end up in a battle with different booking platforms, individual tickets and unclear passenger rights. That is set to change soon – at least to some extent.

From autumn 2025, Deutsche Bahn wants to revolutionise cross-border ticket purchasing:

International connections will then be as easy to book as a journey within Germany – using familiar channels such as bahn.de or the DB Navigator. Behind this innovation is a joint project involving several European railway companies: the Open Sales and Distribution Model (OSDM). This is a technical standard interface that enables ticket data to be exchanged in a uniform manner. This will enable travellers to book their entire journey – for example, from Berlin to Rome or Stockholm to Madrid – with just a few clicks and a single ticket. The railway companies in Austria and Switzerland will be the first to be connected, with others to follow gradually. According to Deutsche Bahn, a large part of the continent should be accessible via this new infrastructure by the end of 2026.

The fact that Athens is cited as an example of the new booking options, even though Greece is currently not really accessible by train, is somewhat amusing. There is also criticism of the practical implementation: although OSDM makes technical integration easier, not every railway company has an interest in joining a common system. Particularly where there is competition between rail operators, the willingness to cooperate has been limited so far. Passenger rights on international connections also remain a source of uncertainty: Who is liable for missed connections? What happens in the event of delays? Without uniform regulations, technical progress could fail due to practical problems.

At the same time, the European Commission is working on a legislative proposal to guarantee uniform digital access to rail travel, including clear passenger rights for the entire journey. However, the Commission plans to use a different technical standard than OSDM, which has been met with scepticism by Deutsche Bahn: the investments made in OSDM to date are enormous, both in terms of time and money.

A step forward – but not a breakthrough?

The idea of a unified European rail network where you can travel from Paris to Budapest and beyond with a single ticket is appealing – both for travellers and for climate protection.

But turning this vision into reality will require more than technical interfaces: cooperation, political will and fair rules for all providers are just as crucial. OSDM is at least a promising start. Whether it will lead to real change will depend on how seriously European rail operators and politicians take the vision of a connected Europe by rail.