Germany Teen Spends Rs 8 Lakh Every Year To Live As A 24x7 Train Passenger

Lasse Stolley, a 17-year-old German boy who lives on a Deutsche Bahn railcar for the price of a yearly unlimited ticket of about $10,000 (Rs 8.3 lakh approximately) is gaining attention worldwide for being a "trainsquatter." Travelling an estimated 600 kilometres a day around Germany and Europe, the teenager rides first class, sleeps on overnight trains, eats breakfast in the dining car, does laundry in sinks, and takes showers at community centres and public swimming pools along the way, as per a report in the New York Post.

The software coder is very active on social media. In a recent post on Instagram, he wrote, "Life on the train gives me the freedom to choose where I want to go at any time. Breakfast by the Baltic Sea in the morning and enjoy the sunset in the Alps in the evening - the possibilities are endless!"

The 17-year-old spends most of his days working on his laptop while seated among other travellers at booths with tables. He is also known to use noise-cancelling headphones to fall asleep while stretched out across seats with his travel blanket and neck pillow.

"Privacy when living on a train doesn't exist at all. I have a lot of freedom and can decide every day where I want to go, whether to the Alps, to a big city or to the sea. I'm completely flexible," Lasse told Business Insider.

He began the journey over a year ago and has been to four historic monuments, national parks and Scandinavia to watch the northern lights. Notably, he has travelled 500,000 kilometres on German rails. Using an app, the software developer plans and monitors his daily travel schedule, frequently utilising commuter trains during the day and cross-country redeyes at night. "Every night I have to make sure that I catch the night train and sometimes I have to reschedule very quickly because it doesn't arrive all of a sudden," he told the outlet.

The boy left his home in northern Germany at the age of 16 in 2022 and said that "it took a lot of convincing" for his parents to support his unconventional lifestyle. His wardrobe consists of  four T-shirts, two pairs of trousers, a neck pillow and a travel blanket after he downsized to fit everything into a single bag. "The most important thing is my laptop and my noise-cancelling headphones, which give me at least a little privacy on the train," Lasse added.

With his reputation and expertise in train operations, he expects to eventually land a job in the same field. The teen said, "My wish would be to give feedback to the transport companies, for example, Deutsche Bahn or the train manufacturers, and get paid for it."