401–410 of 598 posts
For comparison: The equivalent, non-subsidised "Quer durchs Land"-Ticket costs 42€ for one person per day (70€ for 5 people per day) -- https://www.bahn.de/angebot/regio/qdl
OTOH, the 9-Euro-Ticket is for all (!) local transport (incl. bus, ferry, ...) and regional trains. That means here in Hamburg I can use all bus, underground train and ferry connections. It's also all month, 24hours/day.
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In other words, your transportation patterns don’t let you reduce your oil use, so you’re doing your part by paying slightly higher taxes to benefit those who can? That doesn’t seem like a bad thing
You mean I‘m partially funding their cheap transportation? Where is the money for these cheap tickets coming from? But your comment kinda makes sense. It’s not really worth trying much in Germany. The more one tries, the more one becomes the source of funding for others while not really getting any personal gratification or gain.
It's unfortunate that you can't derive any gratification or gain from your more-than-half of the extra money you make when trying more. But it probably won't help to blame it on less wealthy people commuting to work.
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You mean I‘m partially funding their cheap transportation? Where is the money for these cheap tickets coming from? But your comment kinda makes sense. It’s not really worth trying much in Germany. The more one tries, the more one becomes the source of funding for others while not really getting any personal gratification or gain.
How do you travel and commute? By car? If so, millions of Germans who don't own a care are funding your means of transport.
The ticket is for local transport operators, too. One can also buy the ticket there. A subscription ticket will be automatically converted. One can for example buy it at the local Verkehrsverbund (transit district), which here serves in Hamburg several million people with all kinds of regional trains, city trains, underground trains, busses, ferries, ...
Thus one can use all (!!!) local and regional public transport for 9 Euro for a month, 24 hours a day, for all of Germany, for all public transport operators. The is done for three months, each month costs 9 Euro.
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We had cities with free public transport in Germany. One example was the city of Templin in Brandenburg. The project was eventually abandoned because lots of people were just riding the busses out of boredom and busses were permanently full with costs exploding for the city. See: https://www.manager-magazin.de/unternehmen/artikel/nahverkeh...
First thing I thought of even though I never heard of this example: It's a terrible idea if you think about it with an economic mind. There are very few scenarios where making things "free" can actually provide a long term benefit for the public. The reason Communist economies don't work isn't because there's not enough wealth in society to guarantee a modest income for everyone. It's because once you take the incent…
Primary school is free, libraries are free, parks are free, etc. To know whether public transportation is more like free libraries or more like free parking, you have to run the experiment.
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> 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…
This is assuming that your trip starts and stops exactly next to the train station and that there is a non-delayed train available precisely at the right time. In practice that's not the case and those time add up quickly . Car trip will look like: 1. Travel from start to location (3:20) 2. Find parking (0:5) 3. Walk from parking to location (0:10) Total time of 3:35 Your train trip will look like: 1. Go from start t…
Also, at €9 for a ticket that lasts a month, you're going to save an awful lot of money compared to taking the car.
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You mean I‘m partially funding their cheap transportation? Where is the money for these cheap tickets coming from? But your comment kinda makes sense. It’s not really worth trying much in Germany. The more one tries, the more one becomes the source of funding for others while not really getting any personal gratification or gain.
> The more one tries, the more one becomes the source of funding for others while not really getting any personal gratification or gain. It's unfortunate that you can't derive any gratification or gain from your more-than-half of the extra money you make when trying more. But it probably won't help to blame it on less wealthy people commuting to work.
For comparison, in Berlin the monthly ticket for the A-B zones (does not reach the airport) costs €86, and a 4-ticket pack €9.40. A €9 monthly ticket is an insane bargain, even if you only plan on using public transport within the city. (source: https://www.bvg.de/de/tickets-und-tarife )
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…
It's also for the benefit of hikers, sightseers and whoever else needs places that aren't served by the IC/EC/ICE network. I have a BahnCard 50 (a subscription that halves the price of each trip) and yet it would have saved me over 100€ last summer. Note that some of the local bus associations aren't particularly cheap; it's not just the trains. My main worry is whether they'll have the resources to put up with the i…
My train ticket inspector vents to everyone how they do not. (they get the heat)
I think it will work out, but will be very crowded at times. Or rather, even more crowded. They are already bad at scaling up or down, at a sunny sunday for example. Also this is, because they have allmost nothing to scale up. This is a long term investment.
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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...
Yes. On the other hand, the comparison in frequency, punctuality and cleanliness between the cheap Italian regional trains and the average Dutch ones clearly favors, and by a large margin, The Netherlands. This might have an impact on the costs :)