When – from a passenger point of view – I make the case why the EU ought to pass a Regulation to fix cross border railway ticketing, the reaction from the railway industry (especially state owned railway firms) is essentially “why should we make booking easier, because our cross border trains are already full?”.
And to some extent it is true – since the COVID pandemic passenger numbers have bounced back strongly, and especially in the summer months and on night trains it can be hellish hard to even get a seat. What would airlines do when confronted with a problem like this? They would order more planes.
What has Deutsche Bahn done instead? Introduced compulsory reservation – a capacity limiting measure – on some routes in summer months, so as to cap capacity, rather than respond to it.
So why does the rail industry not respond by planning on upping capacity?
Because more demand is a hassle.