Bavaria’s Transport Minister Christian Bernreiter does not want to pay for a possible follow-up offer for the 9-euro ticket and has been sharply criticized for this by the opposition. “Why doesn’t the CSU want to get involved? So that everyone in Bavaria can continue to drive?” Wrote the deputy parliamentary group leader of the SPD, Ruth Müller, on Twitter. “Or does the CSU even want to make its own, even better public transport ticket ‘only for Bavarians in Bavaria’? Or is it just late-pubescent defiance?” Green member of parliament Jürgen Mistol, member of the transport committee, described Bernreiter as a “total failure”. The CSU politician told the German Press Agency at the weekend that “in this extraordinary situation, the federal government must ensure further relief for the citizens – and exclusively the federal government”.
Other countries, on the other hand, signaled their willingness to provide co-financing. The limited 9-euro ticket was introduced by the traffic light coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP to relieve people in Germany in view of rising prices. It is valid from June to August in local and regional buses and trains and costs 9 euros per month.
The federal government is contributing 2.5 billion euros to the current discount campaign to compensate for the loss of revenue from transport providers. Wissing is open to continuing the 9-euro ticket. According to his ministry, the willingness of the federal states to contribute financially is a decisive factor for a successor model. However, this willingness does not seem to exist in the Free State.
State Transport Minister Bernreiter said he would welcome it if buses and trains became more attractive. “But this requires investments to strengthen ongoing operations.” The federal government must therefore increase the so-called regionalization funds. “Basically, a 365-euro ticket would also be desirable in terms of the traffic turnaround.” He also called for the tank discount to be continued, since people in rural areas in particular hardly or not benefited from the 9-euro ticket. Bavaria’s SPD leader Ronja Endres described this attitude as “completely inexplicable”. In their own coalition agreement, the CSU and Free Voters had targeted a 365-euro ticket in Bavaria’s major cities. “Now the federal government wants to get involved and now the chaos government in Bavaria is not willing to pay 1 cent for the mobility of its own population,” wrote Endres on Twitter.