05/22/2022 11:19 (act 05/22/2022 11:19)
In Germany, train travel is becoming significantly cheaper ©APA/dpa
From Monday, the nine-euro ticket is available on Deutsche Bahn and many German transport associations – already over the weekend, many people showed great interest in the heavily discounted monthly pass, which aims to relieve consumers of the costs which are currently increasing in general. In Hamburg, where the HVV was one of the first transport associations to start selling online on Friday, tens of thousands of tickets have already been sold.
In the first 24 hours after sales began, 56,000 nine-euro tickets were ordered in Hamburg via the Hamburger Verkehrsverbund app and online store, as reported by “Bild am Sonntag”. Service point numbers are not included. In Berlin, too, the transport company BVG had already started selling on Friday.
The ticket is available from Monday at the Munich transport and fare association MVV, as well as at large transport associations in the most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia or, for example, at the transport association Rhein-Main RMV. Deutsche Bahn is also offering the €9 monthly ticket for local public transport from Monday.
The ticket is available for the period from June to August. It allows the national use of all local public transport, such as regular buses, metro and regional trains for nine euros each per calendar month. The specific project is in the hands of the federal states and municipalities, as they are responsible for public transport.
On Friday, the Federal Council released the ticket, which is part of the federal government’s measures to help consumers. The ticket is also intended to convince more people of greener bus and train travel – but it also highlights the general conditions of local public transport and public transport funding.
The criticisms were voiced over the weekend by the president of the German District Association, Reinhard Sager (CDU). “Again, billions are being paid for consumer spending like there’s no tomorrow,” he told Germany’s editorial network newspapers on Saturday. More urgent than the nine-euro ticket, however, investment funds are needed for municipal infrastructure, said Sager, who is the district administrator for Ostholstein.
The leader of the left parliamentary group Dietmar Bartsch has spoken out in favor of the fact that there should be significantly cheaper public transport beyond the three months. “The nine-euro ticket must be valid at least until the end of the year,” he told Berlin’s Tagesspiegel.