Unique pilot project in Regensburg: Housing cooperative sponsors tenant ticket for public transport

Created: 09/30/2022, 19:46

By: Stefan Aigner

RVV (left to Sales Manager Johannes Raab) and Werkvolk (pictured: Supervisory Board Chairman Dagmar Kierner and Branch Manager Sascha Kierner) are cooperating on the “Tenant Ticket” pilot project.

© Alisa Baldus/RVV

Together with the Regensburger Verkehrsverbund, a housing cooperative wants to make a contribution to the mobility turnaround - the tenant ticket project.

Regensburg – With a joint pilot project, the Regensburger Verkehrsverbund (RVV) and the Amberger Genossenschaft Wohnungsbau undsiedlungswerk Werkvolk eG want to support climate protection and advance the mobility revolution.

With a so-called tenant ticket, tenants of the cooperative apartments can use the RVV buses and trains from October 1 for only 24 euros a month - instead of the regular 39 euros.

Tenant ticket in Regensburg: the cooperative gives a subsidy of ten euros to its tenants

The housing cooperative, which holds almost 1100 apartments in Regensburg, makes this price possible with a subsidy of ten euros per tenant ticket.

The RVV bears five euros of this discount.

Existing tenants can obtain the ticket, which can be canceled monthly, from the cooperative.

In the case of new rentals, the ticket should become a mandatory part of the contract.

She came up with this idea through examples from colleagues in other federal states, explains Dagmar Kierner, Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board of Werkvolk eG.

The Amberger Genossenschaft is the first cooperative to implement such a model in Bavaria.

Tenant ticket in Regensburg: "Companies in particular need to rethink more."

"As the largest housing cooperative in the Upper Palatinate, ecological and social sustainability are very important to us," says Kierner.

In view of the climate crisis, it is important to rethink more - as a society and especially as a company.

The cooperative had already taken a first step in 2019 by sponsoring two electric car sharing vehicles in cooperation with the Regensburg municipal utility.

Since then, these two e-cars have been available to tenants centrally in the cooperative's residential complexes at a reduced rate.

The cooperation with the RVV that has now taken place is a continuation of this initiative for sustainable mobility.

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Tenant ticket in Regensburg: RVV hopes for imitators

"Bus travel is not only cheaper than a private car, but also much more climate-friendly," says Kierner.

“However, in order for as many people as possible to use it, public transport must be well developed, barrier-free and affordable for everyone.” The tenant ticket is intended to make a contribution to this.

"Hopefully, even more housing companies will measure themselves against this in order to take a significant step towards a sustainable future together."

RVV representative Johannes Raab also has this hope.

If the project is successful, one is "optimistic that other housing associations in the RVV area will be willing to promote the climate-friendly mobility of their residents in the future," says Raab.

Tenant ticket in Regensburg: Financing also via a "solidarity fund"

According to the cooperative, the subsidy for the tenant ticket is financed on the one hand by increasing the price of parking spaces for cars and the saving of parking spaces to be created in the future in new buildings, as well as by a "solidarity fund", in which since the company was founded around 20 years ago, one cent per square meters of living space has flowed.

In addition to financing sustainable products such as the tenant ticket, the fund also serves as a hardship fund for cooperative tenants without assets who are in need through no fault of their own.