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Millions snap up new Germany-wide public transit ticket

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Re: Millions snap up new Germany-wide public transit ticket

#431
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally, I agree, it isn't very complicated to understand. But, it's very easy to forget to buy a C ticket if you're used to hopping on the U-bahn with your monthly AB ticket.

An airport being outside of city limits has its historical reason (the Allies have agreed that the entire area of Berlin could only be served by airlines operated by one of the four occupational forces, so East Germany simply built an airport just beyond city limits so that they could serve Berlin with its domestic airline). But an airport being just outside of the "regular" fare zone is something that's unfortunatel…

I don't think an airport being outside of the city limits is that unusual, either.

E.g. the "new" Munich airport, all Paris airports (though you could argue that it's Paris which has unusually small city limits), Glasgow, London Gatwick, Stansted and Luton, San Francisco, …

Re: Millions snap up new Germany-wide public transit ticket

#432
post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're saying public transport is on the same level as roads. Most roads are free to use because they're maintained with tax money, just like free public transport would be, because they're both in the public's interest.

I'm saying the tracks are on the same level as roads. Not riding the trains.

Roads are explicitly set up to be directly operated upon by members of the general public – railways on the other hand, not so much. [1] So a railway without a corresponding service isn't of much use to me as an end-user.

[1] Both because there are higher safety expectations for railways than for roads and because one of the inherent working principles of railways is to bundle individual demand into larger units (a.k.a. trains) that can be moved across the network en bloc. If everybody tried to operate their own individual little train across the network the way you do with driving your car, things wouldn't work out.

Re: Millions snap up new Germany-wide public transit ticket

#433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theres a really interesting graph showing rail usage under both public and private ownership in GB. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/GB... I'll let you draw your own conclusions From this page https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail

The infrastructure (railways and stations) is still publicly owned under Network Rail. Only the trains themselves are privately owned (often by foreign state-owned enterprises, funnily enough)

> Only the trains themselves are privately owned (often by foreign state-owned enterprises, funnily enough)

Albeit with the minimum service levels always specified (and consequently paid for in the case of unprofitable services) by the government.

Re: Millions snap up new Germany-wide public transit ticket

#434

Can this have the potential of having the MoviePass type outcome? Also, wouldn’t this overcrowd public transit?

It's backed/subsidised by the government, so a MoviePass outcome is unlikely, because nobody expects it to ever be profitable.

Local public transport is mainly being paid for by the local county and city councils, who in turn are often relatively cash-strapped and cannot cover large revenue shortfalls on their own.

Local and regional mainline railway services are being paid for by the state governments, who however in turn are to a large extent relying on federal grants paid for that purpose [1].

The new ticketing scheme was instigated at the behest of the federal government, which has the biggest financing power, but has only pledged a limited (technically unlimited this year, but since the new ticketing scheme only became effective in May, it's very unlikely that the original fixed amount will be exceeded this year) amount for covering any revenue shortfalls up to 2025 (and strong-armed the states into pledging the same amount of money for that period, too).

So if it turns out that the combination of cheaper tickets, still present after-effects of the pandemic (i.e. loss of ridership and revenue) and current inflation means that losses are higher than expected, there's plenty of scope for finger-pointing and pushing the blame around, and at least localised service cuts in more cash-strapped cities and counties (respectively states, in the case of mainline railways) remain a possibility.

[1] Historically, local/regional services were operated and paid for by the then Federal Railways. When, in preparation for privatisation of the railways, the responsibility for contracting for/tendering of those services was transferred to the state governments, they also received a corresponding financial grant in return for taking on that responsibility. It might or might not have been the original intention, but in practice those federal grants are the main source of financing for local/regional mainline services to this day.

Re: Millions snap up new Germany-wide public transit ticket

#435
post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being taxed higher doesn't make everyone feel as they're treated bad. Just so you hear another perspective.

Taxes is one thing. Making us buy a ticket to use transport, while the poor uses it for free would be on another level. Public transport is already funded through taxes. We already paid for it.

> Public transport is already funded through taxes. We already paid for it.

In Germany the local public transport is only partially funded by taxes. Tickets / Taxes is roughly 50 / 50.

The Autobahn is mostly funded by taxes.

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