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9-euro ticket: majority of Germans for extension

2022-08-08T15:02:10.350Z


In three weeks, the cheap train travel in summer will actually end. But 55 percent of Germans want it to continue. According to the survey, supporters of one party in particular are very decisive.


Enlarge image

Deutsche Bahn regional train

Photo: Stefan Sauer / picture alliance / dpa

According to the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV), more than 30 million people owned the 9-euro ticket in June.

At the same time, according to the Federal Statistical Office, “nationwide movements in rail transport” in June were an average of 42 percent higher than in June 2019.

However, the discount campaign should end at the end of August. So far, neither the three partners in the traffic light coalition nor the federal and state governments have been able to agree on a possible continuation.

A majority of Germans would regret that.

Read the background to the Civey methodology here.

55 percent would like an extension of the ticket, with which public transport can be used throughout Germany for 9 euros per month.

34 percent of Germans are against it.

This was the result of a survey by the opinion research institute Civey for SPIEGEL.

FDP Finance Minister Christian Lindner meanwhile sees no scope for an extension in the federal budget.

No funds were available, "every euro would have to be mobilized elsewhere through cuts."

In any case, Lindner does not seem to be a friend of the discount campaign for buses and trains: he is generally not convinced of a "free mentality à la unconditional basic income", said the liberal of the "Augsburger Allgemeine".

In a concept paper, leading politicians from the Greens had recently proposed two tickets as a successor to the 9-euro ticket: a regional ticket for 29 euros and a nationwide ticket for 49 euros a month.

Both should continue to apply only to local and regional transport.

For financing, the Greens want to curtail the company car privilege, which companies can use to deduct the costs of company cars from taxes.

The finance minister also disagreed.

It is "left-wing polemics to describe the flat-rate taxation of a company car as a privilege, because it is above all a tax simplification," says Lindner.

In the SPIEGEL survey, it is the supporters of the Greens in particular who support an extension of the 9-euro ticket: more than two-thirds are in favor.

The majority of supporters of the left and SPD are also in favor of continuing the discount campaign.

According to initial scientific evaluations, the massively discounted ticket does not mean that many people leave their cars at home.

"You have to be careful with a lot of the current data," said Philipp Kosok, the public transport project manager for the Agora Verkehrswende interest group.

Nevertheless, it is indicated "that we have no clear climate advantage with this action".

Among other things, surveys by the VDV and a study in the greater Munich area recently revealed that only around three percent of those surveyed left their car in favor of local public transport.

sef/dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-08-08

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