From the BBC:
“Germans say goodbye to summer
of €9 travel tickets”
Germany's summer of low-cost
travel is over as transport chiefs call a halt to their cheap fares experiment.
For three sunny months, passengers have packed on to platforms and concourses
to take advantage of a single monthly ticket costing €9 (£7.50; $9). In all, 52
million of the tickets, which allowed them to use any regional or local public
transport an unlimited number of times, have been sold. But the offer ends at
midnight on Wednesday, to the dismay of many. "It's one of the best ideas
we've had," said Chancellor Olaf Scholz. And the scheme, reckoned to have
cost more than €2.5bn in federal government subsidies, has, it seems, been a
political and social success. Take Ute and Jürgen, who I met at Berlin's main
station as they waited for a crowded train to the coast. They were pensioners,
they told me, and being able to use the ticket for their usual bus and tram
journeys had been "very helpful", especially at a time of rising
costs. That was the original aim of the €9 ticket, which was actually
introduced as somewhat of an afterthought.
€9 tickets to ride
52 million tickets sold
€2.5 billion Amount paid to 16 States
to pay for lost ticket sales
42% more 30km+ rail trips made in
July 2022 than July 2019
17% of users switched to public
transport this month
Germany's coalition government
had decided to lower fuel tax for drivers for three months in response to
soaring energy costs - and Mr Scholz came under pressure from within his own
ranks to do something to help those who used public transport too. But of
course, there were hopes, particularly among the Green politicians in the
coalition, that the cheap ticket might trigger a change in habits too. They've
been encouraged by the response of people such as Barbara, who was struggling
with a bike trailer and her two young sons as the family waited for a train to
the Baltic Sea. They'd decided to leave what she described as the family's
gas-guzzling people carrier behind. "The cheap tickets meant we could make
the greener choice," she said. It's not yet entirely clear whether or to
what extent Barbara represents the rest of the population.According to the
German Transport Association, the scheme will have led to a reduction of 1.8m
tonnes in CO2 emissions. But the calculation - based in part on research which
suggests the cheap ticket had lured
people to use public transport, rather than their cars for the first time - has
been disputed by some experts. Nevertheless, as commuters brace themselves for
a more expensive autumn - the fuel tax reduction also ends on 1 September -
there are all manner of suggestions being discussed about how to replace the €9
ticket. Most proposals centre on a monthly ticket for a fixed price.
Many would welcome that, if only
because, like the €9 ticket, it would replace Germany's confusing and
complicated fare system. The scheme earned Germany's coalition government
political points with voters, but the subsequent dithering over what do once it
ends risks alienating them again.And despite many calls for an extension, no
replacement is expected to come as cheap as the one enjoyed by Germans this summer.
^ I’ve used Germany’s confusing Ticket
System (when I lived in Germany as well as when I was there as a Tourist.) Hopefully,
they can now make a system that makes sense. ^
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