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

deutschland.de

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

#71

Post by Archelaos »

the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #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 E…

The political discussion has not ended with the introduction of the 49 Euro ticket. One still hears a lot of voices calling for a cheaper ticket, even down to zero Euros, or discounts for welfare recipients. The high price is due in particular to the fact that German federal budget is currently under great pressure, especially because of the consequences of inflation, increased arms spending and high costs of other social policy innovations (expansion of childcare subsidies). However, due to the popularity of the 9 Euro ticket, I would not be surprised when some parties are going to make a cheaper or free ticket a special issue in the next federal election campaign (probably in 2025).

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

#72

Post by shlant »

sandworm101 wrote: post #62
JanSt wrote: post #43

My 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…

Cool, if you live near a rail line in a major city. Not everyone has that luxury. Im standing about 300km from the nearest passenger rail setvice. It is 0530, -25c, and i am about to drive 18km to work (government/military). Trains or even busses are a distant concept here.

are you in Germany? in Europe?

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

#73

Post by ghaff »

the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #47
benj111 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

>That it's also something that tourists can use is great, but you don't need to subsidize it for them.

Although many places do. There are often city passes of various sorts for tourists. There are JR Rail visitor-only passes in Japan. I'm sure there are other examples.

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

#74

Post by arianvanp »

patrickmcnamara wrote: post #45
morelisp wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The 29 ticket is not a per month ticket. You need to pay 1 year upfront lump sum. Otherwise you pay 60 per month.

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

#75

Post by mk_stjames »

Traveling short, local trips via public transport most places in Europe is getting very economical, while I feel traveling distances outside those local zones is getting prohibitively expensive compared to air travel. I used to be able to get from my home in western France to Amsterdam via trains for much less than flying or driving, whereas last fall I priced train tickets and it was going to run me over 350€ round trip. I could fly for less. Except I don't live near a major airport and thus no direct flying. Its getting to the point where for long trips I could drive for much less than the train (especially if I go longer routes and avoid some tolls) which I feel is the exact opposite of what needs to be promoted. I wish there was more high speed, affordable long distance train travel so I could avoid flying all the time. But it is only getting significantly more expensive.

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

#77

Post by sjs7007 »

pph wrote: post #16
the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #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 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.

I guess a better system would be to have different tiered pricing but not strict checks.

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

#78

Post by Aachen »

lispm wrote: post #46
Aachen wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

AVV.de, the menu options for ticket buying are "am Automat" and "Vorverkaufstellen" which is a list of physical stores.

...which I guess is why I never looked further and saw they have an app now. Never heard of Naveo before, maybe it was introduced recently? Either way, that looks like it might now be possible! Why did no driver ever mention / did the buses/stations not advertise this before it's ripe for being replaced with the 50 euro subscription?!

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

#79

Post by johnchristopher »

sandworm101 wrote: post #62
JanSt wrote: post #43

My 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…

Cool, if you live near a rail line in a major city. Not everyone has that luxury. Im standing about 300km from the nearest passenger rail setvice. It is 0530, -25c, and i am about to drive 18km to work (government/military). Trains or even busses are a distant concept here.

IMO, it's the other way around. I'd rather have the luxury of a 18km drive to work than my current 70km train trip + 8 minute bus to work. Which means 90 minutes morning commute, 90 minutes evening commute.

Yeah, apples to oranges.

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

#80

Post by iforgotpassword »

hdjjhhvvhga wrote: post #61
siva7 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's why it's even more impressive it took off in Germany which is normally very protective of its car industry.

I'm still surprised by that, but personally a bit disappointed it ended up at 50 bucks, I think it was increased multiple times during the planning and discussions about extending the 9€ ticket. At least it's not 70, which I think was also on the table at some point. Still, a huge win for people who can use it daily for commute, which is unfortunately not me. I had the 9€ one and occasionally took the train into the green for hiking or other events, but didn't even come close to 50€ in fares.
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