The federal and state governments have agreed to start the 49-euro monthly ticket for local transport on May 1st. What many wish for will become reality on May 1st,” said the chairman of the conference of transport ministers, NRW Transport Minister Oliver Krischer (Greens), after a meeting of a federal-state working group.
Sales of nationwide tickets for buses and trains in regional transport should therefore start on April 3rd, as Krischer said. Not only has progress been made on these issues, “but a final agreement has been reached on the really important points.”
However, the agreement is still subject to the EU Commission approving the 49-euro ticket. The project concerns state aid issues which the Commission is currently examining.
According to Krischer, the federal and state governments also reached agreement on the so-called job ticket. Employers should therefore be given the opportunity to buy the ticket with a five percent discount. The prerequisite for this is that they pass it on to their employees with a discount of at least 25 percent.
Apparently there is still no agreement on how digital the ticket will be, at least initially. Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) is aiming for an exclusively digital ticket. The Association of German Transport Companies (VDV) recently called for the possibility for transport associations to be able to issue a paper ticket, at least temporarily. Not all associations are therefore able to offer a digital ticket.
The federal and state governments blamed each other
Last summer, millions of passengers used the nine-euro ticket for buses and trains in local and regional transport during a three-month discount campaign. As a permanent successor, the nationwide valid ticket for 49 euros a month is to come in May.
Transport Minister Wissing originally said that the 49-euro ticket should come as soon as possible, with the target being early 2023. However, because the federal and state governments did not agree on financing issues and the specific implementation of the ticket for a long time, the start was delayed several months.
In the past few days, the federal and state governments had blamed each other for the fact that the negotiations were not progressing quickly enough. Federal representatives are said to have appeared at working meetings with the federal states without the necessary mandates, which made the talks more difficult, according to negotiating circles. For its part, the Federal Ministry of Transport saw responsibility for the federal states.