6 ms·

for comparison: Boston's monthly LinkPass, providing unlimited travel on buses, subways, certain ferries and near-in commuter rail transit, is $90 (vs Germany's

for comparison: Boston's monthly LinkPass, providing unlimited travel on buses, subways, certain ferries and near-in commuter rail transit, is $90 (vs Germany's plan being $54). Would make sense for cities to accept each other's monthly transit cards in theory - little loss for the home city, and a nice perk for the pass holder that could increase appeal of that product. Technology hurdles would probably insurmountable though with the different card formats and such.

newaccount74 3y ago
This is an example where the federal government can do something that is impossible for companies and local governments. All the transit companies in Germany have different systems, different cards, some don't accept digital tickets at all -- but now the government just said they have to accept this new common digital ticket and it's done. Similar thing happened in Austria with the Klimaticket. There are dozens of local transport authorities, and the government just decided that there should be a yearly ticket (Klimaticket) and everyone has to accept it.
- TulliusCicero 3y ago
  > but now the government just said they have to accept this new common digital ticket and it's done. This is exactly the power of higher level government. Everyone loves to talk about making decisions more locally, but the truth is that fundamentally, local decisionmaking is no better or worse than national decisionmaking; it's just different, at least overall. In some cases it's better, but you can see that in a case like this, just having coordination forced upon local agencies that otherwise have little incentive to cooperate is actually fantastic.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- em-bee 3y ago
  it's not that simple, there is of course the question of who is paying for this, since the respective transportation businesses do expect to be reimbursed. but, regional tickets that are valid in all transport businesses in an area already exist everywhere, so the technicalities of working out how to count and reimburse different businesses has already been worked out, and expanding this to an additional nationwide ticket is a small change. this is a very different approach and culture to for example japan where lots of independent companies providing transport exist, but as far as i can tell no collective ticket, but pay as you go everywhere.
contingencies 3y ago
Australia (NSW): AUD$50/week cap. They also discount $2 when you change transport modes in one journey, halve prices after 8 journeys/week, cap weekdays at AUD$16.80, cap weekend days at AUD$8.40 and offer 30% off-peak discount - https://transportnsw.info/tickets-opal/opal/opal-benefits https://transportnsw.info/tickets-opal/opal/opal-benefits which works out to AUD$200/month = USD$132/month
devoutsalsa 3y ago
>> Would make sense for cities to accept each other's monthly transit cards in theory - little loss for the home city, and a nice perk for the pass holder that could increase appeal of that product. Like stamps!
riku_iki 3y ago
> providing unlimited travel on buses, subways, certain ferries and near-in commuter rail transit, is $90 (vs Germany's plan being $54). Boston likely has much smaller public transit population density, meaning they need to spend more per commuter on infra.
- morelisp 3y ago
  I don't know what "public transit population density" is, but there's probably no reasonable measure whereby Boston, a city, has a lower density of any human thing than Germany, a whole-ass farm-heavy country.
  - riku_iki 3y ago
    but majority of population is likely driving cars in Boston area and not using public transportation, so they are not "public transit population".
    - morelisp 3y ago
      Boston is one of the least car-dependent cities in America and Germany is one of the most car-dependent countries in Europe, so I suspect there's significant overlap. But this is also some deep begging of the question - if you charge more less people use it, no shit. It's not like this price is profitable anywhere in Germany.
      - riku_iki 3y ago
        >Boston is one of the least car-dependent cities in America and Germany is one of the most car-dependent countries in Europe original comment covered Boston area, since it includes extra city transit. My expectation is that Boston area population still drive cars much more than Germans. > It's not like this price is profitable anywhere in Germany. the question how much unprofitable it will be in US. Say government invested billions in building top notch public transit in Boston area, but population will still prefer to drive cars, it will be huge waste of money. I think one of the reason why cars are preferred in US is higher wages and lower gasoline and car prices so population can afford driving cars more, and car is more convenient transportation in most of the time.
tonfa 3y ago
Switzerland started getting unique ticket across public transport companies since 1857. Now it's enshrined in the law (and over 240 different transportation companies are participating, incl. train, bus, gondola, boats, etc.). (service direct in French, direkter Verkher in German) Prices are much higher than Germany though.

newaccount74 3y ago

This is an example where the federal government can do something that is impossible for companies and local governments. All the transit companies in Germany have different systems, different cards, some don't accept digital tickets at all -- but now the government just said they have to accept this new common digital ticket and it's done. Similar thing happened in Austria with the Klimaticket. There are dozens of local transport authorities, and the government just decided that there should be a yearly ticket (Klimaticket) and everyone has to accept it.

TulliusCicero 3y ago
> but now the government just said they have to accept this new common digital ticket and it's done. This is exactly the power of higher level government. Everyone loves to talk about making decisions more locally, but the truth is that fundamentally, local decisionmaking is no better or worse than national decisionmaking; it's just different, at least overall. In some cases it's better, but you can see that in a case like this, just having coordination forced upon local agencies that otherwise have little incentive to cooperate is actually fantastic.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
em-bee 3y ago
it's not that simple, there is of course the question of who is paying for this, since the respective transportation businesses do expect to be reimbursed. but, regional tickets that are valid in all transport businesses in an area already exist everywhere, so the technicalities of working out how to count and reimburse different businesses has already been worked out, and expanding this to an additional nationwide ticket is a small change. this is a very different approach and culture to for example japan where lots of independent companies providing transport exist, but as far as i can tell no collective ticket, but pay as you go everywhere.

contingencies 3y ago

Australia (NSW): AUD$50/week cap. They also discount $2 when you change transport modes in one journey, halve prices after 8 journeys/week, cap weekdays at AUD$16.80, cap weekend days at AUD$8.40 and offer 30% off-peak discount - https://transportnsw.info/tickets-opal/opal/opal-benefits https://transportnsw.info/tickets-opal/opal/opal-benefits which works out to AUD$200/month = USD$132/month

devoutsalsa 3y ago

>> Would make sense for cities to accept each other's monthly transit cards in theory - little loss for the home city, and a nice perk for the pass holder that could increase appeal of that product. Like stamps!

riku_iki 3y ago

> providing unlimited travel on buses, subways, certain ferries and near-in commuter rail transit, is $90 (vs Germany's plan being $54). Boston likely has much smaller public transit population density, meaning they need to spend more per commuter on infra.

morelisp 3y ago
I don't know what "public transit population density" is, but there's probably no reasonable measure whereby Boston, a city, has a lower density of any human thing than Germany, a whole-ass farm-heavy country.
- riku_iki 3y ago
  but majority of population is likely driving cars in Boston area and not using public transportation, so they are not "public transit population".
  - morelisp 3y ago
    Boston is one of the least car-dependent cities in America and Germany is one of the most car-dependent countries in Europe, so I suspect there's significant overlap. But this is also some deep begging of the question - if you charge more less people use it, no shit. It's not like this price is profitable anywhere in Germany.
    - riku_iki 3y ago
      >Boston is one of the least car-dependent cities in America and Germany is one of the most car-dependent countries in Europe original comment covered Boston area, since it includes extra city transit. My expectation is that Boston area population still drive cars much more than Germans. > It's not like this price is profitable anywhere in Germany. the question how much unprofitable it will be in US. Say government invested billions in building top notch public transit in Boston area, but population will still prefer to drive cars, it will be huge waste of money. I think one of the reason why cars are preferred in US is higher wages and lower gasoline and car prices so population can afford driving cars more, and car is more convenient transportation in most of the time.

tonfa 3y ago

Switzerland started getting unique ticket across public transport companies since 1857. Now it's enshrined in the law (and over 240 different transportation companies are participating, incl. train, bus, gondola, boats, etc.). (service direct in French, direkter Verkher in German) Prices are much higher than Germany though.