"Pre-programmed trouble": 9-euro ticket is not valid for trips to popular tourist areas
Created: 05/24/2022, 15:53
By: Nadja Pohr
The Gäubahn is the most important railway connection between Stuttgart and the tourist areas.
The 9-euro ticket is not yet valid for the route.
© Felix Kästle/dpa
With the 9-euro ticket you can travel throughout Germany from June 1st.
In Baden-Württemberg, however, the ticket is not yet valid for trips to popular areas.
Stuttgart - After the 9-euro ticket had been on the brink for a short time because the federal and state governments were arguing about financing and even some transport ministers threatened to stop, the Bundesrat has now finally approved the special ticket.
From June 1st, citizens can drive across Germany at a reduced price.
Advance sales for the 9-euro ticket began a few weeks ago in Stuttgart.
A first interim balance shows that the special offer is in great demand among the citizens of the region.
According to Stuttgarter Strassenbahn AG, 23,000 people have already bought the ticket.
However, it is still unclear whether you can also use it to go to Lake Constance.
The ticket is not yet valid for the popular Gäubahn route, as reported by BW24.
Gäubahn: Special regulation prevents validity of the 9-euro ticket
The Gäubahn is the most important railway connection between the Stuttgart region and the tourist areas on western Lake Constance, in the southern Black Forest, in Switzerland and in the Alps.
A special regulation that Baden-Württemberg's Transport Minister Winfried Hermann (Greens) negotiated with the railways five years ago now stands in the way of the 9-euro ticket.
Long-distance trains operated by Deutsche Bahn have been running on the route since 2017.
However, they are subsidized by the state of Baden-Württemberg as local transport, which means that passengers can also board with local transport tickets, as reported by the
Stuttgarter Nachrichten
.
This is a gray area for the 9-euro ticket, as it can only be used for local transport.
In the Deutsche Bahn app, it is already pointed out for the Gäubahn trains that local transport tickets are accepted, but not the 9-euro ticket.
Experts fear that the 9-euro ticket will provoke a lot of trouble
Experts fear that if the Gäubahn falls outside the scope of the 9-euro ticket, there could be a great deal of trouble and problems.
Matthias Gastel, rail expert for the Greens parliamentary group, said that he didn't want to "be in the shoes of those who have to check the tickets for DB, given the inevitable anger".
It is also becoming difficult to explain to customers why the special ticket for the Gäubahn does not apply, said Stefan Frey, environmental and transport officer at the State Nature Conservation Association.
The PRO BAHN Baden-Württemberg passenger association has already told
BW24
that the 9-euro ticket will do more harm than good.
The chairman Matthias Lieb is against the release of the route.
Especially at the weekend, the trains would then be overcrowded with 9-euro passengers and long-distance customers with seat reservations would no longer have a chance, he warns.
"People shouldn't try the 9-euro ticket for long distances, but rather in the regional area and when traveling by bus," says Matthias Lieb.
However, a final decision is still pending - the state and the railways are still negotiating, said a spokesman for the state transport ministry.