Train passengers in Germany could soon experience finer journeys after the nation's state-owned rail firm, Deutsche Bahn, announced plans for significant upgrades to its service.
The multibillion-euro investment aims to enhance the privacy element of customers' journeys greatly. Among the railway operator's most noteworthy plans is the addition of compartments with frosted glass doors.
These compartments, which were unveiled over a week ago, will be accessible to people travelling on Deutsche Bahn's Intercity Express high-speed trains. They have been designed to accommodate two people at a time.
Customers can switch the sliding glass doors from transparent to frosted whenever they feel like it by simply pressing a button on the armrest of their seat. This action will immediately bring more significant privacy to their train journey as other passengers cannot see or hear anything behind the frosted glass.
The train firm revealed that adding frosted glass would allow people to make video or phone calls without worrying about being too loud and disturbing others.
Speaking to German tabloid Bild, Deutsche Bahn board member Michael Peterson teased what customers could soon experience on their travels.
He stated: "These enable private and confidential conversations in a protected environment. Anyone sitting in the model of an ICE two-person compartment can already understand what train travel could soon feel like."
Other than making private calls, the upgraded compartments' frosted glass will inevitably be considered a more romantic and intimate space for some passengers. Bild labelled the new compartments as "smooch cabins", with other titles such as "cuddle compartment" and "cuddle chamber" being floated around.
Deutsche Bahn's plans to improve its service also include the installation of digital screens so that passengers without a seat reservation can inform others that their seat is occupied. This can come in handy whenever these passengers leave their seats to go to the toilet, restaurant car or visit someone in a private compartment.
The railway company has referred to these planned screens as "digital towels", referencing Germans' habit of reserving beach and pool chairs with their towels.
Another new feature Deutsche Bahn plans to roll out is the inclusion of scent buttons near doorways and station lifts. This will allow passengers to feel calmer amidst the stress of travelling as they will be absorbing a relaxing fragrance.
This wide-ranging overhaul Deutsche Bahn wants to implement for its services comes as a response to a damning report on the company's operations last year.
The network was described as "prone to failure" and "old", with only 64 per cent of long-distance train journeys arriving on schedule in 2023.
Also, just under half of all signal boxes and around 40 per cent of all level crossings had been found in a "poor, defective or inadequate condition."
The train firm is keen to improve its output and hopes to be a leading and modernised railway firm by 2030. Artificial intelligence technology is set to be utilised to turn out more efficient engineering activities, including track repair work in the 78-kilometre distance between Frankfurt and Mannheim.