The 9-euro ticket is at least a partial success - but shows the Achilles heel of the railway

Created: 06/30/2022, 14:32

By: Dirk Walter

The effect of the 9-euro ticket must not fizzle out in September 2022, comments Dirk Walter.

© Arne Dedert/dpa/Klaus Haag

The 9-euro ticket seems to be getting more praise than criticism.

However, it is a success with cunning limitations.

A comment by Dirk Walter.

Munich – Buckets of malice, even from train fans, initially poured over the 9-euro ticket.

But the army of fundamental critics has shrunk.

The great popularity of the 9-euro ticket proves the proponents right.

However, it is a success with certain limitations.

The cheap ticket has triggered a boom in tourist traffic in particular.

However, it would be important for the traffic turnaround that commuters also leave their cars at home and switch to the train permanently.

Because of the 9-euro ticket, one or the other may have taken the S-Bahn, but in order to make this permanent, intelligent connection offers are necessary after the end of the cheap ticket from September.

Otherwise the effect of the ticket will be lost.

9-euro ticket: Shameful range of routes in Bavaria

However, the sometimes overcrowded trains to the excursion regions show once again that the infrastructure is the Achilles' heel of the railways.

You can't do one to leave out the other.

So: The growth can only be managed with more tracks.

In rural Bavaria in particular, people would perhaps like to travel more by train, if only they could.

The range of routes is shameful for a modern high-tech country, as the desolate condition of the railway in Werdenfelser Land shows once again.

Recent initiatives from the Bavarian Ministry of Transport show that knowledge is growing here.

After all.

Its a lot to do.