Why, really, why not buy it? For €9 a month for June, July, August, passengers could buy a ticket to travel anywhere in Germany — on the U-Bahn across Berlin or a regional train from Hamburg to cities along the North Sea. The German government created the €9 ticket as one element of a relief package to moderate inflation, particularly higher energy costs, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and threats from Russia. The ticket was heavily subsidized by the federal government, at a cost of around €2.5 billion. It offered a financial break, with a climate-friendly incentive on the side. That is, maybe take this super affordable train instead of your car. Since August, some 38 million people have bought the €9 German ticket, according to Deutsche Bahn (DB), Germany’s national railway. In many places, passenger traffic has recovered to pre-Covid-19 levels. Experts and officials said many people used the ticket for leisure, including some passengers taking trips they otherwise could not afford. Research and surveys into the impact of the ticket are still ongoing, but one in Munich showed that car congestion in the city fell by 3 percent from May to June, and another, by the association for German transport companies, found that about 3 percent chose public transportation. car. An advertisement for the €9 ticket at Brudermühlstaße U-Bahn station in Munich in August 2022. Jen Kirby for Vox These are minor changes. And the ticket had its hiccups. especially in the early days, routes were overcrowded and strained the rail systems. But the affordable price and the simplicity of the journey all made the 9 euro ticket extremely popular. “The ticket shows that people want to use public transport — when it’s easy to use and when it’s affordable,” said Lukas Iffländer, vice president of Fahrgastverband Pro Bahn, a passenger association. The problem is that the €9 ticket is about to run out. Right now, the government has no plan to continue or replace it immediately. Which means, from September, travelers will be paying normal fares again, and maybe even more. Many transit companies are expected to raise prices due to energy costs. All of this has left Germany scrambling to figure out what can or should replace the €9 ticket. Thousands have signed a petition to keep it. On Twitter, the hashtag #9Euroticketbleibt (basically, “9 euro ticket remains”) is constantly trending. Political parties, advocates and industry groups have tabled different proposals — a €69 monthly ticket, a €365 annual ticket and more. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the €9 ticket “one of the best ideas we’ve had”, but the coalition government is also divided over its potential successor. A rider sits on the U-Bahn in Munich, under an advertisement for the €9 ticket. Jen Kirby for Vox The €9 ticket was supposed to give Germans a break from rising energy costs. It helped to do that, but it brought Germany to reckon with what public transport can and should be, especially in the age of an energy and climate crisis. This three-month experiment could help reshape the country’s transport infrastructure. Although it will probably never be that cheap again.

What Germany learned from its experiment with the €9 ticket

This spring, Germany’s coalition government agreed to a series of measures to help ease the economic fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The deal included ways to make travel and transport a little cheaper, including a cut in gas and diesel tax from June. He also created this €9 ticket, which would last three months and grant money to compensate local and regional transit companies for lost revenue. A €9 ticket, bought through Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe.Jen Kirby for Vox The 9 euro ticket was cheap, obviously. A monthly pass in Berlin can usually cost €86 or more. in Munich, it depends on the zones you travel in, but it can be more than 150 euros every month. The 9 euro ticket without complicated movements within and between cities. “The best thing about the ticket that people said was just its simplicity,” said Isabel Cademartori, an SPD member of the Bundestag from Mannheim who sits on the transport committee. The €9 ticket meant riders didn’t have to juggle complex fare schemes, calculating how much to pay depending on how far the trip was or when. People could ride the U-Bahn and then hop on the local train to a neighboring city and take the bus around town, all on the same ticket. (High speed trains were not included in the €9 ticket.) That affordability and ease of travel outside your town or city also meant many people used the ticket for leisure getaways, according to government officials, advocates and researchers. Callum, a PhD from Munich, said he used it to go on hiking trips. In the small villages and towns he passed through, he said, “we were all told, ‘You traveled here for the €9 ticket, right?’ We were like, “Yeah, sure.” So it really seemed to be appreciated by everyone.” Markus Siewert, managing director of the TUM Think Tank and a member of the research team that conducted a mobility study in and around Munich, said that they often received emails from people, the elderly or those with a lower income, who said that the 9-Euro – The ticket meant they could go on holiday for the first time or send their children on a school trip. But these journeys have, at times, tested Germany’s transit infrastructure, especially on weekends and holidays. During one of the ticket’s first big holiday weekends in June, overcrowded trains slowed journeys, platforms were full and trains were at capacity. It also put pressure on train and station staff, who had to handle the influx. Some of these problems have eased over time, but it has also revealed some strains on Germany’s infrastructure. One of the secondary hopes for the ticket was that it could reduce gas consumption as more people took these journeys by train instead of using their cars. On this question, the results are not so clear. A survey, by the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV), found that around a quarter of journeys made with the €9 ticket would not have been made otherwise. When it comes to using public transport instead of a car, the VDV found that only around 3 percent of respondents said they took transport instead of driving. Research by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Munich School of Politics (HfP) think tank in Munich also had similar findings and found a 3 percent drop in car use from May to June and early July. But the same researchers found that about 35 percent of people in the Munich sample traveled more by bus or tram. About 22 percent of people in the same study used public transit for the first time. about a quarter of them used it four or more days a week. Traffic data from Tomtom also showed that traffic congestion was reduced in 23 out of 26 cities during the €9 ticket. And this happened in just three months. Car owners were not going to completely abandon their cars during this period, but at least it gave them an incentive to use public transport. A big question that no one has yet answered is whether those used to using public transport before the €9 ticket could still choose to take it after the scheme ends. And the other big question is whether a more permanent version of the €9 ticket could accelerate or consolidate such a transition — but if it does, the investment may need to go beyond a transport subsidy.
“In the long run, if you want to have a transport transition, you have to have not too expensive open transport, and on the other hand, you have to have more and better trains and buses,” said spokesman Alexander Kaas Elias. on rail policy for the Green Faction in Berlin.

A temporary measure that people want to make permanent. But how?

Luka Blazic was waiting for the S-Bahn in Munich last week, but he said he didn’t have the €9 ticket. The 25-year-old law student bought the €9 ticket in June because he was going to school and had a lot of books, so it was difficult to carry them all on his motorbike. But when he really needed transit, say, after being out at night, it wasn’t readily available. It also wasn’t that reliable. “If I had an important appointment, I wouldn’t want to be dependent on public transport,” he said. He didn’t buy the pass again in July or August. This August trip was something unique. Complaints about the Munich transit are a little harder to sympathize with if you live in, well, America. But the €9 ticket, sending people back to public transport (or to it for the first time), has exposed some weaknesses in Germany’s transit system. It can be confusing and also has some big gaps, especially in the connections between cities and smaller towns and within smaller cities, towns and rural areas. Bernd Reuther, a Free Democrat Bundestag member from North Rhine-Westphalia, also a member of the Transport Committee, said the €9 ticket shows Germany needs to simplify, but also expand and invest in infrastructure, to. ..