DB is playing its part in Europe's refugee crisis by transporting people on scheduled ICE and Intercity trains where possible and by operating scores of extra trains. The trains are taking refugees to a variety of cities including Munich, Frankfurt, Dortmund, Braunschweig, Hamburg, Saalfeld and Eisenhüttenstadt. Hundreds of DB staff aided by volunteers and public sector workers are on hand at each station to greet the refugees.

After it was announced that more than 20,000 people were expected to arrive in Munich alone on Saturday and Sunday, DB provided a building for the new arrivals and operated a local rail service to connect it with Munich's main station.

DB is liaising with local authorities around Germany and is encouraging them to house refugees in municipally-owned buildings. It has also set up a taskforce dedicated to communicating with local authorities and regional governments. DB and its partners are planning two pilot projects in southern Germany which will help adult and younger refugees find jobs.

"It goes without saying that DB will do whatever it takes to help these people who are essentially fleeing for their lives," says DB's CEO Dr Rüdiger Grube. "Planners and dispatchers at our operations centres and ICE plants have worked around the clock to assemble more trains and shoehorn them into our schedules."