Without a smartphone and internet access, buying the Deutschlandticket can be a challenge. This is especially a problem for seniors.
Cologne – "For 49 euros a month, citizens can use public transport throughout Germany. And this is independent of the federal state, transport association or tariff area." For example, the German government is announcing the Deutschlandticket on its website. The ticket is intended to relieve people financially in the face of high energy prices and at the same time make public transport more attractive. The sale has been going on since April. Since 1 May, the 49-euro ticket can be used regularly – if you can get it without any problems.
Especially in the last few days and weeks, the calls and letters regarding the Deutschlandticket to Heike Felscher have piled up. The consultant for fundamental issues at the Federal Association of Senior Citizens' Organizations (BAGSO) is increasingly being told about the hurdles that many older people in Germany in particular have to overcome in order to be able to buy the Deutschlandticket at all. After all, if you don't have a smartphone and don't have internet access, buying a ticket can be a real problem.
Without a smartphone, the purchase of the Deutschlandticket can be quite complicated in some regions (symbolic image/montage). © Christian Ohde/Imago
49-euro ticket only with Smarphone? "That excludes a lot of older people"
"In principle, we welcome the Deutschlandticket and see it as positive that there is now a ticket that can be used throughout Germany and that will certainly be accepted by many older people. But from our point of view, not everyone has yet been given the opportunity to participate," says Felscher in an interview with 24RHEIN from Ippen.Media. Above all, she criticizes the fact that sales are so strongly focused on the digital sector. "The problem from our point of view is that the Deutschlandticket and many other areas are only thinking digitally, but not on two tracks. That excludes a lot of older people."
Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) had originally planned to offer the Deutschlandticket only digitally. After criticism from several federal states and from the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV), they also agreed on a chip card solution and, by the end of 2023, also on a paper solution. No one should be excluded, several federal states demanded. But despite the compromise solution, it is not so easy, especially for many older people in Germany, not to be excluded here.
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Deutschlandticket only digital: Seniors have a problem
Because simply going to the nearest customer center to buy the ticket without a smartphone is not possible in some places. For example, Deutsche Bahn sells the Deutschlandticket in its travel centres, but only as a digital solution. "Customers who would like personal advice at the DB Travel Centre will receive support from our employees there in taking out the digital subscription," says Deutsche Bahn. So the Deutschlandticket is sold there, but only digitally and not as a chip card. "It's just that doesn't help anyone who doesn't have a smartphone," Felscher emphasizes.
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Although there are many transport companies and transport associations in Germany that sell the 49-euro ticket as a chip card, in NRW, for example, the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (VRR) and the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg (VRS), but by no means all of them. "For days, we have been coming across cases where people have been telling us that certain transport associations do not offer chip cards at all," says Felscher. She cites Zwickau and Chemnitz as examples, although Chemnitz is currently examining whether the chip card solution can still be made possible after all. Other transport associations would offer chip cards, but only with an online order.
Drive 70 kilometers just to buy the 49-euro ticket
But it is often even worse in rural areas. There, it is "particularly difficult" for those affected, reports the BAGSO consultant and gives a concrete example: "I received a call from someone who had to travel from Lörrach to Freiburg to get the Deutschlandticket as a chip card." This corresponds to a distance of almost 70 kilometers – just to buy the Deutschlandticket. There is no analogue solution in Lörrach. According to its own statements on its website, the Regio Verkehrsverbund Lörrach (RVL) only offers the 49-euro ticket digitally via smartphone. But it is also similar in many other rural regions, Felscher emphasizes.
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"From our side, it would have been easiest if Deutsche Bahn and the customer centres of the transport associations simply had forms that you can fill out and hand in on site, and then you get your chip card sent to you afterwards. That would have been the easiest option for people who don't have a smartphone or a computer," she explains. But at present, such a variant is not yet in sight.
Demand for a low-threshold offer for the purchase of Deutschlandticket
For the next few months, the BAGSO consultant still has hope that the situation will improve: "We have contacted the Ministry of Transport again and are now waiting for the time being." If this does not lead to the desired solution, BAGSO could perhaps even take action itself.
"Because we are well networked, we are considering contacting two or three transport companies who may be able to create a low-threshold offer in consultation with us. So that we can then say to people: 'Just buy the ticket from this or that company,'" says Felscher. Because the Deutschlandticket is valid nationwide, it can in principle also be purchased anywhere in Germany.
If you don't have a smartphone or an internet connection, you could, for example, order a form to purchase the ticket by telephone from an appropriate transport company, which would then be sent by post. After filling it out, it will be returned and the purchase would be possible, Felscher suggests. It doesn't sound uncomplicated either, but for many it would probably be easier than searching for the nearest place where the ticket can be bought as a chip card. (bs) Fair and independent information about what is happening in Germany and NRW – subscribe to our free 24RHEIN newsletter here.
