Germany No ticket, but punches: Train attendant dies
He was just doing his job and was fatally injured in the process. During a ticket inspection on a German regional train, a passenger attacked the train attendant - and punched him so hard in the head that he was critically injured.
04.02.2026, 10:53
04.02.2026, 14:58
SDA
The regional express had just left Landstuhl station in the south-western German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Less than two days after the attack, the 36-year-old died in hospital.
What was the background to the attack? According to the police, the later attacker did not have a ticket with him. When train employee Serkan C. told him to leave the train, he started beating him. The alleged perpetrator is a 26-year-old Greek man who is not resident in Germany - an arrest warrant has been issued for him.
The suspect has so far remained silent about the allegations, said a spokesperson for the Zweibrücken public prosecutor's office. An autopsy ordered for today is to clarify the exact cause of death. A weapon was probably not used.
"Crude and senseless violence"
The crime caused horror throughout Germany. Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder was stunned. "It is terrible that a customer advisor has lost his life in the normal course of his work - killed by brute and senseless violence."
Deutsche Bahn CEO Evelyn Palla wrote in a post on the Linkedin platform that she was "stunned and saddened" by the employee's death. "We all have to ask ourselves why such outbreaks of violence keep happening." It is a dark day for all railroad workers. Her deepest sympathies go out to the relatives, friends and colleagues.
Minute's silence from the railroad workers
Deutsche Bahn and the Railway and Transport Union (EVG) are now calling for a minute's silence. "We are shocked and mourn the loss of our colleague," announced EVG Chairman Martin Burkert. "Today, the railroad family stands still."
"We will increase the pressure again tomorrow," the union continued. "This brutal attack must now trigger a rethink." Politicians must take measures for more security.
Attacks are not uncommon
Attacks on rail employees are a bitter daily occurrence in Germany: from January to the end of October 2025, 2,987 rail employees were victims of crime. These included 1,148 cases of threats, 1,231 cases of bodily harm and 324 cases of dangerous bodily harm, according to an answer from the Ministry of the Interior to a question from left-wing politician Dietmar Bartsch.
According to a survey by the EVG, 82 percent of railroad employees have already experienced verbal or physical assaults at work. The survey was conducted online in February 2024; according to the EVG, almost 4,000 train attendants, station service staff and hotline employees took part.
Demand for more staff
"We need double staffing on local rail passenger transport trains," Burkert told the German Press Agency (dpa). Up to now, train attendants on regional trains usually walk through the compartments alone, unlike ticket inspectors on buses, for example. The federal states could change this when determining how much local transport should be offered with how many staff. Burkert is also calling for more bodycams with sound and an expansion of the concept of emergency call buttons on regional trains.
The police union is calling for more security staff on trains. "We have long recognized the growing crime and brutality in the rail sector," said Andreas Rosskopf, GdP Chairman for the Federal Police, in the Rheinische Post newspaper. "We have been calling for an increase in personnel in this area for years."
