35 ms·

9-Euro-Ticket

875 points by _Microft 4y ago

russianGuy83829 4y ago
they should rather subsidize heat pumps to replace aging gas heating systems prevalent in the 1960s homes here. Would help to reduce energy dependency on russia
qwertox 4y ago
I think it's great, but honestly, placing it at 15€ would have made only a little difference to the consumer, who is already getting a lot for the value, and helped the railway operators a good deal. As a compromise the age of kids who can travel together with their parents for free could have been raised from 6 to 8 years.
- Shadonototra 4y ago
  > I think it's great, but honestly, placing it at 15€ would have made only a little difference The ticket exist to relieve citizens due to rising energy costs What a nice idea to double the price! i suggest to triple it, so they can make even more profits! Wait, i suggest aligning it to the cost of a similar travel with a car! Are you american by chance? https://www.stoag.de/en/dialog/neuigkeiten/detail/9-euro-ticket.html https://www.stoag.de/en/dialog/neuigkeiten/detail/9-euro-tic... > We support the idea of the traffic light coalition to temporarily relieve not only drivers, but also the millions of public transport commuters in their mobility costs. It is a clear signal for local public transport as an efficient, climate-friendly and already inexpensive alternative to the car. The industry is working on a technical and entrepreneurial solution in the interests of passengers. The ticket is to be launched nationwide on June 1st.
  - mtmail 4y ago
    > Are you american by chance? That was unneccessary. _Microft shared several German news articles in the past.
    - darrenf 4y ago
      Surely the question was aimed at @qwertox, not @_Microft?
    - _Microft 4y ago
      I don't think that the message was addressed at me but I agree that it was unnecessarily personal. You inferred my nationality correctly btw ;)
      - GavinMcG 4y ago
        I'm an American who has lived in Germany, and it didn't seem like a personal attack to me. It's a reasonable thing to wonder when someone espouses a profits-first view in response to a social program.
        _Microft 4y ago
        OK, I hadn't considered that. Thanks for the perspective!
  - tut-urut-utut 4y ago
    > Wait, i suggest aligning it to the cost of a similar travel with a car! I would wish they actually align their normal prices with a car. It's absurd that it's cheaper for two people to travel from Karlsruhe to Frankfurt by car, than to take an ICE train. And that applies to almost any train connection inside a Germany. No wonder people like their cars here.
    - lbriner 4y ago
      Same in the UK although unfortunately, the per-person cost is roughly linear on the railway and not in a car that will only need slightly more fuel per extra person. I guess the only way round this is that the per-person cost should be so much cheaper on the train that a car only makes sense with, say, 4 passengers. The thing is, most people already own the car so they don't consider tax/servicing as part of the cost of travel whereas on a train, this is all added to the ticket and the servicing is pretty extreme on the railways.
    - freeflight 4y ago
      The secret is to order your ticket ahead of the travel and not to go for flex tickets, that way it's possible to get a massive discount and even travel first class ICE very affordably. For example, Nürnberg - Berlin can cost up to 127€ for second class ticket, if you buy the ticket the same day you need it. Buy the ticket, for the same connection, 2 weeks in advance, and suddenly its only 39,90€ for second class and 53,90€ for first class.
  - qwertox 4y ago
    As an example, the 1-month-ticket for Stuttgart for two zones is 92,20€ [0]. For those affected by inflation, the reduction from 90 to 15€ would already be noticeable, the additional 6€ would be neglectible to the consumer in comparison to the already offered discount (not to mention that these new tickets can be used in the entire country). And those who will now leave their car in the garage will probably be saving even more. At least in my case it was always cheaper to use public transport to go to the city, at least if I also considered the parking cost. This for a 1-day ticket, which already costs a bit over 6€. [0] https://www.vvs.de/tickets/zeittickets-abo-polygo/monatsticket-jedermann/ https://www.vvs.de/tickets/zeittickets-abo-polygo/monatstick...
    - drakonka 4y ago
      Why? Presumably they took into account their own financial situation when setting this price. Why would you want an organization to try and claw a few _more_ euros out of people when they've already agreed on 9€? I guess I just don't understand where you're coming from in terms of the purpose of this suggestion.
  - wwwwasmistake 4y ago
    Maybe this time it's because of rising energy cost, but I remember there was very same deal for short time, little more than 10 years ago when I was visiting there. If one feels adventurous, I can highly recommend buying this ticket.
  - Tenoke 4y ago
    >What a nice idea to double the price! i suggest to triple it, so they can make even more profits! Pretty sure they wouldn't be making any profit at 15e or 27e either.
- WA 4y ago
  Exactly the opposite. It should've been 0€, because then you: * don't have to sell tickets at all * don't have to check tickets in trains and reduce costs The overhead of selling tickets with the new price points might actually eat up all what's left of profits.
  - k__ 4y ago
    How much does checking tickets cost?
    - sokoloff 4y ago
      As a rule of thumb: anytime you see a human doing a manual task, it's expensive.
    - fridek 4y ago
      Germany has about 1000 railway locomotives operating 40k runs a day. A conductor job pays on average 50k€/yr. Most trains I've seen have more than one conductor, and you need to plan for weekends, shifts, time off, etc. but the lower bound should be easy to agree on 50M€/yr or 12.5M€ for the duration of the program? Then there is the entire infra to sell tickets online, in machines and in person. At the same time there are about 2 million rail customers a day, so the 9€ ticket will bring 18M€. I'd say they probably break even. Math is fun, but the entire point is a bit moot. Germany is a civilised country and if you laid off the entire staff for three summer months with no pay, the union would eat you for breakfast.
      - Tenoke 4y ago
        >Most trains I've seen have more than one conductor At least in Berlin which this covers most trains/buses/trams have 0 people checking and there's a few people going on random ones to occasionally check so the ratio here is probably 1 worker to 50+ vehicles.
      - dagw 4y ago
        Most trains still need conductors even if they're not checking tickets. Having them check tickets when they're already there won't cost anything extra.
- phh 4y ago
  Uh this offer is paid by the railway operators, not by the government?
  - chmod775 4y ago
    No. It's paid for by the government and expected to cost around 2.5 billion EUR. It's part of this: https://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Content/DE/Standardartikel/Themen/Schlaglichter/Entlastungen/schnelle-spuerbare-entlastungen.html https://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Content/DE/Standardar...
    - phh 4y ago
      Thanks. Then I don't understand commenter's "helped the railway operators a good deal"
- archi42 4y ago
  This is a matter of perspective. The ticket is not aimed solely at people with median income of a tech worker (or the typical HN crowd), but help out the general populace as a whole. Including those who can not even afford a car. Now I think when the times comes (3 month from now) for the program to run out, we might see discussions about continuing it at a price that makes it a more sustainable, permanent offer. But that's my opinion speaking (I wouldn't even mind if it was mandatory like back when I was attending university, as long as it is affordable for people with low to lowest incomes).
  - Tenoke 4y ago
    > more sustainable, permanent offer Seems pretty unlikely that they'll be able to after a 3 month period of operating at a loss (for the government) and likely having more issues due to increased usage.
    - archi42 4y ago
      My crystal ball is broken. I think there is a good chance that what you say will happen. But collecting the data in this nation-wide experiment is already quite useful when deciding on future policy. Until now it was always "we believe" or "this doesn't fit our agenda" or "this is socialism". Plus, if it is sufficiently popular and if the obstacles can be identified and overcome, then why not? If the new administration wants to reconnect with the people then employing some positive populism is quite nice. //edit: As I said, I didn't mind paying for the mandatory students ticket (most universities have that), even when I eventually stopped using. I'm in the "make public transportation free" camp, and think this is a good step in that direction; even if we end up with "affordable for all" instead of "free". But as I said, that's opinion, not knowledge.
    - _ph_ 4y ago
      It is a political decision, whether the government wants to pay the costs out of the federal budget. If the government is serious about CO2 reduction and also shifting commute traffic from cars to public transport, this might be an surprisingly cheap option. As the high energy costs also mean increased tax revenue, it might not even be a large load for the budget (and compared to many other things, spending like €10B/year on public transport isn't really much anyway).
- dmurray 4y ago
  Isn't the taxpayer paying the shortfall, rather than the "railway operators"?
  - _ph_ 4y ago
    Right, it is tax-funded. Don't ask me how exactly they assign the tax money to the train companies, but probably they get a fixed amount per ticket sold, which would be another reason why it is important to "sell" those tickets.
mahesh_rm 4y ago
I can't seem to find information on whether it is possible to purchase the ticket as a non German citizen.
- morelisp 4y ago
  Yes it is.
  - b3lvedere 4y ago
    Awesome! I might do some holiday travel :)
- tauchunfall 4y ago
  >People who use local/regional transport will be able to buy it anywhere in Germany via channels such as bahn.de and DB Navigator. It will also be available from DB Reisezentrum (travel centre) staff and ticket machines at stations. Ticket machines can be used without need to identify.
- kuschku 4y ago
  Buying the 9 euro ticket is possible anonymously with cash at any train station, so yeah, you should be able to.
- curiousfab 4y ago
  I couldn't imagine why not. You just to to a ticket machine and buy it, no need for a passport or anything. Enjoy - Sylt is waiting for you, and you'll be there along with a million like-minded people!
  - Bayart 4y ago
    > I couldn't imagine why not. The single market. Refusing to sell to other EU citizens is very illegal.
    - GuB-42 4y ago
Havoc 4y ago
Wild - that gets me barely a days worth of tube travel in london (6.5 EUR a day)
- kilotaras 4y ago
  Yeah, UKs train tickets are ridiculous if you compare it to rest of Europe. And that's not even case of UK just being generally more expensive, e.g. cheapest StAlbans - London (~25 km) yearly pass costs around £4k. About a 1000 pounds more than Switzerland GA travelcard which covers basically any form of public transport in Switzerland.
  - jonatron 4y ago
    Ebbsfleet International - London possibly beats that in cost per mile. £5272 or £6056 with London travelcard for about 20 miles / 32km.
  - Shacklz 4y ago
    As a Swiss GA holder - UK public transport is all privately owned, right? The joys of free market efficiency in "public" transportation - maximum efficiency for the owners/shareholders, minimum efficiency for the people. The Swiss SBB is also again and again under assault to be fully privatized, luckily so far this hasn't happened yet, and I hope it never will...
    - pmyteh 4y ago
      That's complicated: * Buses (outside London): yes. Private and (mostly) deregulated. * Buses (inside London): kinda. Private, but heavily regulated (fares, routes, everything) * Trains (outside London): both. The infrastructure is now public, after the company it was sold to became insolvent and got essentially renationalised by stealth. The companies running the trains are mostly heavily regulated private (some fares, routes, and other things are fixed by their franchise contracts, some fares are flexible). A few companies are 'open access' (private without franchise) and only their routes/timetables are fixed, they can do their own thing with fares and rolling stock. A few places (such as long-distance trains on the East Coast mainline) are run by a subsidiary of the state directly. * Trains (inside London, including the Tube): Infrastructure also public (some run by Network Rail, the national organisation, some by Transport for London). Some services (e.g. the Tube) run directly by TfL, some franchised as nationally. * [Edit: Eurostar runs (lightly regulated) services to France and Belgium via the Channel Tunnel and sets its own fares] The main difference from other countries (except for the insane web of contracts and inter-organisational dependencies) is that the policy of the UK Government is to put the cost of public transport as much as possible on its users rather than subsidising from general taxation. We've had above-inflation rises in the regulated fares nearly every year since privatisation in 1994, for example.
alecco 4y ago
Populism. This will make the country consume more energy. There's a crisis and the solution is saving as much energy as possible. And help companies not go bankrupt. But that doesn't sell...
- iknownothow 4y ago
  Sources for claims? Genuinely curious.
- tauchunfall 4y ago
  It will consume more energy, when they need more trains or train cars. Excluding the energy needed for devices and in the restaurant on board. edit: clearified a sentence.
- mbg721 4y ago
  When is there not a crisis? If you're running a train anyway, the marginal cost of attaching a couple more cars for the extra demand seems pretty small.
  - sascha_sl 4y ago
    Not even that. Most lines are already at maximum capacity, and the number of cars is usually dependent on the shortest platform on the line already. We take this so seriously, any stop, even unplanned, where the doors might open aside from absolute emergencies must be on a platform of sufficient length.
    - poooogles 4y ago
      >Not even that. Most lines are already at maximum capacity, and the number of cars is usually dependent on the shortest platform on the line already. Here in the UK we run trains that are longer than platforms quite frequently. I'm talking about 9 car trains stopping at 2 car platforms here as well, not 9 car trains where the front and rear doors of the first and last carriage don't open.
    - bloak 4y ago
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
throwaway4good 4y ago
Denmark is doing a similar thing ...
- b3lvedere 4y ago
  Soo, i could travel throughout Germany and Denmark for quite cheap?
  - fiber 4y ago
    Kind of, but you'll have to take the scenic route (long distance trains IC/EC/ICE are not included).
  - MandieD 4y ago
    If you’re not in a hurry - it is not valid for the high-speed (ICE) and mid-speed (IC) trains in Germany.
  - sva_ 4y ago
    In Germany, only in regional (slow) traffic (the RE only goes between 100 and max 200 kmh)
- vaylian 4y ago
  Interesting. Do you have a link with more info?
  - throwaway4good 4y ago
    https://www.dsb.dk/kampagner/rejsepass/ https://www.dsb.dk/kampagner/rejsepass/
    - legulere 4y ago
      So like 40€ for 8 consecutive days. That greatly reduces usefulness if you just want to travel to one spot and back.
yccs27 4y ago
Some context is given here: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-introduces-9-ticket-to-offset-the-impact-of-the-ukraine-war/a-61788020 https://www.dw.com/en/germany-introduces-9-ticket-to-offset-... The ticket is part of a support package signed off by the German parliament. The will pay approximately €2.5 billion for the ticket offer, as a response to rising energy prices and the resulting high costs of individual mobility.
- rad_gruchalski 4y ago
  In the meantime I just paid 200% more for heating oil than it cost me one year ago. And I cannot use this public transport offer. But I am contributing to it with my taxes.
  - seoaeu 4y ago
    In other words, your transportation patterns don’t let you reduce your oil use, so you’re doing your part by paying slightly higher taxes to benefit those who can? That doesn’t seem like a bad thing
    - rad_gruchalski 4y ago
      You mean I‘m partially funding their cheap transportation? Where is the money for these cheap tickets coming from? But your comment kinda makes sense. It’s not really worth trying much in Germany. The more one tries, the more one becomes the source of funding for others while not really getting any personal gratification or gain.
      - widerporst 4y ago
        How do you travel and commute? By car? If so, millions of Germans who don't own a care are funding your means of transport.
        rad_gruchalski 4y ago
        I will keep that in mind next time I am staring at the rear of a diesel bus while stuck in traffic.
tosh 4y ago
Imagine something like this for the whole EU.
- bullen 4y ago
  Interrail?
- freemint 4y ago
  Are there cross country but regional rail lines?
  - Mordisquitos 4y ago
    Yes, there are! For example, I have travelled between Strasbourg and Basel (Switzerland) on a regional train, as well as between Milan and Nice, and between Nice and Barcelona (changing trains at the Spanish border due to the change of rail gauge). There's also a regional line connecting Barcelona and Puigcerdà (a town in the Spanish Pyrenees) which at certain times continues its service a further ~5km and terminates in Latour-de-Carol, a tiny village on the French side which is served by French regional services.
    - 2000UltraDeluxe 4y ago
      There are also trains between Denmark and Sweden, and I'd be surprised if there's not similar things going on in the Benelux area.
      - Mordisquitos 4y ago
        True. In fact, that reminded me that I have also taken regional trains between Copenhagen and Malmö.
_0ffh 4y ago
I'm sure the private bus operators, who usually are the only cheap option to travel in Germany, are just thrilled by this additional market distortion.
- kuschku 4y ago
  There’s only one left, all the others went bankrupt, and that one (FlixBus) only offers long-distance journeys, while this ticket only applies to regional trains.
  - freemint 4y ago
    You might be confusing regional bus with long distance bus travel or ride for hire bus companies which will also be impacted.
    - kuschku 4y ago
      Which private regional bus companies or ride for hire bus companies are supposed to exist in Germany? I’m 26, but I’ve never heard or seen of any such company besides the long-distance travel with FlixBus (and formerly PostBus, InterCityBus, etc) The bus companies which operate official lines for Verkehrsverbünde will get paid the same as always, they’re not affected by the 9-Euro-Ticket.
      - rostigerpudel 4y ago
        Did you really never go somewhere on a rented bus when you were in school? You can rent a bus with driver eg. for the company picnic or other touristic activities. However, I fail to see how that business, which usually involves a time constraint and direct point-to-point travels, would be impacted by this kind of ticket.
        kuschku 4y ago
        Not really, we always used the city busses. I know that business exists, but I don’t know any private bus business that’d be affected by this ticket (except, as mentioned, FlixBus)
sva_ 4y ago
Im really curious to what extend this will affect how full/busy regional transit will be. I also wonder what happens to the people who control tickets fulltime. Their job seems pretty pointless when almost everyone has the ticket.
- SomeBoolshit 4y ago
  Likely extremely busy - at least on the inside - because there's essentially no wiggle room in the form of extra vehicles or personnel.
  - _ph_ 4y ago
    If the trains get full enough, you don't even have to pay the 9 euros as no one can control your tickets :p
- bowsamic 4y ago
  It is already at tipping point of fullness without this
  - sva_ 4y ago
    Depends on location
    - bowsamic 4y ago
      Here in Northern Germany it's pretty terrible
      - trumpablehump 4y ago
        Are you referring to one specific connection? Two? Five? A significant fraction?
        bowsamic 4y ago
        3.5 times 4
bowsamic 4y ago
I'm extremely not excited about how insanely rammed the public transportation is going to be for the next three months Already here in Hamburg the busses are not at all empty!
- sascha_sl 4y ago
  And I can't wait for the usual politicians from FDP and Union to draw the conclusion that free or cheaper public transport will forever be unfeasible, not that we need to invest more into the rail network.
  - bowsamic 4y ago
    Here in Hamburg it's really the busses that get overwhelmed. The S-Bahn and U-Bahn are rarely overly full compared to the busses.
    - sascha_sl 4y ago
      I'm from the south of Hamburg. The lines served by Metronom are probably the most tightly scheduled around. They don't even have time to stop at the terminus most of the time, so they carry delays forward throughout the entire day. The reason no S-Bahn goes far south is also that Dostos can still carry more people despite the slow acceleration/breaking.
    - rawbot 4y ago
      And public transport here is so expensive. For a return trip, it is cheaper, and faster, to take a car (both petrol and parking costs). The only thing that taking public transport saves you is the hassle of traffic (so you can do something else on your ride), and parking, which can be real bad in some areas of the city. The S-Bahn and U-bahn are usually only crowded on peak hours (2 or 3 hour intervals in the morning and evening).
- dx034 4y ago
  If there's such an uptick in demand it would show that price was what kept people from using public transport. In that case I'm sure there will be a lot of pressure to make travel more affordable. So far, many claimed that a lack of availability was the reason public transport wasn't used more. I guess the next three months are a good way to validate that.
RGamma 4y ago
For comparison: The equivalent, non-subsidised "Quer durchs Land"-Ticket costs 42€ for one person per day (70€ for 5 people per day) -- https://www.bahn.de/angebot/regio/qdl https://www.bahn.de/angebot/regio/qdl
- Freak_NL 4y ago
  There are also the cheaper Landestickets which offer the same, but limited to one (or two) Bundesland and usually starting from €25. Those offer good value for tourists exploring a region too (in the absence of this €9 ticket).
- freeflight 4y ago
  Wow, that has gotten expensive. I still remember when the similar "Wochenendticket" cost like 20€ and would even allow to bring along some extra people, tho that was like 20 years ago.
- lispm 4y ago
  That ticket is not equivalent. That ticket is only for Deutsche Bahn and similar. OTOH, the 9-Euro-Ticket is for all (!) local transport (incl. bus, ferry, ...) and regional trains. That means here in Hamburg I can use all bus, underground train and ferry connections. It's also all month, 24hours/day.
MandieD 4y ago
Very important caveat for all of you who are thinking, “woo hoo, no need to buy that EuRail pass! Or to buy an expensive ICE ticket!” These tickets are good for all “Nah- und Regionalverkehr,” explicitly excluding ICE, IC, EC (international) and long-distance busses (like the one between Munich and Zürich) If the train number begins with RE or RB, you’re good, but of course, those are the slow ones that stop in every village along the way. This is for the benefit of people who live here and are struggling with 2 EUR/liter fuel, not the kind of people who blithely paid 60 EUR to take the ICE. There does not appear to be any residency requirement, but remember, you’re not the target market for this (unless you live here and are struggling with fuel prices…)
- butterlesstoast 4y ago
  For all the Americans. Converting from euros to USD and liters to gallons, gas is roughly $12 a gallon at this moment.
  - mbg721 4y ago
    Out of curiosity, for people who live in small towns/villages in Germany, how much driving is expected on a typical day? Most Americans commute about half an hour, twice a day, right?
    - soco 4y ago
      Not German, I live in a Swiss village and drive zero km a day. But I spend almost an hour/leg in public transport traveling door-to-door to the office when I go there (well, before covid much more often). I can also work in the train most of the time - 45 minutes of said hour - so that it counts as work time too. So, no reason to drive at all. I only take the car at weekends for doing shopping or doing some visits, even then not always.
      - mbg721 4y ago
        The reason I ask is that there's a stereotype that German-speaking Europeans especially all go everywhere with hyper-efficient trains that come every three minutes and are only a little bit less on-time than the ones in Japan, and that can't actually be true out in the countryside.
Escapado 4y ago
I would argue making it free and keeping it free would have been a cool move. - Less/no expensive accounting - Less/no personnel for checking tickets - Less/no personnel for prosecuting people who don't have tickets - Less/no ticket vending machines (and all the maintenance that comes with it) - Less traffic on the roads since you can't beat "free" and hence less emissions (at least in hamburg trains operate on green energy) and less wear on the roads (might be offset by the wear on trains and busses) - Fully non-discriminant with respect to income I have no idea if that would work for inter-city transport but for inner-city transport the HVV for example (the public transportation network responsible for hamburg and surrounding areas) sells 30 million tickets a year and I wonder how much it truly costs them to do that with all the relevant factors mentioned above.
- aloe_falsa 4y ago
  At least in Berlin, they tried to introduce a free ticket. It failed due to organizational reasons: https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/open-mind/scheitert-jetzt-auch-das-neun-euro-ticket-li.228544 https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/open-mind/scheitert-jetzt-au...
- jacobr1 4y ago
  > I have no idea if that would work for inter-city transport With inner-city transport, while free would undoubtedly have some marginal impact (and more over time as residential and commute patterns shift) there probably wouldn't be large shifts in use. I suspect for inter-city, you would actually see significantly increased usage, which could outweigh all the benefits cited.
  - soco 4y ago
    Increased usage outweighing the benefits...?? I'm confused by the wording, do you mean that in a good or a bad way?
    - MauranKilom 4y ago
      Probably commenting on local transit networks being generally at capacity during rush hour, which this would not improve. For example, in Munich, there is a ~10% cheaper version of the monthly ticket that is only valid after 9 AM. This kind of incentive shaping falls flat. (That is not to say I object to the new ticket, to be clear.)
april_22 4y ago
The German government did that to compensate for rising gasoline prices. While I think that is in general appreciated by the public, I am not quite sure how many people aged 45 above will use this ticket. They trains will be super crowded this summer and people will just prefer to use their car instead.
- bombcar 4y ago
  "Nobody uses the trains because they're all super crowded" reminds me of the quote ascribed to Yogi Berra, "Nobody goes there! It's too crowded!"
- Hendrikto 4y ago
  Also it is completely useless for people living on the countryside. The nearest train station is a 20 minute drive away from where I live, so this does nothing for me. Still better than nothing, I guess.
  - jona-f 4y ago
    Afaik regional buses are included in this ticket. I do not know any villages that don't even have those at least once a day.
    - Hendrikto 4y ago
      Again: What good does a once-a-day bus do villagers? It‘s useless for commuting, it‘s useless for doing errands.
  - foepys 4y ago
    Over 75% of Germans live in cities or towns which overwhelmingly have reliable bus transit at least at daytime. Those remaining <25% are not really important here and can still use their cars.
    - rad_gruchalski 4y ago
      > Over 75% of Germans live in cities Unrelated to this topic but that explains why Germans are so eager to remove forest in order to build windmills. People in the city obviously don’t notice it anyway.
jdhzzz 4y ago
Who-hoo, let's all go to the summer long super-spreader event.
- jona-f 4y ago
  Covid is currently not a big issue in Germany. Even so restrictions are lifted and most people don't care at all anymore about protection, the numbers are going down.
  - Bigpet 4y ago
    Numbers are still significantly higher than Winter 2020/21. So with lessening restrictions this winter is poised to set another record (for infections at least, deaths might not be as high as last year). People don't care, true. But that's about feeling, not about numbers or facts.
    - foepys 4y ago
      Hospitals have next to no cases in my region. 500/100.000 people tested positive over the last 7 days with probably times 3 more infected due to no mandatory testing. Only a combined 2 people (both over 80) are in the 5 hospitals with only one being intubated. That's nothing, really.
Reason077 4y ago
I wish they would restore stopover functionality on the international booking site (https://www.international-bahn.de/ https://www.international-bahn.de/). I remember back when you could book a London to Berlin fare (for example) with Eurostar included, with stopovers up to 48 hours along the way. Amazing value for tourists - often you could visit multiple Belgian/German cities for not much more than what the Eurostar fare would cost alone. The standard bahn.de site still allows stopovers, but since the pandemic you can no longer book Eurostar segments through it. Sad face.
sdevonoes 4y ago
Why don't they make this for the whole year?
- _Microft 4y ago
  It is meant to temporarily ease the burden of risen energy prices. (Car users are going to get a lower tax on gas soon.) A quarter of a year might be enough already to find out how much demand for low cost public transport there actually is. I consider it an useful experiment at this point.
kappuchino 4y ago
For anyone wondering why 9€? Not 10€ or 15€ or ... - its consistent with 101 consumer psychology. First: Its not free, its subsidized by the state. Free would suggest for some "not worth it". Not you, most likely, but this is why some free offers are not taken (seriously). If you want to see what free does, look for the Luxemburg experient: https://www.mobiliteit.lu/en/tickets/free-transport/ https://www.mobiliteit.lu/en/tickets/free-transport/ Second: Higher price point would make a difference for less subsidy payments for the state, but the psychology is "not even 10 bucks". I know that some will argue that 10 Euros will be hard for low income/poor/out of the system people - but again, this is seen as an experiment and a simple message. The data from the usage will help to understand how one can/might change public transportation on a grand scale. Third: Its during the summer holidays. People with children in school have to book vacation during that time and so the traffic volume in every year before was less than usual on average. In reverse, a lot of people are on the autobahn and the high speed trains on the first and last days of each school holiday, which are different in each federal state.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 4y ago
  Sweden does something similar, they offer unlimited regional rail passes for 1-2 month period during the summer - theirs are quite a bit more expensive than this though. I think closer to 100-150 euro for 2 months if I remember correctly.
  - felurx 4y ago
    I think most federal states in Germany have regional tickets for students for the summer vacations. It's probably going to vary a good bit, but here in BW it's 25~30€ for the ~1.5 months.
- rad_gruchalski 4y ago
  > First: Its not free, its subsidized by the state. „The state“ doesn’t have its „own money“. It is subsided by the taxpayer.
  - Aperocky 4y ago
Ekaros 4y ago
Hmm, so social distancing is truly gone and they don't fear this action massively spreading the COVID virus?
- Tenoke 4y ago
  FFP2 mask are still mandatory on public transport (at least in Berlin) but generally nobody is concerned anymore, and even less so for the Summer.
- netsharc 4y ago
  Feels like the European governments' (I generalize...) thinking is, the vaccine is available, it's good enough, and Omicron is "not that bad" anyway, so, if you don't want to get vaccinated, it's on you, but let's get on with our lives...
  - avianlyric 4y ago
    The EU has a 78% vaccination rate and a 52% booster rate. Mask usage in public places is generally very high. The EU never turned vaccination and masks into divisive political and cultural issue. All of this compares very favourable to the US where vaccination is 65% and boosters are 31%. Plus vaccination, mask usage and lockdowns became deeply decisive topics, substantially reducing the effectiveness of all of them. In the end it’s place the US in bad spot for resolving the the pandemic quickly.
    - rawbot 4y ago
      > Mask usage in public places is generally very high. Not anymore. In Hamburg, nobody wears a mask, even in the supermarkets in the busiest hours, even though during the big pandemic spikes almost everybody wore it properly.
- Scarblac 4y ago
  It's summer, everybody who wants to has three or even four vaccinations, most people have already had it on top of that, it's safe to say that Covid doesn't spread massively here at the moment. Maybe another wave with a new variant or in autumn, but it'll most likely be mild as omicron is and there is so much resistance built up now. So for all practical purposes, Covid is over at the moment.
franciscop 4y ago
When it gets crowded in Tokyo trains you are literally pushed against each other, back to front people against people, specially bad in summer where the aircon cannot keep up. That's only at 9am normally though, and so I do not consider jobs that make me be in the office at that time (9:30~10 is an order of magnitude better). WFH has been a blessing to Tokyo. So it was funny when I visited my sister in a rural town in England, and there was a festival so we took the bus to get there. It was obvious the bus was more crowded than usual, and people were grumpy, but from my point of view it was almost empty; people were within an arm's distance from each other, which for the locals probably used to less than half the people that was very crowded. I wonder if the same will happen on the trains in Germany. Japan is used to this though, and they have powerful ventilation and aircon systems to alleviate the situation in summer.
- april_22 4y ago
  People in Germany are typically not very contact friendly and since COVID it got way worse. People here rather stand than sit next to a stranger, sometimes even across. The trains will be beyond crowded this summer (especially the ones going to the sea), so it will be interesting to watch how people will react. I think though the ticket will mainly be used by younger people which are typically more open to this.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - paganel 4y ago
    If the recent street scenes in Frankfurt are anything to go by I'd say people will be just fine, as long as there will be something to celebrate/look forward to :) (either a fantastic football win, like in Frankfurt, or waiting to get to the seaside, like in your example).
- goodpoint 4y ago
  Don't you know that there are seats on long-distance trains? Unless people start sitting on each other's lap the aircon capacity is not going to be exceeded.
wafriedemann 4y ago
Socialism is COOL
I_am_tiberius 4y ago
I know DB is owned by the state but I'm anyway interested in whether the difference to the original price is subsidized by the state. Or if it's just a special offer that allows them to cover expenses.
- germanier 4y ago
  The federal state will pay 2.5 billion euro to the 16 states which in turn are responsible to compensate operators (or whoever actually receives the fare for the journey - this might be someone else) for the lost revenue.
amarant 4y ago
This is awesome! For comparison, a single fare ticket from the Stockholm suburb I live in to city Central costs about €8.70. 9 euros for a whole month seems like a dream!
- lom 4y ago
  for 3 months*
  - freeflight 4y ago
    It's 9€ per month and the ticket will be available for 3 months.
- rawbot 4y ago
  It's only a temporary measure. We would be ecstatic if it was permanent. Alas, it is not.
amin 4y ago
In Luxembourg, all public transport is free for everyone. I was just there, and as a tourist, it saved me a lot of hassle not needing to figure out where and how to buy which ticket. Jump hop on any train, bus or tram :). And yes, I understand why this wouldn't work well in other countries.
- swarnie 4y ago
  While interesting, it doesn't seem like a fair comparison. Luxembourg has more tax evading corporations registered than actual people. I'm sure i can make a public transport system work well for free given those conditions.
- sonar_un 4y ago
  I was there last winter and the free transport was just incredible. Especially for a tourist. On top of all of the busses and trams being super new and clean, it was a dream.
pflenker 4y ago
Traveling through Germany with regional trains was one of my favorite pastimes back in the 90s, but the prices have increased dramatically: The "Wochenendticket, which was valid either on Saturday or Sunday, started in 1995 costing around 11 EUR (inflation-adjusted), and ended costing 40 EUR in 2016 (also inflation-adjusted). I am happy that they are experimenting with bringing it back.
Pete-Codes 4y ago
Giggly - may have to re-think summer plans
xenago 4y ago
This is a really good initiative! I wish the Canadian government would encourage more efficient transport instead of cars.
- The-Bus 4y ago
  This is a great idea for the US as well, if only we had a significant mass transit infrastructure that this could apply to.
throwaway307423 4y ago
[flagged]
- Tenoke 4y ago
  >1. In July and August, pretty much nobody[1] works in Europe >unused capacity What? The Sbahn I would take to the office in Summer 2019 was absolutely packed at peak times when people go to and from work. Also you didn't include that '[1]' reference. Complaining about downvotes is a faux pas. All the hostility and unnecessary mentions of Tesla didn't help either. Edit: Editing to replace the comment with yet another complaint about downvotes isn't a great look either.
- dougmwne 4y ago
  I was entertained, but you didn't exactly add much to the conversation. I hope you typed this from your Tesla touchscreen doing 190 on the Autobahn.
unjustified 4y ago
These are going to be wild chaos days. https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/politik-gesellschaft/chaostage-wie-linke-aktivisten-mit-dem-9-euro-ticket-die-insel-sylt-stuermen-wollen-li.229003 https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/politik-gesellschaft/chaosta...
- k8sToGo 4y ago
  This is why we can't have nice things.
  - Cockbrand 4y ago
    Mainly, IMHO, sensationalist "journalism" like this is much more of a reason why we can't have nice things, compared to the actual event predicted (which likely isn't going to happen, at least not to the extent described).
MarkusWandel 4y ago
This is fantastic. Despite the warnings to not count on it, these local trains generally will transport your bicycle. So you can go for a bike ride some distance from your home location (or from your home location and return by train if you don't feel like riding back). Practically for free.
- mariusor 4y ago
  When you take your bicycle on public transport usually you require a special ticket for it.
- 0x008 4y ago
  On Regional Trains need to go into the special bicycle compartment, also on S-Bahn. On Subways, Buses, and Trams you might not be allowed to take a bicycle at all depending on the city’s regulations. Regardless of that, you will always need to buy a special bicycle ticket. In fact same goes for dogs. So this 9€ ticket will be really useless for dog owners since they need to pay normal ticket prices for every fare for the dog.
paganel 4y ago
Hopefully this measure will persist even when (and if) inflation goes back to "normal" levels back again, imo heavily subsidised public transport is the way to go if we want to reduce car use. Asking people for a lot more money in order to decrease the regular use of their cars (either through higher gas prices or forcing them to purchase relatively expensive newer EVs) is really not fair if you don't offer something in return.
seu 4y ago
For comparison, in Berlin the monthly ticket for the A-B zones (does not reach the airport) costs €86, and a 4-ticket pack €9.40. A €9 monthly ticket is an insane bargain, even if you only plan on using public transport within the city. (source: https://www.bvg.de/de/tickets-und-tarife https://www.bvg.de/de/tickets-und-tarife)
- hansel_der 4y ago
  might even be cheap enough to make them fare dodgers reconsider
hit8run 4y ago
The idea behind it is to keep the idiots commuting just to sit down in the wage cage 9000. It’s for three months only btw and just a trick to improve acceptance of the new German Poverty caused by very bad political decisions.
lispm 4y ago
Keep in mind that this is the website from Deutsche Bahn, which operates a lot of trains, regional trains and local trains. But not every public transport is from Deutsche Bahn. The 9-Euro-Ticket is valid for all public local transport, too - not just for the Deutsche Bahn. The ticket is for local transport operators, too. One can also buy the ticket there. A subscription ticket will be automatically converted. One can for example buy it at the local Verkehrsverbund (transit district), which here serves in Hamburg several million people with all kinds of regional trains, city trains, underground trains, busses, ferries, ... Thus one can use all (!!!) local and regional public transport for 9 Euro for a month, 24 hours a day, for all of Germany, for all public transport operators. The is done for three months, each month costs 9 Euro.
jgehrcke 4y ago
The login system of the Bahn app amd website is experiencing issues right now -- wonder if it has to do with HN peak traffic, hm :).
javajosh 4y ago
Heck even if you're just going to move around a single City at a time this is a great deal. Ubahn and Sbahn tix are quite pricey a la carte!
dubswithus 4y ago
Unfortunately, it's going to be really hard for my wife to get a schengen visa. The appointments are already full.
mvexel 4y ago
Very cool. Reminds me of the "Wochenende-ticket" DB sold in the 90s. It was something like 30DM and was good for travel on all regional DB trains for up to 5 people. I used it with a group of friends to travel to Berlin from The Netherlands in 1993. I was a bit of a rail geek (still am, I guess) and had purchased a "Kursbuch" on a previous trip to Germany. This was a 2000 or so page, 3 pound book that contained all the timetables for all German trains. We pored over the timetables for hours to find an optimal route from the closest German border station to Berlin. I remember it being relatively few trains, something like Bad Bentheim - Osnabrueck - Bielefeld - Kassel - Dessau (!) - Berlin. It was a fun trip, lots of people were traveling long distance on local trains and Berlin attracted very...interesting people at that time. After arriving in Berlin we sold our ticket, which was still good for another day, for 15DM.
- flobosg 4y ago
  DB was still selling those tickets (as Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket) until 2019.
  - mvexel 4y ago
    I think that was what it was actually called back then too! Interesting that it's lived on all that time.
partiallypro 4y ago
I assume this doesn't apply to urban rails like the MVV in Munich, etc. Has to be DB operated.
- q3k 4y ago
  It does.
locallost 4y ago
For comparison, the federal government is dead bent on building additional 4.1km of highway through Berlin that is estimated to cost over 500 million. And the critics say it will balloon to billions since the estimate is 10 years old anyway. So basically millions of people will ride the train for three months for almost free, and the cost will be in the same ball park as 4km of one highway.
- 0x008 4y ago
  Also it is really ridiculous because it goes straight through a rather central part of the city, removing old construction and very close to where a lot of people live in an attractive part of the city. Instead they could build it a couple kilometers further out to still connect the ring, the distance in drive time would probably be less than 5 minutes. But they stick to stupid plans they made 10 years ago like they always do in this city.
  - locallost 4y ago
    The city doesn't want it, the federal government is pushing for it. Probably because the person in charge is a free market theologist from FDP so he wants to spend as much tax money as possible to have as little impact as possible. Wait, that doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's what's happening.
aspyct 4y ago
Nice! And here I am in Belgium, stuck with the SNCB/NMBS, a small country where doing a few miles by train takes an hour, the trains are always late, there's no place to sit, and it's expensive. I love Belgium, but not its trains.
lbschenkel 4y ago
The region of Skåne in Sweden has a similar initiative, although not as cheap: a "summer ticket" valid for 3 months that costs ~70 EUR and includes any form of travel in the region. Similar offers exist in the other regions of Sweden. Unfortunately for me who commutes to Copenhagen on a daily basis for work, this offer does not include trips to Denmark (monthly ticket costs ~250 EUR).

875 points by _Microft 4y ago

they should rather subsidize heat pumps to replace aging gas heating systems prevalent in the 1960s homes here. Would help to reduce energy dependency on russia

qwertox 4y ago

I think it's great, but honestly, placing it at 15€ would have made only a little difference to the consumer, who is already getting a lot for the value, and helped the railway operators a good deal. As a compromise the age of kids who can travel together with their parents for free could have been raised from 6 to 8 years.

Shadonototra 4y ago
> I think it's great, but honestly, placing it at 15€ would have made only a little difference The ticket exist to relieve citizens due to rising energy costs What a nice idea to double the price! i suggest to triple it, so they can make even more profits! Wait, i suggest aligning it to the cost of a similar travel with a car! Are you american by chance? https://www.stoag.de/en/dialog/neuigkeiten/detail/9-euro-ticket.html https://www.stoag.de/en/dialog/neuigkeiten/detail/9-euro-tic... > We support the idea of the traffic light coalition to temporarily relieve not only drivers, but also the millions of public transport commuters in their mobility costs. It is a clear signal for local public transport as an efficient, climate-friendly and already inexpensive alternative to the car. The industry is working on a technical and entrepreneurial solution in the interests of passengers. The ticket is to be launched nationwide on June 1st.
- mtmail 4y ago
  > Are you american by chance? That was unneccessary. _Microft shared several German news articles in the past.
  - darrenf 4y ago
    Surely the question was aimed at @qwertox, not @_Microft?
  - _Microft 4y ago
    I don't think that the message was addressed at me but I agree that it was unnecessarily personal. You inferred my nationality correctly btw ;)
    - GavinMcG 4y ago
      I'm an American who has lived in Germany, and it didn't seem like a personal attack to me. It's a reasonable thing to wonder when someone espouses a profits-first view in response to a social program.
      - _Microft 4y ago
        OK, I hadn't considered that. Thanks for the perspective!
- tut-urut-utut 4y ago
  > Wait, i suggest aligning it to the cost of a similar travel with a car! I would wish they actually align their normal prices with a car. It's absurd that it's cheaper for two people to travel from Karlsruhe to Frankfurt by car, than to take an ICE train. And that applies to almost any train connection inside a Germany. No wonder people like their cars here.
  - lbriner 4y ago
    Same in the UK although unfortunately, the per-person cost is roughly linear on the railway and not in a car that will only need slightly more fuel per extra person. I guess the only way round this is that the per-person cost should be so much cheaper on the train that a car only makes sense with, say, 4 passengers. The thing is, most people already own the car so they don't consider tax/servicing as part of the cost of travel whereas on a train, this is all added to the ticket and the servicing is pretty extreme on the railways.
  - freeflight 4y ago
    The secret is to order your ticket ahead of the travel and not to go for flex tickets, that way it's possible to get a massive discount and even travel first class ICE very affordably. For example, Nürnberg - Berlin can cost up to 127€ for second class ticket, if you buy the ticket the same day you need it. Buy the ticket, for the same connection, 2 weeks in advance, and suddenly its only 39,90€ for second class and 53,90€ for first class.
- qwertox 4y ago
  As an example, the 1-month-ticket for Stuttgart for two zones is 92,20€ [0]. For those affected by inflation, the reduction from 90 to 15€ would already be noticeable, the additional 6€ would be neglectible to the consumer in comparison to the already offered discount (not to mention that these new tickets can be used in the entire country). And those who will now leave their car in the garage will probably be saving even more. At least in my case it was always cheaper to use public transport to go to the city, at least if I also considered the parking cost. This for a 1-day ticket, which already costs a bit over 6€. [0] https://www.vvs.de/tickets/zeittickets-abo-polygo/monatsticket-jedermann/ https://www.vvs.de/tickets/zeittickets-abo-polygo/monatstick...
  - drakonka 4y ago
    Why? Presumably they took into account their own financial situation when setting this price. Why would you want an organization to try and claw a few _more_ euros out of people when they've already agreed on 9€? I guess I just don't understand where you're coming from in terms of the purpose of this suggestion.
- wwwwasmistake 4y ago
  Maybe this time it's because of rising energy cost, but I remember there was very same deal for short time, little more than 10 years ago when I was visiting there. If one feels adventurous, I can highly recommend buying this ticket.
- Tenoke 4y ago
  >What a nice idea to double the price! i suggest to triple it, so they can make even more profits! Pretty sure they wouldn't be making any profit at 15e or 27e either.
WA 4y ago
Exactly the opposite. It should've been 0€, because then you: * don't have to sell tickets at all * don't have to check tickets in trains and reduce costs The overhead of selling tickets with the new price points might actually eat up all what's left of profits.
- k__ 4y ago
  How much does checking tickets cost?
  - sokoloff 4y ago
    As a rule of thumb: anytime you see a human doing a manual task, it's expensive.
  - fridek 4y ago
    Germany has about 1000 railway locomotives operating 40k runs a day. A conductor job pays on average 50k€/yr. Most trains I've seen have more than one conductor, and you need to plan for weekends, shifts, time off, etc. but the lower bound should be easy to agree on 50M€/yr or 12.5M€ for the duration of the program? Then there is the entire infra to sell tickets online, in machines and in person. At the same time there are about 2 million rail customers a day, so the 9€ ticket will bring 18M€. I'd say they probably break even. Math is fun, but the entire point is a bit moot. Germany is a civilised country and if you laid off the entire staff for three summer months with no pay, the union would eat you for breakfast.
    - Tenoke 4y ago
      >Most trains I've seen have more than one conductor At least in Berlin which this covers most trains/buses/trams have 0 people checking and there's a few people going on random ones to occasionally check so the ratio here is probably 1 worker to 50+ vehicles.
    - dagw 4y ago
      Most trains still need conductors even if they're not checking tickets. Having them check tickets when they're already there won't cost anything extra.
phh 4y ago
Uh this offer is paid by the railway operators, not by the government?
- chmod775 4y ago
  No. It's paid for by the government and expected to cost around 2.5 billion EUR. It's part of this: https://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Content/DE/Standardartikel/Themen/Schlaglichter/Entlastungen/schnelle-spuerbare-entlastungen.html https://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Content/DE/Standardar...
  - phh 4y ago
    Thanks. Then I don't understand commenter's "helped the railway operators a good deal"
archi42 4y ago
This is a matter of perspective. The ticket is not aimed solely at people with median income of a tech worker (or the typical HN crowd), but help out the general populace as a whole. Including those who can not even afford a car. Now I think when the times comes (3 month from now) for the program to run out, we might see discussions about continuing it at a price that makes it a more sustainable, permanent offer. But that's my opinion speaking (I wouldn't even mind if it was mandatory like back when I was attending university, as long as it is affordable for people with low to lowest incomes).
- Tenoke 4y ago
  > more sustainable, permanent offer Seems pretty unlikely that they'll be able to after a 3 month period of operating at a loss (for the government) and likely having more issues due to increased usage.
  - archi42 4y ago
    My crystal ball is broken. I think there is a good chance that what you say will happen. But collecting the data in this nation-wide experiment is already quite useful when deciding on future policy. Until now it was always "we believe" or "this doesn't fit our agenda" or "this is socialism". Plus, if it is sufficiently popular and if the obstacles can be identified and overcome, then why not? If the new administration wants to reconnect with the people then employing some positive populism is quite nice. //edit: As I said, I didn't mind paying for the mandatory students ticket (most universities have that), even when I eventually stopped using. I'm in the "make public transportation free" camp, and think this is a good step in that direction; even if we end up with "affordable for all" instead of "free". But as I said, that's opinion, not knowledge.
  - _ph_ 4y ago
    It is a political decision, whether the government wants to pay the costs out of the federal budget. If the government is serious about CO2 reduction and also shifting commute traffic from cars to public transport, this might be an surprisingly cheap option. As the high energy costs also mean increased tax revenue, it might not even be a large load for the budget (and compared to many other things, spending like €10B/year on public transport isn't really much anyway).
dmurray 4y ago
Isn't the taxpayer paying the shortfall, rather than the "railway operators"?
- _ph_ 4y ago
  Right, it is tax-funded. Don't ask me how exactly they assign the tax money to the train companies, but probably they get a fixed amount per ticket sold, which would be another reason why it is important to "sell" those tickets.

mahesh_rm 4y ago

I can't seem to find information on whether it is possible to purchase the ticket as a non German citizen.

morelisp 4y ago
Yes it is.
- b3lvedere 4y ago
  Awesome! I might do some holiday travel :)
tauchunfall 4y ago
>People who use local/regional transport will be able to buy it anywhere in Germany via channels such as bahn.de and DB Navigator. It will also be available from DB Reisezentrum (travel centre) staff and ticket machines at stations. Ticket machines can be used without need to identify.
kuschku 4y ago
Buying the 9 euro ticket is possible anonymously with cash at any train station, so yeah, you should be able to.
curiousfab 4y ago
I couldn't imagine why not. You just to to a ticket machine and buy it, no need for a passport or anything. Enjoy - Sylt is waiting for you, and you'll be there along with a million like-minded people!
- Bayart 4y ago
  > I couldn't imagine why not. The single market. Refusing to sell to other EU citizens is very illegal.
  - GuB-42 4y ago

Havoc 4y ago

Wild - that gets me barely a days worth of tube travel in london (6.5 EUR a day)

kilotaras 4y ago
Yeah, UKs train tickets are ridiculous if you compare it to rest of Europe. And that's not even case of UK just being generally more expensive, e.g. cheapest StAlbans - London (~25 km) yearly pass costs around £4k. About a 1000 pounds more than Switzerland GA travelcard which covers basically any form of public transport in Switzerland.
- jonatron 4y ago
  Ebbsfleet International - London possibly beats that in cost per mile. £5272 or £6056 with London travelcard for about 20 miles / 32km.
- Shacklz 4y ago
  As a Swiss GA holder - UK public transport is all privately owned, right? The joys of free market efficiency in "public" transportation - maximum efficiency for the owners/shareholders, minimum efficiency for the people. The Swiss SBB is also again and again under assault to be fully privatized, luckily so far this hasn't happened yet, and I hope it never will...
  - pmyteh 4y ago
    That's complicated: * Buses (outside London): yes. Private and (mostly) deregulated. * Buses (inside London): kinda. Private, but heavily regulated (fares, routes, everything) * Trains (outside London): both. The infrastructure is now public, after the company it was sold to became insolvent and got essentially renationalised by stealth. The companies running the trains are mostly heavily regulated private (some fares, routes, and other things are fixed by their franchise contracts, some fares are flexible). A few companies are 'open access' (private without franchise) and only their routes/timetables are fixed, they can do their own thing with fares and rolling stock. A few places (such as long-distance trains on the East Coast mainline) are run by a subsidiary of the state directly. * Trains (inside London, including the Tube): Infrastructure also public (some run by Network Rail, the national organisation, some by Transport for London). Some services (e.g. the Tube) run directly by TfL, some franchised as nationally. * [Edit: Eurostar runs (lightly regulated) services to France and Belgium via the Channel Tunnel and sets its own fares] The main difference from other countries (except for the insane web of contracts and inter-organisational dependencies) is that the policy of the UK Government is to put the cost of public transport as much as possible on its users rather than subsidising from general taxation. We've had above-inflation rises in the regulated fares nearly every year since privatisation in 1994, for example.

alecco 4y ago

Populism. This will make the country consume more energy. There's a crisis and the solution is saving as much energy as possible. And help companies not go bankrupt. But that doesn't sell...

iknownothow 4y ago
Sources for claims? Genuinely curious.
tauchunfall 4y ago
It will consume more energy, when they need more trains or train cars. Excluding the energy needed for devices and in the restaurant on board. edit: clearified a sentence.
mbg721 4y ago
When is there not a crisis? If you're running a train anyway, the marginal cost of attaching a couple more cars for the extra demand seems pretty small.
- sascha_sl 4y ago
  Not even that. Most lines are already at maximum capacity, and the number of cars is usually dependent on the shortest platform on the line already. We take this so seriously, any stop, even unplanned, where the doors might open aside from absolute emergencies must be on a platform of sufficient length.
  - poooogles 4y ago
    >Not even that. Most lines are already at maximum capacity, and the number of cars is usually dependent on the shortest platform on the line already. Here in the UK we run trains that are longer than platforms quite frequently. I'm talking about 9 car trains stopping at 2 car platforms here as well, not 9 car trains where the front and rear doors of the first and last carriage don't open.
  - bloak 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

throwaway4good 4y ago

Denmark is doing a similar thing ...

b3lvedere 4y ago
Soo, i could travel throughout Germany and Denmark for quite cheap?
- fiber 4y ago
  Kind of, but you'll have to take the scenic route (long distance trains IC/EC/ICE are not included).
- MandieD 4y ago
  If you’re not in a hurry - it is not valid for the high-speed (ICE) and mid-speed (IC) trains in Germany.
- sva_ 4y ago
  In Germany, only in regional (slow) traffic (the RE only goes between 100 and max 200 kmh)
vaylian 4y ago
Interesting. Do you have a link with more info?
- throwaway4good 4y ago
  https://www.dsb.dk/kampagner/rejsepass/ https://www.dsb.dk/kampagner/rejsepass/
  - legulere 4y ago
    So like 40€ for 8 consecutive days. That greatly reduces usefulness if you just want to travel to one spot and back.

yccs27 4y ago

Some context is given here: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-introduces-9-ticket-to-offset-the-impact-of-the-ukraine-war/a-61788020 https://www.dw.com/en/germany-introduces-9-ticket-to-offset-... The ticket is part of a support package signed off by the German parliament. The will pay approximately €2.5 billion for the ticket offer, as a response to rising energy prices and the resulting high costs of individual mobility.

rad_gruchalski 4y ago
In the meantime I just paid 200% more for heating oil than it cost me one year ago. And I cannot use this public transport offer. But I am contributing to it with my taxes.
- seoaeu 4y ago
  In other words, your transportation patterns don’t let you reduce your oil use, so you’re doing your part by paying slightly higher taxes to benefit those who can? That doesn’t seem like a bad thing
  - rad_gruchalski 4y ago
    You mean I‘m partially funding their cheap transportation? Where is the money for these cheap tickets coming from? But your comment kinda makes sense. It’s not really worth trying much in Germany. The more one tries, the more one becomes the source of funding for others while not really getting any personal gratification or gain.
    - widerporst 4y ago
      How do you travel and commute? By car? If so, millions of Germans who don't own a care are funding your means of transport.
      - rad_gruchalski 4y ago
        I will keep that in mind next time I am staring at the rear of a diesel bus while stuck in traffic.

tosh 4y ago

Imagine something like this for the whole EU.

bullen 4y ago
Interrail?
freemint 4y ago
Are there cross country but regional rail lines?
- Mordisquitos 4y ago
  Yes, there are! For example, I have travelled between Strasbourg and Basel (Switzerland) on a regional train, as well as between Milan and Nice, and between Nice and Barcelona (changing trains at the Spanish border due to the change of rail gauge). There's also a regional line connecting Barcelona and Puigcerdà (a town in the Spanish Pyrenees) which at certain times continues its service a further ~5km and terminates in Latour-de-Carol, a tiny village on the French side which is served by French regional services.
  - 2000UltraDeluxe 4y ago
    There are also trains between Denmark and Sweden, and I'd be surprised if there's not similar things going on in the Benelux area.
    - Mordisquitos 4y ago
      True. In fact, that reminded me that I have also taken regional trains between Copenhagen and Malmö.

_0ffh 4y ago

I'm sure the private bus operators, who usually are the only cheap option to travel in Germany, are just thrilled by this additional market distortion.

kuschku 4y ago
There’s only one left, all the others went bankrupt, and that one (FlixBus) only offers long-distance journeys, while this ticket only applies to regional trains.
- freemint 4y ago
  You might be confusing regional bus with long distance bus travel or ride for hire bus companies which will also be impacted.
  - kuschku 4y ago
    Which private regional bus companies or ride for hire bus companies are supposed to exist in Germany? I’m 26, but I’ve never heard or seen of any such company besides the long-distance travel with FlixBus (and formerly PostBus, InterCityBus, etc) The bus companies which operate official lines for Verkehrsverbünde will get paid the same as always, they’re not affected by the 9-Euro-Ticket.
    - rostigerpudel 4y ago
      Did you really never go somewhere on a rented bus when you were in school? You can rent a bus with driver eg. for the company picnic or other touristic activities. However, I fail to see how that business, which usually involves a time constraint and direct point-to-point travels, would be impacted by this kind of ticket.
      - kuschku 4y ago
        Not really, we always used the city busses. I know that business exists, but I don’t know any private bus business that’d be affected by this ticket (except, as mentioned, FlixBus)

sva_ 4y ago

Im really curious to what extend this will affect how full/busy regional transit will be. I also wonder what happens to the people who control tickets fulltime. Their job seems pretty pointless when almost everyone has the ticket.

SomeBoolshit 4y ago
Likely extremely busy - at least on the inside - because there's essentially no wiggle room in the form of extra vehicles or personnel.
- _ph_ 4y ago
  If the trains get full enough, you don't even have to pay the 9 euros as no one can control your tickets :p
bowsamic 4y ago
It is already at tipping point of fullness without this
- sva_ 4y ago
  Depends on location
  - bowsamic 4y ago
    Here in Northern Germany it's pretty terrible
    - trumpablehump 4y ago
      Are you referring to one specific connection? Two? Five? A significant fraction?
      - bowsamic 4y ago
        3.5 times 4

bowsamic 4y ago

I'm extremely not excited about how insanely rammed the public transportation is going to be for the next three months Already here in Hamburg the busses are not at all empty!

sascha_sl 4y ago
And I can't wait for the usual politicians from FDP and Union to draw the conclusion that free or cheaper public transport will forever be unfeasible, not that we need to invest more into the rail network.
- bowsamic 4y ago
  Here in Hamburg it's really the busses that get overwhelmed. The S-Bahn and U-Bahn are rarely overly full compared to the busses.
  - sascha_sl 4y ago
    I'm from the south of Hamburg. The lines served by Metronom are probably the most tightly scheduled around. They don't even have time to stop at the terminus most of the time, so they carry delays forward throughout the entire day. The reason no S-Bahn goes far south is also that Dostos can still carry more people despite the slow acceleration/breaking.
  - rawbot 4y ago
    And public transport here is so expensive. For a return trip, it is cheaper, and faster, to take a car (both petrol and parking costs). The only thing that taking public transport saves you is the hassle of traffic (so you can do something else on your ride), and parking, which can be real bad in some areas of the city. The S-Bahn and U-bahn are usually only crowded on peak hours (2 or 3 hour intervals in the morning and evening).
dx034 4y ago
If there's such an uptick in demand it would show that price was what kept people from using public transport. In that case I'm sure there will be a lot of pressure to make travel more affordable. So far, many claimed that a lack of availability was the reason public transport wasn't used more. I guess the next three months are a good way to validate that.

RGamma 4y ago

For comparison: The equivalent, non-subsidised "Quer durchs Land"-Ticket costs 42€ for one person per day (70€ for 5 people per day) -- https://www.bahn.de/angebot/regio/qdl https://www.bahn.de/angebot/regio/qdl

Freak_NL 4y ago
There are also the cheaper Landestickets which offer the same, but limited to one (or two) Bundesland and usually starting from €25. Those offer good value for tourists exploring a region too (in the absence of this €9 ticket).
freeflight 4y ago
Wow, that has gotten expensive. I still remember when the similar "Wochenendticket" cost like 20€ and would even allow to bring along some extra people, tho that was like 20 years ago.
lispm 4y ago
That ticket is not equivalent. That ticket is only for Deutsche Bahn and similar. OTOH, the 9-Euro-Ticket is for all (!) local transport (incl. bus, ferry, ...) and regional trains. That means here in Hamburg I can use all bus, underground train and ferry connections. It's also all month, 24hours/day.

MandieD 4y ago

Very important caveat for all of you who are thinking, “woo hoo, no need to buy that EuRail pass! Or to buy an expensive ICE ticket!” These tickets are good for all “Nah- und Regionalverkehr,” explicitly excluding ICE, IC, EC (international) and long-distance busses (like the one between Munich and Zürich) If the train number begins with RE or RB, you’re good, but of course, those are the slow ones that stop in every village along the way. This is for the benefit of people who live here and are struggling with 2 EUR/liter fuel, not the kind of people who blithely paid 60 EUR to take the ICE. There does not appear to be any residency requirement, but remember, you’re not the target market for this (unless you live here and are struggling with fuel prices…)

butterlesstoast 4y ago
For all the Americans. Converting from euros to USD and liters to gallons, gas is roughly $12 a gallon at this moment.
- mbg721 4y ago
  Out of curiosity, for people who live in small towns/villages in Germany, how much driving is expected on a typical day? Most Americans commute about half an hour, twice a day, right?
  - soco 4y ago
    Not German, I live in a Swiss village and drive zero km a day. But I spend almost an hour/leg in public transport traveling door-to-door to the office when I go there (well, before covid much more often). I can also work in the train most of the time - 45 minutes of said hour - so that it counts as work time too. So, no reason to drive at all. I only take the car at weekends for doing shopping or doing some visits, even then not always.
    - mbg721 4y ago
      The reason I ask is that there's a stereotype that German-speaking Europeans especially all go everywhere with hyper-efficient trains that come every three minutes and are only a little bit less on-time than the ones in Japan, and that can't actually be true out in the countryside.

Escapado 4y ago

I would argue making it free and keeping it free would have been a cool move. - Less/no expensive accounting - Less/no personnel for checking tickets - Less/no personnel for prosecuting people who don't have tickets - Less/no ticket vending machines (and all the maintenance that comes with it) - Less traffic on the roads since you can't beat "free" and hence less emissions (at least in hamburg trains operate on green energy) and less wear on the roads (might be offset by the wear on trains and busses) - Fully non-discriminant with respect to income I have no idea if that would work for inter-city transport but for inner-city transport the HVV for example (the public transportation network responsible for hamburg and surrounding areas) sells 30 million tickets a year and I wonder how much it truly costs them to do that with all the relevant factors mentioned above.

aloe_falsa 4y ago
At least in Berlin, they tried to introduce a free ticket. It failed due to organizational reasons: https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/open-mind/scheitert-jetzt-auch-das-neun-euro-ticket-li.228544 https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/open-mind/scheitert-jetzt-au...
jacobr1 4y ago
> I have no idea if that would work for inter-city transport With inner-city transport, while free would undoubtedly have some marginal impact (and more over time as residential and commute patterns shift) there probably wouldn't be large shifts in use. I suspect for inter-city, you would actually see significantly increased usage, which could outweigh all the benefits cited.
- soco 4y ago
  Increased usage outweighing the benefits...?? I'm confused by the wording, do you mean that in a good or a bad way?
  - MauranKilom 4y ago
    Probably commenting on local transit networks being generally at capacity during rush hour, which this would not improve. For example, in Munich, there is a ~10% cheaper version of the monthly ticket that is only valid after 9 AM. This kind of incentive shaping falls flat. (That is not to say I object to the new ticket, to be clear.)

april_22 4y ago

The German government did that to compensate for rising gasoline prices. While I think that is in general appreciated by the public, I am not quite sure how many people aged 45 above will use this ticket. They trains will be super crowded this summer and people will just prefer to use their car instead.

bombcar 4y ago
"Nobody uses the trains because they're all super crowded" reminds me of the quote ascribed to Yogi Berra, "Nobody goes there! It's too crowded!"
Hendrikto 4y ago
Also it is completely useless for people living on the countryside. The nearest train station is a 20 minute drive away from where I live, so this does nothing for me. Still better than nothing, I guess.
- jona-f 4y ago
  Afaik regional buses are included in this ticket. I do not know any villages that don't even have those at least once a day.
  - Hendrikto 4y ago
    Again: What good does a once-a-day bus do villagers? It‘s useless for commuting, it‘s useless for doing errands.
- foepys 4y ago
  Over 75% of Germans live in cities or towns which overwhelmingly have reliable bus transit at least at daytime. Those remaining <25% are not really important here and can still use their cars.
  - rad_gruchalski 4y ago
    > Over 75% of Germans live in cities Unrelated to this topic but that explains why Germans are so eager to remove forest in order to build windmills. People in the city obviously don’t notice it anyway.

jdhzzz 4y ago

Who-hoo, let's all go to the summer long super-spreader event.

jona-f 4y ago
Covid is currently not a big issue in Germany. Even so restrictions are lifted and most people don't care at all anymore about protection, the numbers are going down.
- Bigpet 4y ago
  Numbers are still significantly higher than Winter 2020/21. So with lessening restrictions this winter is poised to set another record (for infections at least, deaths might not be as high as last year). People don't care, true. But that's about feeling, not about numbers or facts.
  - foepys 4y ago
    Hospitals have next to no cases in my region. 500/100.000 people tested positive over the last 7 days with probably times 3 more infected due to no mandatory testing. Only a combined 2 people (both over 80) are in the 5 hospitals with only one being intubated. That's nothing, really.

Reason077 4y ago

I wish they would restore stopover functionality on the international booking site (https://www.international-bahn.de/ https://www.international-bahn.de/). I remember back when you could book a London to Berlin fare (for example) with Eurostar included, with stopovers up to 48 hours along the way. Amazing value for tourists - often you could visit multiple Belgian/German cities for not much more than what the Eurostar fare would cost alone. The standard bahn.de site still allows stopovers, but since the pandemic you can no longer book Eurostar segments through it. Sad face.

sdevonoes 4y ago

Why don't they make this for the whole year?

_Microft 4y ago
It is meant to temporarily ease the burden of risen energy prices. (Car users are going to get a lower tax on gas soon.) A quarter of a year might be enough already to find out how much demand for low cost public transport there actually is. I consider it an useful experiment at this point.

kappuchino 4y ago

For anyone wondering why 9€? Not 10€ or 15€ or ... - its consistent with 101 consumer psychology. First: Its not free, its subsidized by the state. Free would suggest for some "not worth it". Not you, most likely, but this is why some free offers are not taken (seriously). If you want to see what free does, look for the Luxemburg experient: https://www.mobiliteit.lu/en/tickets/free-transport/ https://www.mobiliteit.lu/en/tickets/free-transport/ Second: Higher price point would make a difference for less subsidy payments for the state, but the psychology is "not even 10 bucks". I know that some will argue that 10 Euros will be hard for low income/poor/out of the system people - but again, this is seen as an experiment and a simple message. The data from the usage will help to understand how one can/might change public transportation on a grand scale. Third: Its during the summer holidays. People with children in school have to book vacation during that time and so the traffic volume in every year before was less than usual on average. In reverse, a lot of people are on the autobahn and the high speed trains on the first and last days of each school holiday, which are different in each federal state.

SOLAR_FIELDS 4y ago
Sweden does something similar, they offer unlimited regional rail passes for 1-2 month period during the summer - theirs are quite a bit more expensive than this though. I think closer to 100-150 euro for 2 months if I remember correctly.
- felurx 4y ago
  I think most federal states in Germany have regional tickets for students for the summer vacations. It's probably going to vary a good bit, but here in BW it's 25~30€ for the ~1.5 months.
rad_gruchalski 4y ago
> First: Its not free, its subsidized by the state. „The state“ doesn’t have its „own money“. It is subsided by the taxpayer.
- Aperocky 4y ago

Ekaros 4y ago

Hmm, so social distancing is truly gone and they don't fear this action massively spreading the COVID virus?

Tenoke 4y ago
FFP2 mask are still mandatory on public transport (at least in Berlin) but generally nobody is concerned anymore, and even less so for the Summer.
netsharc 4y ago
Feels like the European governments' (I generalize...) thinking is, the vaccine is available, it's good enough, and Omicron is "not that bad" anyway, so, if you don't want to get vaccinated, it's on you, but let's get on with our lives...
- avianlyric 4y ago
  The EU has a 78% vaccination rate and a 52% booster rate. Mask usage in public places is generally very high. The EU never turned vaccination and masks into divisive political and cultural issue. All of this compares very favourable to the US where vaccination is 65% and boosters are 31%. Plus vaccination, mask usage and lockdowns became deeply decisive topics, substantially reducing the effectiveness of all of them. In the end it’s place the US in bad spot for resolving the the pandemic quickly.
  - rawbot 4y ago
    > Mask usage in public places is generally very high. Not anymore. In Hamburg, nobody wears a mask, even in the supermarkets in the busiest hours, even though during the big pandemic spikes almost everybody wore it properly.
Scarblac 4y ago
It's summer, everybody who wants to has three or even four vaccinations, most people have already had it on top of that, it's safe to say that Covid doesn't spread massively here at the moment. Maybe another wave with a new variant or in autumn, but it'll most likely be mild as omicron is and there is so much resistance built up now. So for all practical purposes, Covid is over at the moment.

franciscop 4y ago

When it gets crowded in Tokyo trains you are literally pushed against each other, back to front people against people, specially bad in summer where the aircon cannot keep up. That's only at 9am normally though, and so I do not consider jobs that make me be in the office at that time (9:30~10 is an order of magnitude better). WFH has been a blessing to Tokyo. So it was funny when I visited my sister in a rural town in England, and there was a festival so we took the bus to get there. It was obvious the bus was more crowded than usual, and people were grumpy, but from my point of view it was almost empty; people were within an arm's distance from each other, which for the locals probably used to less than half the people that was very crowded. I wonder if the same will happen on the trains in Germany. Japan is used to this though, and they have powerful ventilation and aircon systems to alleviate the situation in summer.

april_22 4y ago
People in Germany are typically not very contact friendly and since COVID it got way worse. People here rather stand than sit next to a stranger, sometimes even across. The trains will be beyond crowded this summer (especially the ones going to the sea), so it will be interesting to watch how people will react. I think though the ticket will mainly be used by younger people which are typically more open to this.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- paganel 4y ago
  If the recent street scenes in Frankfurt are anything to go by I'd say people will be just fine, as long as there will be something to celebrate/look forward to :) (either a fantastic football win, like in Frankfurt, or waiting to get to the seaside, like in your example).
goodpoint 4y ago
Don't you know that there are seats on long-distance trains? Unless people start sitting on each other's lap the aircon capacity is not going to be exceeded.

wafriedemann 4y ago

Socialism is COOL

I_am_tiberius 4y ago

I know DB is owned by the state but I'm anyway interested in whether the difference to the original price is subsidized by the state. Or if it's just a special offer that allows them to cover expenses.

germanier 4y ago
The federal state will pay 2.5 billion euro to the 16 states which in turn are responsible to compensate operators (or whoever actually receives the fare for the journey - this might be someone else) for the lost revenue.

amarant 4y ago

This is awesome! For comparison, a single fare ticket from the Stockholm suburb I live in to city Central costs about €8.70. 9 euros for a whole month seems like a dream!

lom 4y ago
for 3 months*
- freeflight 4y ago
  It's 9€ per month and the ticket will be available for 3 months.
rawbot 4y ago
It's only a temporary measure. We would be ecstatic if it was permanent. Alas, it is not.

amin 4y ago

In Luxembourg, all public transport is free for everyone. I was just there, and as a tourist, it saved me a lot of hassle not needing to figure out where and how to buy which ticket. Jump hop on any train, bus or tram :). And yes, I understand why this wouldn't work well in other countries.

swarnie 4y ago
While interesting, it doesn't seem like a fair comparison. Luxembourg has more tax evading corporations registered than actual people. I'm sure i can make a public transport system work well for free given those conditions.
sonar_un 4y ago
I was there last winter and the free transport was just incredible. Especially for a tourist. On top of all of the busses and trams being super new and clean, it was a dream.

pflenker 4y ago

Traveling through Germany with regional trains was one of my favorite pastimes back in the 90s, but the prices have increased dramatically: The "Wochenendticket, which was valid either on Saturday or Sunday, started in 1995 costing around 11 EUR (inflation-adjusted), and ended costing 40 EUR in 2016 (also inflation-adjusted). I am happy that they are experimenting with bringing it back.

Pete-Codes 4y ago

Giggly - may have to re-think summer plans

xenago 4y ago

This is a really good initiative! I wish the Canadian government would encourage more efficient transport instead of cars.

The-Bus 4y ago
This is a great idea for the US as well, if only we had a significant mass transit infrastructure that this could apply to.

throwaway307423 4y ago

[flagged]

Tenoke 4y ago
>1. In July and August, pretty much nobody[1] works in Europe >unused capacity What? The Sbahn I would take to the office in Summer 2019 was absolutely packed at peak times when people go to and from work. Also you didn't include that '[1]' reference. Complaining about downvotes is a faux pas. All the hostility and unnecessary mentions of Tesla didn't help either. Edit: Editing to replace the comment with yet another complaint about downvotes isn't a great look either.
dougmwne 4y ago
I was entertained, but you didn't exactly add much to the conversation. I hope you typed this from your Tesla touchscreen doing 190 on the Autobahn.

unjustified 4y ago

These are going to be wild chaos days. https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/politik-gesellschaft/chaostage-wie-linke-aktivisten-mit-dem-9-euro-ticket-die-insel-sylt-stuermen-wollen-li.229003 https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/politik-gesellschaft/chaosta...

k8sToGo 4y ago
This is why we can't have nice things.
- Cockbrand 4y ago
  Mainly, IMHO, sensationalist "journalism" like this is much more of a reason why we can't have nice things, compared to the actual event predicted (which likely isn't going to happen, at least not to the extent described).

MarkusWandel 4y ago

This is fantastic. Despite the warnings to not count on it, these local trains generally will transport your bicycle. So you can go for a bike ride some distance from your home location (or from your home location and return by train if you don't feel like riding back). Practically for free.

mariusor 4y ago
When you take your bicycle on public transport usually you require a special ticket for it.
0x008 4y ago
On Regional Trains need to go into the special bicycle compartment, also on S-Bahn. On Subways, Buses, and Trams you might not be allowed to take a bicycle at all depending on the city’s regulations. Regardless of that, you will always need to buy a special bicycle ticket. In fact same goes for dogs. So this 9€ ticket will be really useless for dog owners since they need to pay normal ticket prices for every fare for the dog.

paganel 4y ago

Hopefully this measure will persist even when (and if) inflation goes back to "normal" levels back again, imo heavily subsidised public transport is the way to go if we want to reduce car use. Asking people for a lot more money in order to decrease the regular use of their cars (either through higher gas prices or forcing them to purchase relatively expensive newer EVs) is really not fair if you don't offer something in return.

seu 4y ago

For comparison, in Berlin the monthly ticket for the A-B zones (does not reach the airport) costs €86, and a 4-ticket pack €9.40. A €9 monthly ticket is an insane bargain, even if you only plan on using public transport within the city. (source: https://www.bvg.de/de/tickets-und-tarife https://www.bvg.de/de/tickets-und-tarife)

hansel_der 4y ago
might even be cheap enough to make them fare dodgers reconsider

hit8run 4y ago

The idea behind it is to keep the idiots commuting just to sit down in the wage cage 9000. It’s for three months only btw and just a trick to improve acceptance of the new German Poverty caused by very bad political decisions.

lispm 4y ago

Keep in mind that this is the website from Deutsche Bahn, which operates a lot of trains, regional trains and local trains. But not every public transport is from Deutsche Bahn. The 9-Euro-Ticket is valid for all public local transport, too - not just for the Deutsche Bahn. The ticket is for local transport operators, too. One can also buy the ticket there. A subscription ticket will be automatically converted. One can for example buy it at the local Verkehrsverbund (transit district), which here serves in Hamburg several million people with all kinds of regional trains, city trains, underground trains, busses, ferries, ... Thus one can use all (!!!) local and regional public transport for 9 Euro for a month, 24 hours a day, for all of Germany, for all public transport operators. The is done for three months, each month costs 9 Euro.

jgehrcke 4y ago

The login system of the Bahn app amd website is experiencing issues right now -- wonder if it has to do with HN peak traffic, hm :).

javajosh 4y ago

Heck even if you're just going to move around a single City at a time this is a great deal. Ubahn and Sbahn tix are quite pricey a la carte!

dubswithus 4y ago

Unfortunately, it's going to be really hard for my wife to get a schengen visa. The appointments are already full.

mvexel 4y ago

Very cool. Reminds me of the "Wochenende-ticket" DB sold in the 90s. It was something like 30DM and was good for travel on all regional DB trains for up to 5 people. I used it with a group of friends to travel to Berlin from The Netherlands in 1993. I was a bit of a rail geek (still am, I guess) and had purchased a "Kursbuch" on a previous trip to Germany. This was a 2000 or so page, 3 pound book that contained all the timetables for all German trains. We pored over the timetables for hours to find an optimal route from the closest German border station to Berlin. I remember it being relatively few trains, something like Bad Bentheim - Osnabrueck - Bielefeld - Kassel - Dessau (!) - Berlin. It was a fun trip, lots of people were traveling long distance on local trains and Berlin attracted very...interesting people at that time. After arriving in Berlin we sold our ticket, which was still good for another day, for 15DM.

flobosg 4y ago
DB was still selling those tickets (as Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket) until 2019.
- mvexel 4y ago
  I think that was what it was actually called back then too! Interesting that it's lived on all that time.

partiallypro 4y ago

I assume this doesn't apply to urban rails like the MVV in Munich, etc. Has to be DB operated.

q3k 4y ago
It does.

locallost 4y ago

For comparison, the federal government is dead bent on building additional 4.1km of highway through Berlin that is estimated to cost over 500 million. And the critics say it will balloon to billions since the estimate is 10 years old anyway. So basically millions of people will ride the train for three months for almost free, and the cost will be in the same ball park as 4km of one highway.

0x008 4y ago
Also it is really ridiculous because it goes straight through a rather central part of the city, removing old construction and very close to where a lot of people live in an attractive part of the city. Instead they could build it a couple kilometers further out to still connect the ring, the distance in drive time would probably be less than 5 minutes. But they stick to stupid plans they made 10 years ago like they always do in this city.
- locallost 4y ago
  The city doesn't want it, the federal government is pushing for it. Probably because the person in charge is a free market theologist from FDP so he wants to spend as much tax money as possible to have as little impact as possible. Wait, that doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's what's happening.

aspyct 4y ago

Nice! And here I am in Belgium, stuck with the SNCB/NMBS, a small country where doing a few miles by train takes an hour, the trains are always late, there's no place to sit, and it's expensive. I love Belgium, but not its trains.

lbschenkel 4y ago

The region of Skåne in Sweden has a similar initiative, although not as cheap: a "summer ticket" valid for 3 months that costs ~70 EUR and includes any form of travel in the region. Similar offers exist in the other regions of Sweden. Unfortunately for me who commutes to Copenhagen on a daily basis for work, this offer does not include trips to Denmark (monthly ticket costs ~250 EUR).