Long-distance buses can compete with rail on price, so they will take away some of DB's income. Especially as a few years ago, DB infamously terminated its cheap long-distance services (the InterRegio brand) despite being successful and popular -- in the hopes that passengers will pay up for the more expensive IC, EC, ICE services, or go with the slower limited-stop local services (a result of splitting the company into operational branches, with the IR falling between two stools), rather than abandon trains. In addition, due to Germany's half-assed development of a high-speed network, those more expensive services don't have a significant enough speed advantage (and have capacity problems on some relations). It is also worth to note that that policy of higher ticket prices for higher-quality services is not a necessity, Austria for example holds to the same-price approach.

So there would be a lot of issues to attack to improve long-distance public transport in Germany. But, tough the new transport minister is said to be pro-rail, and promised to boost rail spending, so far his record is the stop and re-start of one high-speed line project, and this.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}