9-euro ticket for bus and train leaves many questions unanswered

Created: 2022-03-29 04:53

By: Yannick Hanke

With the 2022 relief package, the traffic light is reacting to rising energy and fuel prices.

The 9-euro ticket for bus and train is coming – and is immediately receiving criticism.

Bremen/Hannover – “Five is trump” was a slogan used by Deutsche Post in the 1990s to inform about the changeover in postcodes from four to five digits.

The 2022 relief package of the traffic light coalition can also be summarized under this motto.

With a total of five measures, politicians are taking into account the economic effects of the Ukraine war.

This also includes the 9-euro ticket for bus and train.

But do the disadvantages possibly outweigh the public transport discount?

9 euro ticket for bus and train: When will the public transport discount from the 2022 relief package come?

First of all, this measure from the 2022 relief package reads as a major, albeit temporary, relief for many commuters.

The 9 euro ticket for bus and train can be seen as a discount for local public transport (ÖPNV).

The idea behind it is basically simple: Customers should be able to use buses and trains for 90 days for nine euros a month.

The traffic light decided on the 2022 relief package.

Part of this is also the 9-euro monthly ticket for bus and train.

However, representatives from Bremen and Lower Saxony express criticism.

(Iconic image) © Wolfgang Maria Weber/imago

Implementation is to be carried out by the federal states, and a nationwide discount for buses and trains is planned.

In politics, there is a basic willingness to introduce such a special ticket for three months.

As already stated by the dpa, the starting signal for the 9-euro ticket on buses and trains could fall either on May 1st or on June 1st, 2022.

It is still unclear whether this large public transport discount will actually be implemented nationwide in Germany.

Questions also arise in Bremen and Lower Saxony.

This is reported by kreiszeitung.de about the open questions about the 9-euro ticket on the bus and train.

Traffic light approves 9-euro monthly ticket for bus and train as part of the 2022 relief package – criticism from Bremen and Lower Saxony

In principle, the 9-euro monthly ticket for local transport as one of the measures from the 2022 relief package has met with a positive response in both Bremen and Lower Saxony.

The Hanover region, as the carrier of the transport association GVH, and the transport association Bremen-Niedersachsen (VBN) also see open points in the announced public transport discount for the 9 euro ticket in bus and train:

For me, however, the question is what comes next.

If we really want to create a turnaround in mobility, we need cheap public transport on a permanent basis.

And money must be available for this in the long term.

Steffen Krach, President of the Hanover Region, speaks to dpa about the 9-euro monthly ticket

But that doesn't mean that the SPD politician doesn't welcome the 9-euro monthly ticket from the SPD, FDP and Greens from the 2022 relief package.

In the same breath, Krach also refers to the plans of the Hanover region to introduce a 365-euro annual ticket instead of the public transport discount.

However, VBN Managing Director Rainer Counen is also open to the measure in the relief package.

He sees the ticket as a relief measure and as an incentive to use the 9-euro ticket for buses and trains.

There is still criticism of the 9-euro monthly ticket.

9 Euro ticket in bus and train: Omicron spread could stand in the way of using the monthly ticket

Counen lacks transparency, he misses the information on the implementation of the 9-euro monthly ticket from the traffic light coalition.

This measure in the relief package can increase the number of passengers.

But there are also countervailing effects, especially due to the corona pandemic, with the 9 ticket on buses and trains:

High incidences still stand in the way of using buses and trains, and mobile working means that there are no longer any reasons to travel.

VBN managing director Rainer Counen expresses criticism of the 9-euro monthly ticket to the dpa

With this, Counen indirectly alludes to Omicron.

Because it is above all the corona variant and its sub-form BA.2 that ensure a dynamic and high rate of infection in Germany.

For this reason alone, possible symptoms of an omicron infection should not be dismissed lightly.

The same applies to the signs that may indicate an infection with BA.2.

And to top it all off, small children in particular could now be confronted with a new omicron symptom after a corona infection.

9-euro monthly traffic light ticket: Start date for measures in the 2022 relief package is still open

The corona pandemic is undoubtedly still a bitter reality.

The 9-euro monthly ticket as part of the traffic light relief package, on the other hand, is still pious wishful thinking.

Because nothing has been implemented yet.

However, Rainer Counen also knows how to name positive aspects of the 9-euro ticket for bus and train as a special discount in public transport.

Because the high prices for petrol and diesel, which should be counteracted by a tank discount as a brake on fuel prices, could in turn lead to a higher use of local transport.

In any case, Krach and Counen agree that existing customers should also benefit from the 9-euro monthly ticket.

In this case, existing subscriptions could be extended by three months or the difference paid out as compensation for the 9 euro ticket on the bus and train.

Relief package 2022: Traffic light agrees on child bonus, fuel discount, energy price flat rate, 9-euro monthly ticket and subsidy for Hartz IV recipients

Relatively surprisingly, the traffic light coalition had announced the 9-euro monthly ticket limited to three months as a measure in the relief package.

This is intended to react directly to the high energy and fuel prices*.

On Friday, March 25, 2022, the conference of transport ministers proposed a zero tariff.

In contrast to the 9 euro ticket for bus and train, this would keep the costs significantly lower for the nationwide transport associations.

In any case, all five measures in the relief package seem to involve a certain amount of effort.

In addition to the tank discount and the 9-euro monthly ticket, the Greens, SPD and FDP also want to implement a subsidy for Hartz IV recipients, a child bonus and a flat-rate energy price.

In the shadow of the 2022 relief package: Saarland election becomes a battle between Scholz' SPD and Merz' CDU

All the points in the government's relief package were decided by the leaders of the parties after long and tough negotiations.

Before nothing has been implemented or specific dates for this have been set, we can confidently speak of dreams of the future.

To stay with the picture: the elections in Saarland also provide information about the future of political decision-makers.

Here the Social Democrats around Chancellor Olaf Scholz have to confirm their success in the 2021 federal election.

On the other hand, there is the CDU with its new chairman Friedrich Merz, who wants to breathe new life into the traditional party after Armin Laschet’s failed candidacy for chancellor.

If you want to convince the electorate, you also have to think about the needs, hopes and fears of the population.

More stringency in the umpteenth edition of the Corona policy would certainly be just as advisable in this regard as conscious action in the Ukraine war.

Mask requirement in discounters and supermarkets: Aldi, Edeka, Lidl or Rewe could extend the Corona rule themselves – and show little interest

Because while Omikron, as mentioned, continues to rage, a number of corona protection measures are threatening to expire.

The "Freedom Day" on March 20, 2022 had to bow to the high level of infection and ultimately burst.

Various corona rules were temporarily extended until April 2, 2022.

This also applies to the obligation to wear masks in retail.

This also affects discounters and supermarkets, which make use of their domiciliary rights and could extend the Corona rule on their own.

So far, however, there has been no great effort to maintain the mask requirement in Aldi, Edka, Kaufland, Lidl or Rewe branches.

Maybe here, too, an unofficial slogan is used, such as the traffic light relief package, with points such as a fuel discount or the 9-euro monthly ticket.

Based on Christian Lindner's statement after the 2017 federal elections, which were to end disastrously for the FDP, one could say: it is better not to act than to act wrongly.

* kreiszeitung.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.