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Berlin train station: dispute over the successor ticket
Photo: Annegret Hilse / REUTERS
In the struggle for a successor to the nine-euro ticket, the federal government is still arguing about the price and financing.
The Greens demanded a monthly ticket for 49 euros.
The SPD proposed reduced prices for recipients of social assistance.
The transport associations, for their part, demanded more money in order to maintain or expand their timetables.
And an agreement is not yet in sight.
On Sunday, the traffic light coalition presented a new relief package with a volume of 65 billion euros, which, among other things, provides for a successor to the nine-euro ticket.
The federal government therefore wants to contribute 1.5 billion euros a year to the ticket - if the federal states contribute to the financing.
But instead of a clear price, the coalition had only agreed on a price range: The nationwide ticket should
cost
between 49 and 69 euros .
activist demands
However, even that is too expensive for many players.
And they make demands that sometimes go beyond the framework set.
Christoph Bautz from the activist network Campact brought up a
29-euro ticket
, because only that would bring people "relevant relief and allow them to switch from cars to buses and trains for the sake of the climate".
Green party leader Britta Haßelmann was confident that a ticket for
49 euros
could be realized.
That would be a »very important signal in the area of mobility«.
The Bremen Senator for the Environment Maike Schaefer (Greens) also considers a ticket price of 69 euros to be "too high".
SPD leader Saskia Esken said that the price could "be mitigated again by benefits from the welfare state".
The federal and state governments would then have to agree on this.
A spokeswoman for the FDP-led Ministry of Transport, on the other hand, said that the price ultimately depends on "what the countries are willing to add in terms of financial resources".
In any case, however, a ticket valid throughout Germany at a
uniform price is
sought.
The countries have already been struggling to get a lookup for the normal regionalization funds they use to order services from the transport providers.
The federal government is already providing 9.4 billion euros this year, plus a billion from another pot.
There is an acute need for action due to the increased operating costs for buses and trains.
Special meeting on September 19th
The transport associations generally welcomed the agreement of the federal government on a successor regulation for the nine-euro ticket, but demanded additional funding.
With a uniform nationwide ticket, "local public transport in Germany will become much more attractive and its use much easier for many," explained Frank Zerban, Managing Director of the Federal Association of Local Rail Transport.
But in order to implement it, "an agreement on additional regionalization funds for 2022 and 2023 is necessary by October of this year at the latest".
If the 9-euro ticket had been extended, it would have cost the federal government 14 billion euros a year.
Now it should be 1.5 billion euros, and the traffic light wants "at least the same amount" from the federal states - which Bavaria has already ruled out.
"If the federal government wants that, the federal government has to finance it," said a spokesman for the Bavarian Ministry of Transport.
"That attitude hasn't changed."
rai/dpa
