Especially for traveling across Germany, this ticket isn't quite useful, however I feel like it is marketed as "free traveling across Germany for a month" which isn't really the case. Am wondering how everything will play out next couple of months.
> "free traveling across Germany for a month" It's 3 months
No, it's 1 month (in a 3 month period):
> For 9 euros, you can travel throughout Germany on local/regional trains for a whole month in June, July or August.
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...
It’ll move energy use from highly inefficient personal vehicles burning gasoline to highly efficient trains using mostly renewable electricity, during the summer where more than enough electricity is available.
If this was really about saving energy, they wouldn't also simultaneously lower gas taxes during the same period as well.
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…
> 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. Well, that is not exactly true now, is it. REs do actually skip the vast majority of "villages" and are far from being the slow ones, comparatively. Anyway, for comparisons sake here is some Hamburg -> Berlin options: - By car (with low traffic, according to GMaps): 3h20 - Regional…
Of course, as with all train connections, you have to add the time to get to/from the station and some buffer.
When it gets crowded in Tokyo trains you are literally pushed against each other, back to front people against people, specially bad in summer where the aircon cannot keep up. That's only at 9am normally though, and so I do not consider jobs that make me be in the office at that time (9:30~10 is an order of magnitude better). WFH has been a blessing to Tokyo. So it was funny when I visited my sister in a rural town i…
> they have powerful ventilation and aircon systems ... well ... the ICEs AC is known to fail regularly at elevated temperatures :-)
Well, they were designed to survive everything except an every-100-years summer (36°C sustained outdoor temperatures) back in the 80s, which now happens to be every summer.
Even the trains ordered in 2000 were designed for an every-100-years summer (40°C sustained outdoor temperatures) which now some regions are hitting every year as well.
The issue isn’t the ACs, the real issue is climate change ;)
Especially for traveling across Germany, this ticket isn't quite useful, however I feel like it is marketed as "free traveling across Germany for a month" which isn't really the case. Am wondering how everything will play out next couple of months.
> "free traveling across Germany for a month" It's 3 months
From the linked page:
> The 9-Euro-Ticket is available in the period from 1 June 2022 to 31 August 2022.
> It is valid for one calendar month, from 00:00 on the 1st until 24:00 on the 30th/31st.
> I can't seem to find information on whether it is possible to purchase the ticket as a non German citizen. Biggest hurdle will be getting a Germany ticket machine to accept a regular credit card! But otherwise, isn't discriminating based on nationality for good and services illegal?
Credit cards aren't regular in Europe. They accept Maestro debit cards though, which almost everyone has, and cash.
EMV2-compatible debit/credit cards work pretty widely. The real issue is that some countries have locally-popular cards that don't work in that scheme (Dutch old Maestro variant, some german cards, etc.) or have very annoying compatibility issues (my old "Visa Electron", once very popular in Poland and which tripped UK card systems like crazy) and availability of card payments differs across EU - capping card fees and speeding up transactions thanks to EMV helped there a lot, but I remember hearing stories of Italian shops in touristy areas getting card readers... because of Polish visitors, who were accustomed to wide availability of cards (last local bastion of cash only was farmer's market nearby - now every more established stand has one)
Just search for any Norddeich-Bremen connection in the affected three months on the DB route planner with "only local transport" ticked and you will see the label on every second train. Well, after clicking "Show more information" and carefully reading the grey on white text. Edit: I tried in English and the warning didn't show up... Hopefully this link works as an example: https://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/traininfo…
Ok, that's apparently a special case, that's an Intercity train (as can be seen from the "Operator: DB Fernverkehr AG" on the page above) that can usually also be used with regional tickets, but DB apparently decided that doesn't apply to the 9 € ticket. The trains are painted in DB's "long distance" livery, but I'm not sure how many passengers would interpret that as a clue that the 9 € ticket may not be valid... Pa…
People are used to use a regional ticket with those trains, and they show an "RE" number. This will likely lead to loads of discussions on the train if they will follow through with that.
I would argue making it free and keeping it free would have been a cool move. - Less/no expensive accounting - Less/no personnel for checking tickets - Less/no personnel for prosecuting people who don't have tickets - Less/no ticket vending machines (and all the maintenance that comes with it) - Less traffic on the roads since you can't beat "free" and hence less emissions (at least in hamburg trains operate on green…
> I would argue making it free and keeping it free would have been a cool move. Here in Germany, there were many voices in favour of making the ticket completely free. What I heard about the reason for not doing so is that the government wanted to easily measure the actual demand in different regions for such a "free" ticket. So the price is low enough that anybody who wants to ride practically "for free" is buying i…
Do you have any kind of source for this? I heard of complaints regarding this ticket already, I do not see this coming back, let alone for free.
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…
Thank you for the disclaimer of the speed. Useful for travelers to note the time difference! Yet there is no need to guilt people into it being "German only". The ticket is priced on the slow trains so it already selects for people who care more about money than time. Anyone who chooses a 9 Euro, 4-hour train over a dozens of Euro 1.5 hour train is already not the "upper class".
Hmmm, didn’t realize it was coming off as “German only” - I wanted people to realize that this was designed for the benefit of less-wealthy residents of Germany, not the convenience of tourists, but that there’s nothing stopping anyone from using it.
Since it’s not obvious, I’m not German, merely a permanent resident (US citizen).