Here in Hamburg the local Transit district (HVV = Hamburger Verkehrs Verbund for 3.67 Million people) is also offering a version where the employer pays a share of the 49 Euros. Thus the monthly cost for a Germany-wide regional transport ticket (local trains, regional trains, bus, ferries, ...) then is reduced to 34,50 Euro and the owner needs only to pay for months when it is actually needed.
Deutschlandticket for regional bus and rail services to be offered for €49/month
41–50 of 345 posts
Re: Deutschlandticket for regional bus and rail services to be offered for €49/month
#42I'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…
> I would have assumed they make that ticket only available yearly and with discounts to students or pensioners. The way the Austrian ticket works [...] It's a yearly subscription, but you can cancel monthly What's the difference between a monthly subscription and a yearly subscription that you can cancel monthly? Either way you pay for however many months you choose to have it? It sounds like the difference is that…
> What's the difference between a monthly subscription and a yearly subscription that you can cancel monthly? Either way you pay for however many months you choose to have it? It sounds like the difference is that you need to fork out the cash for a whole year up front
The difference is in the process mostly. They make it a process that requires a physical address, you need to return the plastic card etc. It's something that you can absolutely do if you live there, but it's something that is inconvenient if you do a two month summer vacation. You can pay month by month, so the upfront cash is not the issue.
Re: Deutschlandticket for regional bus and rail services to be offered for €49/month
#43My wife had a daily 45km rail+2km bus trip to work which was 200€ per month.
That's massive savings for many people who choose not to drive with cars. Her colleagues drive to work with cars for 2 km trips and ask her whether she does not own a car (we do).
Taking the train is a) cheaper b) more relaxed (can read) c) better for the environment d) it's even faster in her case
The €49 ticket could give public transportation a massive boost - worst case is, no additional people use trains and buses but people who can't afford cars or use public transport for enviromental reasons save quite some money.
Re: Deutschlandticket for regional bus and rail services to be offered for €49/month
#44Mind 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.
This is correct and to show what that means: Frankfurt to Berlin with a fast ICE: 4 hours, no changes. With regional trains only: 10-14 hours, 3-6 changes. With a car this trip is 5 hours. No one in their right mind would ever do such a trip with regionals only, it is extremely painful. In addition, the chance that one of the connections will be missed is extremely high.
You can still try that, but that's not the intention. The target audience are basically commuters. I had a colleague a couple years ago that went around 100km total both ways to work. He briefly considered switching to train but balked at the price of about 200 per month. This despite the fact that gas cost him more, his car commute was longer and he was paying for a parking spot. I guess the logic was he already paid for the car, so he better use it. But at 50 per month, he'd ditch the sunken cost that is the car in a heartbeat.
Re: Deutschlandticket for regional bus and rail services to be offered for €49/month
#45That'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.
Berlin currently has a 29 € ticket which is much more interesting if you don't travel the rest of Germany often. Hopefully it gets extended beyond April.
Re: Deutschlandticket for regional bus and rail services to be offered for €49/month
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
> always need to buy a ticket I buy all my tickets online. That's largely possible in Germany. I can't remember when I last needed to buy a physical ticket.
Bahn afaik isn't allowed to sell you tickets when the start and destination are within a regional operator, and my regional operator (to get to work) doesn't have a web shop. The bus drivers are comically confused when I try to buy "einen Viererkahrte zu Aachen, drei Stück" so that I don't have to deal with it every other office day (this I can pay with a convenient 50€ bill and lasts about a month, give or take). Th…
When I book a train ticket, the regional trains are already included. My local public transport system (HVV) has online & smart phone ticketing for many many years now.
A regional operator where the ticket can't be bought online or via a smartphone should be really really rare in Germany by now. Which operator is it, which has no online payment option?
Re: Deutschlandticket for regional bus and rail services to be offered for €49/month
#47I'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…
>because it also enables some level of competition Does it? How do railways work in Austria? In the UK companies bid to get monopolies on routes. So you don't really have competition anyway. >and it lets the rail companies charge higher prices for tourists. Is that a good thing? I assume at least one of the reasons is to get people out of cars. It's unclear to me why a tourist not using a car is worse than a local no…
> Does it? How do railways work in Austria? In the UK companies bid to get monopolies on routes. So you don't really have competition anyway.
There are routes on which there is competition (eg: Vienna to Salzburg) where two rail companies operate. For the most part the competition is quite limited, something which I hope will change.
> Is that a good thing?
Yes. Because public transit is primarily for the people who live there and pay taxes. That it's also something that tourists can use is great, but you don't need to subsidize it for them.
Re: Deutschlandticket for regional bus and rail services to be offered for €49/month
#48My wife had a daily 45km rail+2km bus trip to work which was 200€ per month. That's massive savings for many people who choose not to drive with cars. Her colleagues drive to work with cars for 2 km trips and ask her whether she does not own a car (we do). Taking the train is a) cheaper b) more relaxed (can read) c) better for the environment d) it's even faster in her case The €49 ticket could give public transporta…
That's not quite in the interest of the car manufacturers that public transportation is cheaper than cars which is one of the reasons this took so long.
Re: Deutschlandticket for regional bus and rail services to be offered for €49/month
#49I can ride all the regional trains in my region in Italy for 35 euros/month (full price, before reductions for eligible categories)
Italy is more complicated than Germany railroad wise, but I would also argue that beyond the region you live in, slow regional trains are much less useful.
In Rome I pay 10 euros/month (the subscription is paid annually though) to use every public transport including buses, subway and trains that start and stop in a train stations inside Rome area, even if they are directed to or come from a different city/region/country.
By showing the card I can also park for free in several selected parking lots around the city.
Many people don't know about the advantages public transport provides, but they are real.
Re: Deutschlandticket for regional bus and rail services to be offered for €49/month
#50I'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…
> […] higher prices for tourists.
The goal of these initiatives is to get people to choose public transport over cars. That includes making it attractive for tourists (foreign and domestic). A single ticket which allows you to just use any local public transport without having to figure out pricing and tickets beyond the basic rules of this ticket is pretty attractive.
The €9 ticket was a steal (I've used it myself as a tourist). This version is a bit on the expensive side, and not even that attractive for tourists (although certainly convenient).