Chaos about a 9-euro ticket in Munich: Bahn is already becoming concrete – it should be really tight here

Created: 05/25/2022, 04:54

By: Andreas Thieme

Highly coveted: Munich residents queued up for the 9-euro ticket.

© Markus Goetzfried

The rush for the 9-euro ticket is enormous.

There were also long queues in front of the information centers of the Munich transport association on Monday in the state capital.

Munich - Is there anything for free?

Looks like it - and is almost right.

On Monday morning, long queues formed in front of the information centers of the Munich Transport Association (MVV) at the main train station and at Marienplatz because the people of Munich wanted to secure the 9-euro ticket.

This only applies from June 1st, but you can buy it now.

Since Sunday at the machines of the Munich Transport Company (MVG), since Monday at the service counters and via mobile phone.

The rush on all paths is huge.

The ticket was available in the MVV app from 10 a.m. – by 10.30 a.m. almost 600 tickets had already been sold only through this channel, says spokeswoman Franziska Hartmann.

That was even too much of a good thing: the servers were sometimes unable to cope with the onslaught, the app was overloaded – and anyone who clicked in got error messages.

This is what the people of Munich say about the 9-euro ticket:

Ursula Glinski (Gröbenzell): “I use public transport far too little.

But I want to change that - maybe the 9-euro ticket is exactly the incentive that is needed to use public transport more.

You can also make really nice trips with the ticket.

I intend to use it extensively.”

Nikolai Schulz (Munich): "I buy a monthly ticket regularly, so I won't necessarily use the ticket to travel more often - I already do that anyway.

But the action is definitely a really great thing.

I got all three tickets for June, July and August from the machine.”

The chaos also affected customers who wanted to buy another electronic ticket instead of the 9-euro ticket on their cell phone.

At times this was not possible.

Hartmann says: “We have placed a note on both the website and the app asking customers not to buy the ticket until the next few days.

At the same time, our service provider is working on increasing server capacities.”

9-euro ticket: MVG spokesman Maximilian Kaltner is amazed at the high demand

MVG spokesman Maximilian Kaltner is also amazed at the high demand: "We expected that tickets would be bought to about this extent, but we are amazed that so many buy them right away on the first few days - since the advance sale is even more so than a week.” Around 15,500 9-euro tickets were sold from Sunday to Monday at 11:30 a.m. at the MVG ticket machines.

The ticket is not only available on the MVV channels, Deutsche Bahn has also received many requests for the 9-euro ticket.

The ticket has been available since Monday on bahn.de, in the Navigator, at the machines and in the travel centers.

DB Regional boss Jörg Sandvoß says: “We are experiencing historically large access to our sales channels.

200,000 tickets were already sold early in the morning.” According to a spokesman, the following also applies to the train: “In some cases, online booking can take a little longer.”

Bahn warns of high occupancy rates due to the 9-euro ticket

The train reports that there can be high occupancy rates on heavily frequented connections and around popular excursion destinations.

In particular on the following connections: Werdenfelsbahn (Munich - Kochel, Munich - Garmisch-Partenkirchen), in the Allgäu region (Munich - Lindau, Munich - Oberstdorf and Munich - Augsburg - Ulm and Munich - Nuremberg. Travelers should just before weekends and during the holidays plan in time.

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Bahn expects significantly more crowds on trains in the coming months

Deutsche Bahn expects significantly more traffic on trains in the coming months.

“We drive with everything we have,” says Sandvoß.

The company hires additional employees.

Nevertheless, it's getting tight: "Of course, we will have a worse rate of punctuality due to the rush." ​​In some cases, there could be longer transfer times.

The 9-euro ticket is part of the nationwide relief package due to high inflation.

For 9 euros per month you can travel by bus, tram, subway, S-Bahn and regional trains.