Guaranteed on time and clean
If you travel by bus and rail within the ÜSTRA network, you will arrive on time and you will find clean vehicles. That is guaranteed by the ÜSTRA transport companies. You can submit your application for the ÜSTRA guarantee online here.
The ÜSTRA guarantee online form:
FAQ ÜSTRA guarantee
- The ÜSTRA guarantee applies to all passengers with a ÜSTRA ticket, which is used resp. validated for the corresponding journey.
- Excluded from this are ÜSTRA School passes and tickets, not issued by the ÜSTRA (BahnCard 100, City ticket, Lower Saxony ticket and Deutschlandtickets not issued by the ÜSTRA) as well as all trips on sprinti.
- The guarantee does not apply for passengers taken with you.
- In case of a delay of more than 20 minutes at the destination.
- If the journey was cancelled and therefore a delay of more than 20 minutes at the destination occurred or was to be expected.
- If a passenger, due to a delay, could not catch a connection and therefore reached the destination with a delay of more than 20 minutes.
Decisive for the calculation are the currently effective schedule times and connections as issued in the electronic timetable. In case of planned and (at least twenty-four hours before) announced deviations from the standard timetable (for example in case of building measures, flood, strike) the special schedule is the basis for a claim.
From 11:00 p.m. to 05:00 a.m. or if the passenger must wait longer than one hour due to delays, costs for a taxi up to 25,00 Euro will be reimbursed in place of a compensation.
In case your clothes should get dirty during our transport, costs for cleaning up to a maximum of 25,00 Euro can be reimbursed – provided the cause for the dirt is within the responsibility of the transport company. The cleanness guarantee can be submitted only by post or in person.
Making use of the ÜSTRA guarantee must be done within 14 calendar days after the incident. The application should be drawn up:
- Via our online application (for punctuality guarantee only)
- By post to the ÜSTRA, Karmarschstr. 30/32, 30159 Hanover, Germany
- In person at the customer centres of the transport companies (using the appropriate application)
You need to submit the following documents:
- Ticket (original or copy/scan)
- For online tickets: hardcopy or purchase confirmation mail
- Possibly the original taxi receipt for the reimbursement of the taxi costs
- Possibly the original cleaning receipt for the cleanness guarantee
You receive the compensation via bank transfer. If an application is rejected, you will receive a statement of the reasons for the rejection.
- You have used a Single ticket (Einzelkarte)? You will likewise get a Single ticket.
- You have used a Day ticket for one person (Tageskarte)? You will get 50 % of the day ticket for one person perplaced.
- You have used a monthly/annual season pass? You will get a compensation amounting to 5,00 Euro.
- You travelled with a combined ticket (Kombiticket)? You will get a Single ticket for three zones (ABC).
- It is max. 5,00 Euro per journey, max two journeys per day, max. 10 journeys per month
- For Monthly or Annual passes, compensation is limited to the price of the ticket paid by the passenger per month
Warranty exclusion
The ÜSTRA guarantee is a voluntary benefit of the ÜSTRA for its clients. A legal obligation, to provide such a guarantee, does not exist.
In case of abuse, the ÜSTRA reserves the right to exclude passengers from the guarantee. The passenger receives an information if the examination of the announced warranty claim shows that incorrect information has been provided. In the event of repeated incorrect and irreproducible information, the customer receives notification on a ÜSTRA warranty exclusion.
Note regarding the rights of rail passengers
For rail transport special passenger rights apply. If the legal regulation is claimed, the additional claiming of the ÜSTRA guarantee is not possible. But in many cases, the ÜSTRA guarantee is more advantageous for you. In case of delay, train cancellation or missed connecting trains causing a delay of more than 60 minutes at your destination, passengers of the ÜSTRA transport companies are entitled to compensation. The following explains to what extent you will receive the reimbursement and how to claim benefits.
You receive 25 % of the price for your Single ticket.
You receive 50 % of the price for your Single ticket.
If a train is delayed one hour, you may receive a lump-sum payment of 1,50 Euro (2. class) or 2,25 Euro (1. class).
You receive compensation of maximum 25 % of the price paid. The minimum amount for compensation is 4,00 Euro.
- For delays or train cancellations that occur with the WestfalenBahn, you must fill out the passenger rights form. For delays or train cancellations that occur with Transdev, please fill out the Transdev passenger rights form. For all other delays in rail transport of the ÜSTRA/GVH network partners, you can obtain the passenger rights form on the website www.fahrgastrechte.info. Here you can check out which railway company is competent. Passenger rights claim forms are also available in trains and selling points of the railway companies.
- If you have a ÜSTRA pass with the term of validity of up to one month, you should collect applications and submit all together after the expiry of the validity
- If you are holder of a ÜSTRA Monthly pass subscription, you should collect the application as well. From an amount of 4,00 Euro, you can submit it all together. Delays more than 1 year ago, are not taken into consideration.
- The completed forms must be put in an envelope together with the ticket or a copy of the ÜSTRA Monthly pass subscription as well as eventually other documents. You can hand in everything in a DB travel centre or send to the following address: Servicecenter Fahrgastrechte, 60647 Frankfurt/Main, Germany.
If a delay at destination of at least 20 minutes is foreseeable, you may use a more significant train like an ICE instead of a regional express train. If you have a ticket issued for a specific train, you may in this case chose another train.
These regulations do not however apply to the following tickets:
- Lower Saxony ticket
- Discounted tickets
- Tickets for groups
- ÜSTRA Combined tickets
- Air passenger ticket
- Tickets for hotel guests
- Deutschlandticket
- Deutschlandticket Job
If you have a public transport ticket and want to use a more significant train, you first need to pay the additional fee by yourself and afterwards claim reimbursement.
Further information
You can find further information on the following websites:
