With the 191st Münchner Oktoberfest entering its final evening, the Federal Police issued a statement at 11:22 CET on 4 October praising the performance of rail hubs that funnelled an estimated 6.5 million revellers to and from the festival grounds. Up to 230 officers reinforced Munich Hauptbahnhof, Hackerbrücke and the S-Bahn trunk every day, using loudspeaker vans and direct passenger engagement to prevent overcrowding. According to the interim report, recorded offences across the 16-day operation fell nine percent year-on-year to 441 despite higher visitor numbers and several sold-out weekends. Assaults dropped by 27 percent to 69, while thefts and vandalism remained broadly stable. Notably, no evacuation of station platforms was required—a first since pre-Covid editions of the beer festival. For global mobility teams the policing model offers a blueprint for managing large-scale employee or client events: early coordination with rail security, multilingual public-address messages and mobile communication squads proved decisive. DB Fernverkehr confirmed that all long-distance ICE and IC services operated as planned, although some night-time trains ran with standing-room only. The Federal Police will redeploy portions of the Oktoberfest task-force to Frankfurt for the international Book Fair later this month, again focusing on rail choke points. Travellers connecting through Munich this week can expect residual crowding as festival tents dismantle and seasonal workers depart.
Source: Bundespolizeidirektion München
