Why are the restaurant cars in Hungarian trains closed in Germany?

ubuntu_ulysses

While on a Hungarian MÁV-START train, I noticed an odd sign saying that due to regulation, the bistro carriage will not be serving food while in Germany. From some googling, it seems that German trains often do have bistro carriages too, so I'm wondering whether this is some temporary rule due to the pandemic or something else?

Originally asked by JohnEye on Stack Exchange (travel) (CC BY-SA 4.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

In August 2021, it was noticed that the state laws governing the rules for Restaurants, Cafés etc. excluded railway dining cars, since they crossed state borders. Therefore the state exceptions/conditions didn't apply to the railway gastronomy. On the 25th of August 2021 a special federal regulation (CoronaSpWgV) was suggested to correct this situation, afterwhich the general 3-rule would apply. This suggestion was withdrawn and eventuelly the state laws included the railway in their regulations (in Saxony December 2021). Corona - Speisewagenverordnung – CoronaSpWgV Zielsetzung und Notwendigkeit der Regelungen Sofern eine epidemische Lage von nationaler Tragweite durch den Deutschen...

Full answer by Mark Johnson: https://travel.stackexchange.com/a/178230 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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