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9-Euro-Ticket

bahn.com

51–60 of 598 posts

Re: 9-Euro-Ticket

#51
Very important caveat for all of you who are thinking, “woo hoo, no need to buy that EuRail pass! Or to buy an expensive ICE ticket!”

These tickets are good for all “Nah- und Regionalverkehr,” explicitly excluding ICE, IC, EC (international) and long-distance busses (like the one between Munich and Zürich)

If the train number begins with RE or RB, you’re good, but of course, those are the slow ones that stop in every village along the way.

This is for the benefit of people who live here and are struggling with 2 EUR/liter fuel, not the kind of people who blithely paid 60 EUR to take the ICE. There does not appear to be any residency requirement, but remember, you’re not the target market for this (unless you live here and are struggling with fuel prices…)

Re: 9-Euro-Ticket

#52
post #7
post #2

I think it's great, but honestly, placing it at 15€ would have made only a little difference to the consumer, who is already getting a lot for the value, and helped the railway operators a good deal. As a compromise the age of kids who can travel together with their parents for free could have been raised from 6 to 8 years.

Exactly the opposite. It should've been 0€, because then you: * don't have to sell tickets at all * don't have to check tickets in trains and reduce costs The overhead of selling tickets with the new price points might actually eat up all what's left of profits.

It's also an experiment. They need to know how people react and change their behavior with this cheap ticket. And they still need to check tickets anyway. And the price also serves as a kind of barrier to animate people to at least thing a moment, whether they really need the ticket and can "waste" the monety for it.

Re: 9-Euro-Ticket

#53
post #19

Populism. This will make the country consume more energy. There's a crisis and the solution is saving as much energy as possible. And help companies not go bankrupt. But that doesn't sell...

A lot of regional lines are already at max capacity in terms of rolling stock and track capacity. This will incentivise less car use for journeys where direct connections are available.

It will also give access to public transport to those in extreme poverty who have no other means of mobility, whom Germany has been prosecuting as criminals and putting in jail when their fines add up enough. Speeding and parking offenses are civil offenses. Public transport without a ticket? Felony.

Re: 9-Euro-Ticket

#54
post #10
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly the opposite. It should've been 0€, because then you: * don't have to sell tickets at all * don't have to check tickets in trains and reduce costs The overhead of selling tickets with the new price points might actually eat up all what's left of profits.

How much does checking tickets cost?

I'd also be curious for actual numbers, but certainly on the commuter GO Train in Ontario, it's basically a 3-4 person staffing arrangement, with one person at the back, one in the middle in the accessible coach, and 1-2 in the locomotive. Adding someone whose job it is to roam up and down the train checking tickets adds 25% to the personnel cost, which is why most fares aren't checked.

But quite apart from the person and their ticket-scanner, there's also the whole infrastructure associated with fare taking— fare-free advocates argue that if you get rid of the machines and websites and apps, and all the associated upkeep, it ends up being a wash. Of course this only counts if you're getting rid of all fares rather than doing a one-off summer special.

Re: 9-Euro-Ticket

#55
post #39

I can't seem to find information on whether it is possible to purchase the ticket as a non German citizen.

Yes, it would be a violation of EU law to restrict it.

No it wouldn't. You could say it's only for citizens of EU member states.

That's a restriction that wouldn't violate any EU law.

Re: 9-Euro-Ticket

#56
post #2

I think it's great, but honestly, placing it at 15€ would have made only a little difference to the consumer, who is already getting a lot for the value, and helped the railway operators a good deal. As a compromise the age of kids who can travel together with their parents for free could have been raised from 6 to 8 years.

> I think it's great, but honestly, placing it at 15€ would have made only a little difference The ticket exist to relieve citizens due to rising energy costs What a nice idea to double the price! i suggest to triple it, so they can make even more profits! Wait, i suggest aligning it to the cost of a similar travel with a car! Are you american by chance? https://www.stoag.de/en/dialog/neuigkeiten/detail/9-euro-tic...…

Maybe this time it's because of rising energy cost, but I remember there was very same deal for short time, little more than 10 years ago when I was visiting there. If one feels adventurous, I can highly recommend buying this ticket.

Re: 9-Euro-Ticket

#57
post #37
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much does checking tickets cost?

Germany has about 1000 railway locomotives operating 40k runs a day. A conductor job pays on average 50k€/yr. Most trains I've seen have more than one conductor, and you need to plan for weekends, shifts, time off, etc. but the lower bound should be easy to agree on 50M€/yr or 12.5M€ for the duration of the program? Then there is the entire infra to sell tickets online, in machines and in person. At the same time the…

>Most trains I've seen have more than one conductor

At least in Berlin which this covers most trains/buses/trams have 0 people checking and there's a few people going on random ones to occasionally check so the ratio here is probably 1 worker to 50+ vehicles.

Re: 9-Euro-Ticket

#60

I can't seem to find information on whether it is possible to purchase the ticket as a non German citizen.

The tickets aren't personalized (some regular monthly passes for public transport are/were though), so you should be fine. Since they aren't personalized and there is no way to check who the owner actually is, I would even expect them to be transferable. Edit: looks like I was wrong -> see replies. You can also search for "9-Euro-Ticket übertragbar" (übertragbar = transferable) yourself to get a number of different G…

Normally DB day tickets, even bought at the ticket machine, are not transferable. You have to write your name on the back - in theory, before the first time you encounter a ticket controller - and be prepared to produce ID matching the name.
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