Live data from Hacker News

Deutschlandticket for regional bus and rail services to be offered for €49/month

deutschland.de

11–20 of 345 posts

Re: Deutschlandticket for regional bus and rail services to be offered for €49/month

#11

That's half the price of what my region of Sweden charges for a comparable ticket, and it covers the whole country, not just one region. Not bad.

It's nearly half of what a monthly ticket for just Berlin's public transit costs.

Re: Deutschlandticket for regional bus and rail services to be offered for €49/month

#12

Mind that the ticket excludes all fast trains, it's only for local trains. Still pretty good, but you shouldn't get the wrong idea and think you can suddenly use every train.

Is “fast” here just the higher-speed inter-city services, or would some intra-city services also be excluded?

"Fernverkehr" (long-distance: ICE, IC, EC) is excluded, "Nahverkehr" (RB, RE, S, U, Bus) included.

Re: Deutschlandticket for regional bus and rail services to be offered for €49/month

#13
I'm somewhat surprised that they go for this model. It's 49 Euro per month with restrictions to regional services. However that ticket is available for tourists, students, pensioners, workers and regular people at the same price point.

I would have assumed they make that ticket only available yearly and with discounts to students or pensioners.

The way the Austrian ticket works (91 Euro per month for regulars, 68.5 Euro for teenagers/students/pensioners) is interesting. It's a yearly subscription, but you can cancel monthly. It includes all services, but train companies can sell you goodies on top (upgrade to 1st class, seat reservations etc.). I think that sort of system is more reasonable because it also enables some level of competition and it lets the rail companies charge higher prices for tourists.

Re: Deutschlandticket for regional bus and rail services to be offered for €49/month

#14

This is outdated, currently the planned start date is May 1st. However, there seem to be still discussions about implementation details (availability only in an app vs. as a chip card or on paper, use of a subscription model). It's a horrible mess - and still too expensive for people with low incomes. In hindsight, it is amazing that the 9 Euro ticket experiment last year worked at all.

> still too expensive for people with low incomes It can be said about anything . 49€ per month for transportation in all cities is 5% of a low-income salary; Saying that this effort is not enough validates the theorem that no government is left enough for a leftist to stop saying “It’s not really left”.

It’s more that the 9€-ticket did some serious price anchoring.

Re: Deutschlandticket for regional bus and rail services to be offered for €49/month

#15

I'm somewhat surprised that they go for this model. It's 49 Euro per month with restrictions to regional services. However that ticket is available for tourists, students, pensioners, workers and regular people at the same price point. I would have assumed they make that ticket only available yearly and with discounts to students or pensioners. The way the Austrian ticket works (91 Euro per month for regulars, 68.5 E…

It is "subscription-only" with a monthly cancellation, meaning the purchase options in practice limit it to long-term residents since you need to order by mail to a residence.

It is cheaper than the existing discounted options for students/seniors, previously those have been managed by the regional companies and I think they have an uncertain future.

People on social services still have other options, e.g. Berlin has a 9 eur ticket.

Re: Deutschlandticket for regional bus and rail services to be offered for €49/month

#16

I'm somewhat surprised that they go for this model. It's 49 Euro per month with restrictions to regional services. However that ticket is available for tourists, students, pensioners, workers and regular people at the same price point. I would have assumed they make that ticket only available yearly and with discounts to students or pensioners. The way the Austrian ticket works (91 Euro per month for regulars, 68.5 E…

One benefit of the flat pricing is that it saves a lot of overhead on having to check eligibility. I'm not arguing whether that's good or fair, but it does simplify the system.

Re: Deutschlandticket for regional bus and rail services to be offered for €49/month

#17
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is “fast” here just the higher-speed inter-city services, or would some intra-city services also be excluded?

"Fernverkehr" (long-distance: ICE, IC, EC) is excluded, "Nahverkehr" (RB, RE, S, U, Bus) included.

still you can for example go from Berlin to Munich in about 10h with the latter option. (was 50€/day last time I tried for fun...)

Re: Deutschlandticket for regional bus and rail services to be offered for €49/month

#18

I'm somewhat surprised that they go for this model. It's 49 Euro per month with restrictions to regional services. However that ticket is available for tourists, students, pensioners, workers and regular people at the same price point. I would have assumed they make that ticket only available yearly and with discounts to students or pensioners. The way the Austrian ticket works (91 Euro per month for regulars, 68.5 E…

It is "subscription-only" with a monthly cancellation, meaning the purchase options in practice limit it to long-term residents since you need to order by mail to a residence. It is cheaper than the existing discounted options for students/seniors, previously those have been managed by the regional companies and I think they have an uncertain future. People on social services still have other options, e.g. Berlin has…

Which is precisely what it's trying to accomplish. This is BTW a very common theme for rail pricing in Europe. For instance there is INTERRAIL which is only available to EU residents and then there is EURAIL which has different prices and ticket types for non EU tourists.

Re: Deutschlandticket for regional bus and rail services to be offered for €49/month

#19
So this is a public transport ticket for urban areas. It's a good idea to make them valid across regions. If they can make it work, that is. There is still the task to distribute revenue in some adequate way, and currently politicians like to in indulge in wishful thinking and disconnect from reality in Germany, so let's wait if anyone has bothered to solve the hidden problems behind this. Could play out like the disastrous Energiewende (energy turnaround), which made people wonder if they have heating in winter. It's probably not as impossible as a full socialist central planning economy, but it's the same spirit.

Re: Deutschlandticket for regional bus and rail services to be offered for €49/month

#20
post #16

I'm somewhat surprised that they go for this model. It's 49 Euro per month with restrictions to regional services. However that ticket is available for tourists, students, pensioners, workers and regular people at the same price point. I would have assumed they make that ticket only available yearly and with discounts to students or pensioners. The way the Austrian ticket works (91 Euro per month for regulars, 68.5 E…

One benefit of the flat pricing is that it saves a lot of overhead on having to check eligibility. I'm not arguing whether that's good or fair, but it does simplify the system.

Conductor still needs to check the ticket itself. You would have to show your student/pensioner ID in addition to the ticket. Overhead of eligibility check is negligible in my opinion
Post reply on HN