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Rush on the train and bus: What you need to know about the nine

2022-05-23T14:17:35.538Z


The railways and many transport associations have started selling the nine-euro ticket. The offer is valid from June 1st. Answers to the most important questions.


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Smartphone advertising for the nine-euro ticket (in Berlin)

Photo: Jörg Carstensen / dpa

Will the capacity of buses and trains be sufficient for this?

According to surveys, half of Germany wants to use the nine-euro ticket for local transport - and a good part of them seemed to be in the digital queue on Monday morning at the same time.

The rush was probably too strong for the servers, and several booking platforms and apps were temporarily unavailable on Monday morning.

The typical error message: »At the moment too many users are accessing our booking system at the same time.

Please try again at a later date.« And this despite the fact that Deutsche Bahn had also increased its server capacity.

This Monday, Deutsche Bahn and several transport associations started the discount offer decided by the Bundestag and Bundesrat.

The train sold around 200,000 tickets in the first few hours – to the lucky ones who got through.

Individual transport associations such as Berlin or Hamburg had already started selling at the weekend, with the Berlin BVG getting rid of 130,000 tickets by Monday morning.

In Wuppertal, those interested could even buy the ticket on Wednesday before the Bundestag and Bundesrat approved it.

Railway and transport associations describe the action as an "opportunity for local transport" but also as a "huge experiment".

A word of caution: nobody should expect everything to go smoothly.

Here are the most important questions and answers.

Where and when is the ticket valid?

From June 1st to August 31st, nationwide on all means of public transport - whether regional train, underground, S-Bahn, tram, bus, ferry, cable car, suspension or cog railway.

It is more important to know where it does not apply: in long-distance traffic, such as the ICE, IC or long-distance buses and trains from private railway competitors such as Flix.

A separate ticket for nine euros must be purchased for the months of June, July and August.

How and where do I get the ticket?

The most used and most convenient way is one of many smartphone apps.

Deutsche Bahn, for example, offers the DB Navigator in addition to its web booking portal, which also contains timetable information (the ICE/IC/EC, Interregio and express train options must be deactivated for the trip with the nine-euro ticket).

Local transport associations such as Rhein-Ruhr, Rhein-Main or Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe have their own apps.

In addition, the ticket is to be offered in the ticket machines and customer centers of all transport companies in Germany.

The Naumburg tram in Saxony-Anhalt has printed the tickets on paper tear-off sheets and offers them in the traditional way on the train.

It doesn't matter where the ticket comes from: With the Munich app or the Naumburg ticket, it's also valid on Sylt.

So, if the DB side is overloaded, it's a convenient way to bypass it.

Why isn't there a nationwide platform?

That could be the greatest lasting effect of this action, which is also surprising for the operators: overcoming the small-state nature of the hundreds of associations and individual companies, each of which watches over their own tariff systems and passenger data.

The Association of German Transport Companies (VDV) is currently working on a uniform app called »Mobility Inside«.

At the start, only a small number of associations such as Rhine-Main, Rhine-Neckar, Munich and Leipzig are taking part.

But the app is also supposed to offer the nine-euro ticket and thus meet the requirement »Germany-wide«.

However, she still has to finish it quickly.

According to the VDV, it will be available for download before June 1st.

How much do I save?

Since a number of offers nationwide can be replaced with just one ticket, there is hardly any upper limit.

A monthly ticket for the entire Hamburg HVV network alone costs 262 euros.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, an average household (i.e. including everyone who does not use local transport) paid around 24 euros per month for buses and trains in 2020.

In 2019, without the Corona effect, it was 33 euros.

Since 2015, tickets have risen 19 percent, more than overall consumer price inflation of 16.2 percent.

Now, exceptionally, they're going to be drastically cheaper, if only for three months.

And what do I pay as a citizen?

The federal government has promised the federal states, which are responsible for financing local transport, compensation of 2.5 billion euros.

The money comes from the federal budget, so it is raised through taxes and debt.

Loss of income of 3.2 billion euros is expected for the simultaneous tank discount on petrol and diesel.

Can I buy tickets for all three months at once?

Again, it depends on the individual company, but usually yes.

If you cannot find the option with your preferred transport company, you can switch to other platforms at any time.

With Deutsche Bahn, for example, all three special tickets can be purchased immediately.

Will more expensive single or monthly tickets continue to be offered during this time?

Day and group tickets are often still offered, even if they are more expensive than the nine-euro ticket.

Different rules apply to them, in some cases friends and family or bicycles can be taken along.

Nevertheless, many transport companies are trying to remove confusing purchase options from the offer.

For Hamburg, for example, the following applies: Within the three months of the campaign, all HVV monthly tickets and also all single tickets that cost more than nine euros will be replaced by the nine-euro monthly ticket.

Even with the BVG in Berlin, the normal monthly ticket in the ticket app should not be bookable during the three months.

Deutsche Bahn, on the other hand, wants to maintain its usual subscription offers during the campaign period between June and August, but then only debit nine euros in each of these months.

What happens if I already have a ticket subscription?

According to Deutsche Bahn and the transport associations, the following applies in principle: If you already have a monthly or annual subscription, you shouldn’t have to worry about anything else.

"Reductions are automatically made for existing subscriptions, so that only nine euros are incurred per month," says the Berlin-Brandenburg transport association, for example.

The reductions will later be transferred back to the respective customer account.

At BVG alone, this affects 870,000 regular customers, and more than two million in the Rhein-Ruhr transport association.

They didn't want to scare them away with a bait offer that only newcomers to public transport would benefit from.

Is the nine-euro ticket also valid for holders of job, semester or social tickets?

Yes.

According to the VDV, your subscriptions and semester tickets are valid nationwide for the three months.

They should also be reimbursed for the difference.

In many places, however, it is still unclear in what form and, above all, when the refund will be made.

According to the VDV, it could take until the winter semester for the university administration to finish the accounting.

Is the ticket now for commuting or for travel?

The action is intended by the federal government as part of the relief package, more precisely: as compensation for the fuel discount that applies at the same time, in order to promote ecological alternatives in addition to the car.

But with the nationwide validity during the summer holidays, one thing is clear: this is also good for a cheap holiday.

The journey is slower than with the ICE, but a route like Berlin-Hamburg can also be covered in a good four hours with a change.

It's going to be full, isn't it?

Safe in some places at certain times.

Many trains are likely to be overloaded, especially on long weekends such as Pentecost or at the beginning and end of the holidays, especially when holiday and commuter traffic mix on Friday afternoons.

Railway union leader Klaus Hommel warned against "evacuation of overcrowded trains and stations closed due to overload", for example on routes such as Hamburg-Westerland, Dresden-Bad Schandau, Mannheim-Lake Constance, the Rhine rail or the main stations of Nuremberg and Ulm.

A spokesman for the railway subsidiary DB Regio advises “intensive preparation, some consideration and mutual understanding”.

And draws the comparison to the car – there are also occasional traffic jams.

Will the offer at least be improved?

To some extent, but hardly as much as the growing demand.

DB Regio promises: "We'll move everything we have." From June 1, 50 additional trains would be deployed, and over 700 additional service and security staff - four times as many as in a normal summer.

Some countries are also increasing their offer, but not many trains and not enough staff can be found that quickly.

There is also money from the federal government, which initiated the campaign, just to cover the missing income from the normal ticket prices.

Can I take my bike with me?

In principle yes.

Almost everywhere, however, you need your own bicycle ticket, for which there are different local tariffs.

In many urban transport networks, it is not possible to take your vehicle with you during peak traffic times.

The Pro Bahn passenger association had called for such a ban on bicycles to be introduced for some regional train routes in the nine-euro phase.

It didn't happen that way.

Deutsche Bahn only warns that “bicycles cannot always be guaranteed”.

Can I reserve seats?

no

Reservation options are usually only available for long-distance transport.

The nine-euro ticket is valid for local transport.

Can I book the first class?

No, the nine-euro ticket is generally valid for second class.

Depending on the network, however, subscribers have the option of switching to first class for a surcharge.

Do children also need a nine-euro ticket?

According to Deutsche Bahn, 6 to 14-year-olds need their own nine-euro ticket or another ticket;

taking it with you free of charge is excluded with the nine-euro ticket.

Children under the age of six generally travel free of charge.

what about dogs

The nine-euro ticket is only valid for its owner.

Whether dogs have to be paid for in addition depends on the tariff of the local transport association.

One allows you to take your dog with you, while the other requires an additional ticket for your four-legged friend.

What does everyone actually have with Sylt?

Cheap to the island of the rich - the nine-euro ticket triggered a social media trend, in memory of the Schönes-Wochenende ticket introduced in the 1990s: At that time, Hamburg punks came in groups of five for 15 Deutschmarks Westerland and back again.

Deutsche Bahn also collects likes at the expense of the island.

What happens after the promotion ends?

The usual tariffs apply again on September 1st – which means that it will be drastically more expensive again compared to the nine-euro ticket.

Anyone who has bought the ticket does not automatically end up in a subscription.

The most exciting question will be whether the experience will convince many new customers of bus and train or whether it will put them off because of the congestion.

The disillusionment could be particularly great in December and January: Most local transport tariffs are only adjusted annually, and then the transport companies are likely to present the bill for 2022 with a time delay - electricity and fuel have become drastically more expensive, personnel costs have also risen and the nine-euro Action also causes uncovered expense.

Industry representatives fear that private bus companies, for example, will go bankrupt as early as autumn.

In rural areas in particular, local transport services would then become worse instead of better.

ak/dpa/AFP

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2022-05-23

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