The whole of Germany can be reached via regional transport for 49 euros per month. Whole Germany? No! In a district in Saxony-Anhalt, the Deutschlandticket will probably no longer be valid from January 2024.
Because the Stendal district council decided last Thursday not to subsidize the ticket next year. Deutsche Bahn trains will not be affected. But from January onwards, the ticket will no longer be valid for regional buses and city buses in the district. How could this happen? And is this now also a threat elsewhere in Germany?
“We have an incredibly strained budget.”
Annegret Schwarz (CDU), chairwoman of the Stendal district council, says: “We have an incredibly tense budget. And that leads to decisions like this.” For the entire year 2024, the Stendal district would have had to spend 120,000 euros on the Germany ticket, said Schwarz. “You can’t play the hero at the federal level, decide something and shift the financial burden to the lower levels who can no longer defend themselves,” she says. In addition to the CDU members, the FDP and the Pro Altmark voter group also voted against the subsidies.
The two Green MPs did not attend the meeting. The chairman of the Green Party in the Altmark region wrote afterwards on Platform
Those who came up with the ticket should pay, say the districts
Lydia Hüskens (FDP), Infrastructure Minister of Saxony-Anhalt, says that the Stendal district is responsible for the additional costs for the Germany ticket. Because he wants to increase ticket prices for local public transport (ÖPNV) by 15 percent. The federal and state governments expected a maximum increase of eight percent. Sarah Fretter, the managing director of the regional local transport company Stendalbus, confirmed upon request that an average increase of 14 percent was under discussion. Hüskens says: “We assume that the funds from the federal and state governments will compensate for the deficit of the Deutschlandticket.”
But the President of the German District Council, Reinhard Sager, is of the opinion that the financing of the Deutschlandticket is on shaky ground. He says that the annual budget of three billion euros planned by the federal and state governments will no longer be enough in 2024. “This was still possible in 2023 because the federal and state governments agreed to cover all costs.” For the coming year, however, the district council is expecting total costs for the Germany ticket to be four billion euros, said Sager. That’s why Sager demands: “The states must give the public transport providers an application order.” In concrete terms, this would mean: The states oblige the districts to implement the Deutschlandticket. But they would have to guarantee the financing of the ticket.
Lydia Hüskens, the minister in Saxony-Anhalt, says: “We cannot issue an application order. Local public bus transport in the Stendal district is a matter for local self-government and is the responsibility of the responsible companies to negotiate tariffs.”
The President of the German District Council demands: “Those who came up with the ticket should pay.” And he believes that Stendal cannot remain an isolated case. In many districts, as in the federal government, the budget for the coming year is currently being discussed. It is uncertain whether the Deutschlandticket can remain in its current form if the federal and state governments are unable to provide further financing.