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Lessons from the 9-euro ticket: A permanent follow-up regulation
Photo: RONALD WITTEK / EPA
How should local and regional transport continue after the nine-euro ticket?
The Greens parliamentary group leader Britta Haßelmann now called for a permanent follow-up regulation.
"Using the ticket shows what a model for success it is," Haßelmann told the Berliner Tagesspiegel on Sunday.
Affordable and simple offers where people do not have to think about tariff zones are used.
Haßelmann said, however, that the current offer could certainly not be continued “one-to-one”.
This also includes the expansion of local public transport.
"But we're thinking about what a permanent successor to the nine-euro ticket might look like: What would be an attractive offer that people would also take advantage of?" The federal and state governments are called upon to develop ideas together.
As early as June, the German social association called for a cheap offer even after the nine-euro ticket had expired.
As a possible solution, he named an annual ticket for 365 euros, such as that available in Vienna.
According to a Civey survey for SPIEGEL, 54 percent of those entitled to vote are in favor of such a ticket, which is then valid nationwide on regional trains, trams and buses.
Only 26 percent are against, the rest are undecided.
A decision on how to proceed will be made in the fall
Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing recently commented on the time after the nine-euro ticket.
The experiences with the ticket, which runs until the end of August, should first be thoroughly evaluated.
"We will then draw the necessary conclusions from autumn," Wissing told the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung".
The most important lesson he draws from the enthusiasm for the nine-euro ticket is: "Structural changes are needed."
He can understand that the financing of public transport is a major challenge for the federal states, the minister said.
»But it is also clear to everyone that the federal government cannot permanently finance a monthly ticket for nine euros.
That would be around ten billion euros a year.«
Many now use the train instead of the car
The nine-euro ticket has so far resulted in more people taking the train.
At the same time, car traffic decreased somewhat.
This was the result of a special evaluation of mobile phone data, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Thursday.
The evaluation compared mobile phone data from May and June 2019 - i.e. before the corona crisis - with data from the same months of this year.
According to this, the volume of traffic on the rails was on average 42 percent higher in June than in 2019. In May, i.e. before the nine-euro ticket, it was only three percent.
The data shows a particularly significant increase on short distances between 30 and 100 kilometers, i.e. more in local and regional transport - in the first week of June it was 58 percent more than in 2019.
AFP/dpa/taf
