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9-Euro-Ticket

bahn.com

261–270 of 598 posts

Re: 9-Euro-Ticket

#261
post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Less/no expensive accounting Not quite. Many people (eg commuters) have monthly train passes, almost all students have a "Semesterticket" (university enrolment is about 350 EUR every half year, but that includes all public transport in the region). Now, the 9-Euro-Ticket is cheaper than those options, so out of fairness the holders of all those tickets are getting a refund of 3 months worth of their pass minus 3x…

I am going to need a citation for the substantial burden everything I read is that they are annoyed but its easy to do.

Could well be that the complaining is exaggerated, but there is definitely complaining.

> "Theoretically, all students would need to be reimbursed or credited 79.98 EUR each," says [speaker of Bochum University] Dessaul. An enormous administrative effort, because almost 43,000 young people study there.

> The AStA (student council) [of Duisburg-Essen University] would have to initiate 40,000 bank transfers [for the refunds]. "This would be an incredible effort, especially given the limited number of people we have in treasury, finance, and on the board, that would be extremely difficult to manage and would probably also take considerable time"

https://www.businessinsider.de/politik/deutschland/trotz-ber...

Re: 9-Euro-Ticket

#262
post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Related: We're a Czech couple, currently planning our vacation in the Netherlands, and we too are on a very tight budget. I wanted so bad to get there by train and spend the week there riding Dutch trains all over the place, but man, the train journey there and back is just as long as a car trip (~10-12 hours) and costs at least twice as much. Looks like we'll be taking our 50 MPG car instead and since it will be the…

Now you know why so many still use the car in the Netherlands. "Dutch public transport is the most expensive in Europe": https://www.iamexpat.nl/expat-info/dutch-expat-news/dutch-pu...

> Dutch public transport is the most expensive in Europe

Only because the UK is no longer in the EU.

Re: 9-Euro-Ticket

#263

The German government did that to compensate for rising gasoline prices. While I think that is in general appreciated by the public, I am not quite sure how many people aged 45 above will use this ticket. They trains will be super crowded this summer and people will just prefer to use their car instead.

It will be an absolute relief to the elderly/near-elderly poor, for starters.

Like the woman I saw in the grocery store a few weeks ago on the verge of tears because the cheapest cooking oil available was 6 EUR/750ml bottle organic canola oil, and that’s still often the case.

Inflation in Germany is every bit as bad as it is in the US, so this is also a bit of a welfare payment to all the people who take public transit anyway because they can’t afford to drive.

I’m 100% for this, by the way; it’s an excellent use of my tax Euros. It will probably make the U-Bahn less pleasant for me, but that’s ok.

Re: 9-Euro-Ticket

#264
post #101

I'm extremely not excited about how insanely rammed the public transportation is going to be for the next three months Already here in Hamburg the busses are not at all empty!

If there's such an uptick in demand it would show that price was what kept people from using public transport. In that case I'm sure there will be a lot of pressure to make travel more affordable. So far, many claimed that a lack of availability was the reason public transport wasn't used more. I guess the next three months are a good way to validate that.

A few years ago they already did some smaller-scale experiments in a few cities regarding fares and service offerings and the conclusion was clearly that better service was more effective in attracting additional passengers.

Also according to https://www.science.lu/de/faktencheck-gratis-oepnv/was-bring..., while some smaller cities who have experimented with free public transport have seen substantial increases in passenger numbers (but still often only a limited number of conversions from car drivers), the biggest city that tried this so far (Tallinn) only saw an increase in passenger numbers of 8 %. In the recent case of Luxembourg, unfortunately the effects of Covid make it rather difficult to draw any valid conclusions.

While I am not opposed to some moderate fare reductions, it should be kept in mind that in Germany, the average farebox recovery ration for local and regional public transport before Covid was around 75 %. Making public transport completely free would therefore mean quadrupling operating subsidies – and if through some miracle politics was really committed to spend that much more and for the long term, I'd much rather see the majority of that amount being spend on better services.

Re: 9-Euro-Ticket

#265
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For all the Americans. Converting from euros to USD and liters to gallons, gas is roughly $12 a gallon at this moment.

Your math is off by 50%. A gallon is 3.785 litres, and the euro is roughly $1.05. So 2 euros per litre = one gallon costs $8.

For reference gas in the USA costs between $5.60 (mostly in California) and $3.60 per gallon. (According to GasBuddy.com)

Re: 9-Euro-Ticket

#266

The German government did that to compensate for rising gasoline prices. While I think that is in general appreciated by the public, I am not quite sure how many people aged 45 above will use this ticket. They trains will be super crowded this summer and people will just prefer to use their car instead.

Also it is completely useless for people living on the countryside. The nearest train station is a 20 minute drive away from where I live, so this does nothing for me. Still better than nothing, I guess.

Well, this is part of a package deal where they also reduce gasoline pricing.

Re: 9-Euro-Ticket

#267
post #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…

Germany has since forever had the Schönes Wochenende ticket which is a similar deal that can be used during the weekend. No need to be a resident or whatever. This is just a similar ticket that can be used during the summer holidays.

It’s very nice because as long as you don’t mind it taking a lot of time you can take the train on holidays for very little money.

Re: 9-Euro-Ticket

#268

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…

There are long distance trains like the RE (or ICE, which is not covered by this ticket) which are designed around everyone being seated, and there are commuter trains like the S-Bahn which are designed to have enough seating space for normal hours and lots of standing space for rush hour. The former are very uncomfortable when overfilled, the latter are designed around it in terms of ventilation, number of doors etc.

I've been in a couple of people-shoving-level crowded commuter trains when traveling to popular consumer trade fairs, and it was ok. Most people took it as part of the experience.

The biggest issue will be people trying to cross the country, packing 40 year old REs beyond their limit in the hottest time of year.

Re: 9-Euro-Ticket

#269
post #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…

>This is for the benefit of people who live here and are struggling with 2 EUR/liter If 2 EUR/liter is too much for Germany, than it's enormous for my Eastern European country. I know we should support the war and sanctions and all those nice things, but some poor people depend on transportation for their living. If it costs too much, they might not be able to work. Already surges in food prices and utilities prices…

Germany is a rich country with poor people.

Re: 9-Euro-Ticket

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, there are! For example, I have travelled between Strasbourg and Basel (Switzerland) on a regional train, as well as between Milan and Nice, and between Nice and Barcelona (changing trains at the Spanish border due to the change of rail gauge). There's also a regional line connecting Barcelona and Puigcerdà (a town in the Spanish Pyrenees) which at certain times continues its service a further ~5km and terminates…

There are also trains between Denmark and Sweden, and I'd be surprised if there's not similar things going on in the Benelux area.

True. In fact, that reminded me that I have also taken regional trains between Copenhagen and Malmö.
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