Incidentally, the Bayern ticket from Deutsche Bahn has been around for a quarter of a century. If you are traveling with five people, you can trundle across Bavaria with regional trains for 11.60 euros, on the Milchkannen-Express.
A Germany ticket has been available for three months since June 1st. It’s called a nine-euro ticket, and you can use it to travel across the country on Deutsche Bahn local trains. The start of this spectacular action was accompanied by many hopes, but also by chaos warnings, a fear of overcrowded stations and trains, fears for a sinking Sylt that would be flooded by cheap tourists. Accordingly, the start in the editorial departments all over the country was linked to two extreme journalistic sports, namely the most ingenious follow-up shoot and the most surprising reporter assignment.
As with any kind of storm, the nine-euro ticket report tower announced itself with a comparatively light breeze: These were the factual investigations of how many people got the ticket at all and whether the trains would be packed at the weekend. That’s service, takes work and doesn’t trigger admiration emails from the boss. The fact that the railways, the federal government and the media apparently did good information work becomes clear when the Augsburg General can write during her research tour of the station: “Many people are opposed to the fact that the nine-euro ticket is not valid for long-distance traffic.” breathe easy At least several people from Augsburg know what the media is talking about all the time. Let’s go, German local transport journalism!
One thing is clear when looking through the local and long-distance newspapers: it’s not enough to ask around at the station, get on the train. ride. Of the Cologne city gazette had set up a live blog with reporters from the regional trains from Cologne to Westerland.
Always close to the ticket buyer: Whether they’re on the Schwarzwaldbahn or the Bayerische Oberlandbahn – the reporters always want to know who and why he or she bought the ticket. And already turns when studying the Black Forest messengers the newspaper: “Amazing on this Wednesday: despite the previous weeks of hype about the ticket, some passengers are unexpectedly uninformed. A young woman thinks that the ticket is only valid from 9 a.m., a trainee believes that you can pay nine euros for three months long drive and an elderly lady says the ticket is only valid for one day.”
Finally names like Trochtelfingen or Büsenbachtal in the sub-lines again
From these quite contradictory impressions somewhere between Augsburg and the Black Forest, it quickly goes on to more general questions: “Where should we go?” asks time online – in general, the impression prevails these days that we can suddenly go anywhere in Germany for the first time. The text is in the “Ressort Discover” and has a nice twist as a topic: it deals with the question on which of all the beautiful train routes that everyone is now looking for, on which people of color there is no threat of racism.
Apart from this original twist, the nine-euro ticket is, of course, an invitation for journalists to find surprising places that, apart from the long-distance train tunnels that have raced through them, were practically on another continent. That’s why many have identified the most beautiful railway routes and of course also savored the joy of finally being able to write names like Trochtelfingen or Büsenbachtal in the subline again. A reporter from star was sentenced to a self-experiment on a long journey with local trains through Germany for 24 hours. Yes, damn it, because unfortunately it’s not so contemplative, with daydreaming and stuff like that. Rather, readers suddenly find themselves between “provincial drunks singing pop, seat covers stained with food leftovers and a single-track standstill” in the middle of the often sung about railway sadness, which one did not really want to be reminded of in these days of the rediscovery of long-distance local transport.
According to the ticket logic, Sylt has replaced Mallorca as the number one place of longing out of nowhere
Where was he tormented star-Reporter? Right. Above all, the ticket is the ultimate request for the service text, the story with the idea or heading “From x to Sylt”. After all, anyone can travel from Nuremberg to Fürth. According to the ticket logic, Sylt has replaced Mallorca as the number one place of longing for Germans out of nowhere. Accordingly sensitive to drama Bild.de already spotted the first punks on Sylt and a tattooed young man with the headline “9€ rush at Pentecost?” photographed.
Apart from the terrible news that will come from Sylt from the weekend – nationwide, the train attendant personally checked what the chaos on June 1st was all about. Spiegel.de has stated tough: “Chaos? No trace.” That’s a bit bland, especially when reporters report on empty train stations unsuitable for chaos, but it gives this not uncontroversial profession that veneer of valuable seriousness that is done every day in local journalism, unnoticed by important national media observers.
And if that’s not enough for you: The satirical magazines then explain to us exactly how ridiculous it is when a lot of effort is put into a topic: Of the postilion had Sylt blow up the railway embankment to keep nine-euro ticket tourists away. And the titanic Has an alternative question and answer catalogue hung up. Among other things, with the question: “How much does the 9-euro ticket cost?” Answer: “According to everything that is known so far, most likely nine euros. However, there are still costs for taxi rides, because some trains will probably be canceled again.”
There it is again, subliminally, but can be brought out at any time: the latent railway anger. For the time But the ticket launch was a good occasion for two texts: an invitation to travel around aimlessly and for thoughts about train delays as a wellness retreat. These suggestions to also see the ticket as an opportunity to experience train travel as a relaxed, life-enriching form of transport reminded me of an acquaintance who had already used the Bayern ticket to travel regularly from Aschaffenburg to Munich, and who there learned the human gift of train daydreaming. He didn’t see it as a personal attack, but rather as a gift when train journeys were delayed. All the longer he was allowed to dream his way through the Bavarian landscapes. Maybe he’s sitting where he is now, always happy in a little train that never arrives, and the good Lord is the dispatcher.