Markus Büchler has had an extraordinary train journey: The Green Party Member of Parliament from Oberschleißheim took the train from Munich to Istanbul. Almost 1600 kilometers for just over 100 euros per person. When Büchler asked the mobility committee of the Munich district council on Wednesday afternoon what the possible increase in fares in the Munich transport and tariff association and the Munich transport company (MVG) was all about, he must have remembered that rail transport can also be cheap. Like other district politicians, Büchler also criticizes a further burden on commuters – and is also vehemently committed to a successor model for the nine-euro ticket that expired at the end of August. He even ran into open doors with District Administrator Christoph Göbel (CSU).
On Monday it was leaked that a wage increase of 6.9 percent was due in December. This Friday, the MVV shareholders’ meeting, which includes the eight districts as well as the Free State and the state capital of Munich, will discuss whether this is really the case. Munich’s district administrator Christoph Göbel (CSU), who described it as “childish” and “unprofessional” in the mobility committee that details about a possible tariff increase had been pierced through, will also be at the table. As a shareholder, he was not allowed to speak publicly about the status of the negotiations, the district administrator replied to Büchler’s question, in order to at least say something. In view of the massive price increases, the MVV must react, and part of the income must also be “ticket-financed”, according to Göbel.
Then came the big but of the district administrator, which should certainly make Bavaria’s Minister of Transport Christian Bernreiter (CSU) sit up and take notice, who has been blocking a successor regulation for the nine-euro ticket for weeks: The discussion shows above all how important a successor regulation for the It’s a nine-euro ticket, says Göbel. “I hope there will be a permanent solution as soon as possible.” But it is also clear that such a ticket can no longer cost nine euros.
“First the Federal Minister of Finance blocked it, now it’s Bavaria’s Minister of Transport.”
This set the tone that seems to be the consensus in the district of Munich. SPD parliamentary group spokesman Florian Schardt said when asked by SZ that an increase in ticket prices and the associated additional burden on people was “the completely wrong signal” at this time; nevertheless, according to Ottobrunner, the cost pressure on the transport associations is enormous in view of the price increases. That is why the district administrator is now asked to do everything possible in the negotiations to keep the burden on people as low as possible.
For the Social Democrat Schardt, too, the actual solution lies in a permanent successor to the nine-euro ticket. “That’s why I’m also surprised that the discussion is coming up now. Why don’t they wait a few weeks until a solution has been agreed in Berlin,” he asks. But from his point of view, the Free State must finally move and should not continue to block a successor plan, according to Schardt.
The rail traveler Büchler also acknowledges that the MVV is under a lot of pressure. Rising material costs, energy prices and wages would of course affect the transport association, according to the Green Party, but an increase in ticket prices alone by almost seven percent would not be enough anyway. And the municipal level, which is also being given more and more tasks in other areas, is not in a position to compensate for these price increases. “It is the task of the federal and state governments to relieve people,” says Büchler – and in public transport this is best done with a functioning and inexpensive successor model for the nine-euro ticket. “And we could have had that long ago,” says the man from Oberschleißheim. “First the Federal Minister of Finance blocked it, now it’s Bavaria’s Minister of Transport.”