Funding approved: €49 ticket comes in Germany

In mid-October, federal and state transport ministers approved in principle a €49 ticket as a successor to a €9 summer ticket. Financial questions were still open. German Transport Minister Volker Wessing (FDP) said the goal should be to offer a €49 ticket on January 1.

The Minister of Transport for Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Hermann, doubted that the €49 ticket would come in January. The Green Party politician told the Neue Berliner Redaktionsgesellschaft (NBR) partner newspapers that it may not come until March 1 or April 1. Implementation is complex. The state’s share of 1.5 billion euros must be included in the state budgets. In the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, Hermann also noted that machines must be converted, fee systems modified, and commission decisions taken.

Cheaper than a climate ticket

The €9 ticket, purchased millions of times, allowed bus and train travel in Germany for one month in June, July and August. German transport ministers are planning a two-year preliminary stage for a €49 successor. From the second year, the ticket may be expensive. “Dynamic” was planned in the form of automatic inflation compensation.

With an annual cost of 588 euros, the “German ticket” will be much cheaper than the “Klimaticket Ö” introduced in Austria last year, which costs 1095 euros. However, the latter also applies to long-distance transportation within Austria.