Common questions
Status: 01/28/2023 05:41
The 49-euro ticket starts on May 1 and is valid for local and regional transport. However, not all details have been clarified yet. What is known – and what is not yet.
How should the ticket work?
On May 1st, the “Deutschlandticket” will start as a cancelable monthly subscription for 49 euros. It applies nationally to buses and trains in local and regional transport. The ticket will be sold earlier, namely from April 3rd.
The transport of bicycles, dogs and children can be regulated differently depending on the region.
Individual federal states are also planning to offer the 49 euro ticket to people with low incomes or young people at a lower price, such as Bremen, Hesse or Saarland. Across the country, the Paritätische Gesamtverband and the Federal Association of Consumer Centers, among others, called for a social tariff, as the poor would not benefit from the planned “Germany ticket”.
Should the ticket also be available on paper?
According to information from ARD capital studio, there should be a solution here, but the details are not known. But there definitely should be a digital ticket.
According to the plans of Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing, the ticket was originally going to be sold digitally only. But there has been criticism of this, for example, from transport companies: Not all of them are able to offer purely digital tickets anymore.
The federal states also argued that not everyone is digitally adept or has a smartphone to be able to buy a paperless ticket. These people would then be excluded.
Will there also be a work ticket?
Yes, the “Deutschlandticket” will also be available as a job ticket. The federal and state governments agreed that companies can buy the ticket five percent cheaper if they pass on to employees a discount of at least 25 percent.
Can anything still go wrong?
The legal framework has not yet been definitively clarified. In order for the 49 euro ticket to arrive safely, the EU Commission must agree – it is still examining.
In addition, some laws need to be changed for admission, which requires the approval of the Federal Council. According to previous information, he should decide this coming Tuesday.
Who pays for all this?
Financial details are not yet known. One thing is certain: the ticket will be more expensive than before for the countries responsible for local transport. Therefore, according to previous information, the federal government wants to bear more than half of these additional costs in the first year.
In the following years, however, there was still no regulation. Likewise, there are no regulations on how the revenue from the 49 euro ticket should be distributed among the various transport companies.
In addition, the federal government has increased its local transport subsidies, the so-called regionalization funds, to the federal states and is paying them another billion euros. However, Bremen had already demanded a further €1.5 billion so that the federal states would not miss their climate targets in transit.
Buses and trains in Germany are chronically short of money. According to information from the sector, the sale of tickets only covers about half of the costs, the rest is covered by the public purse.