Germany hopes to help climate with €49-a-month travel card
- Ticket holders get unlimited travel on all city buses, subways and trams in every municipality across Germany
- It follows the successful ‘€9 ticket’ trial for three months last summer that encouraged people to ditch their cars
Germany launched on Monday a new flat-rate public transport ticket valid across the country, but the €49 (US$54) price point has raised doubts about the pass’s potential impact.
Touting the monthly pass as a “revolution”, policymakers hope it will bring some relief for consumers amid soaring inflation, and encourage people to favour mass transit in the name of the environment.
The “Deutschlandticket” offers unlimited access to Germany’s bus and metro systems, as well as local and regional trains – with only long-distance high-speed services not included.
Transport Minister Volker Wissing was quick to call the new initiative “the biggest public transport reform in German history”, but the pass’s success is far from assured.
The association of German transport companies (VDV) expects 16 million of the country’s 84 million inhabitants to take up the offer. Roughly 750,000 tickets have been sold already, without counting people who will switch over from their current transport subscriptions.
How to finance the new policy was the subject of months of debate, delaying the roll-out of the ticket.