Status: 06/29/2022 09:16 a.m
Social associations and transport experts are calling for cheap local transport to continue to be offered after the end of the 9-euro ticket. But the FDP rejects an extension. What could a solution look like?
The Sozialverband Deutschland continues to demand favorable offers for local and regional transport for the period after the 9-euro ticket has expired. “Politics must now seize the opportunity and set the long-term course for sustainable and affordable mobility by improving public transport and local transport and making it affordable for everyone,” said association president Adolf Bauer to the newspapers of the Funke media group. As an example, he named a 365-euro annual ticket.
Bauer emphasized that the demand for the 9-euro ticket had shown how great the potential for use in local public transport was. “This dynamic must be used to develop a permanently discounted offer for public transport tickets,” said the head of the social association. For financing, he suggested “relocating” money and investing more in public transport and the redesign of the existing street space. To do this, large inheritances, assets and capital gains would have to be taxed more heavily.
“Instrument against inflation and for climate protection”
Dietmar Bartsch, the head of the Left parliamentary group in the Bundestag, considers the expiry of heavily discounted local transport tickets without a connection model to be fatal. “We should permanently replace the 9-euro ticket with a 1-euro ticket,” he suggested in the Funke-Blätter: “One euro a day or 365 euros a year – local public transport shouldn’t cost more for citizens .” According to Bartsch, that would be “a sensible instrument against the effects of inflation, for social cohesion and climate protection”.
Vienna shows the way
According to Karl-Peter Naumann, Honorary Chairman of Pro Bahn, the rail network and rail transport should first be expanded and prepared for increased demand before cheaper local transport is offered. At the same time, car traffic must be made significantly more expensive, for example through higher parking fees. “Only in this way can a turnaround in traffic and the shift from road to rail succeed,” Naumann told the Funke newspapers. The city of Vienna went this route and only recently introduced a 365-euro annual ticket.
The chairwoman of the conference of transport ministers, Maike Schaefer, also argued that in addition to the best possible nationwide valid ticket, the federal states still need more regionalization funds for better travel times, more vehicles and more infrastructure. “All of this should be put together in a large package for the turnaround in traffic in order to save CO2 in the transport sector in the long term,” said the Bremen Senator for Climate Protection and the Environment to the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland”.
FDP minister against extension
With the 9-euro ticket, citizens can still use public transport throughout Germany for nine euros a month until the end of August. The ticket, like the temporary reduction in energy tax on petrol and diesel, is part of the relief package that the federal government had decided on in view of the sharp rise in energy and food prices. The ticket is also linked to the hope that more people will switch from cars to buses and trains.
Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing and Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner have spoken out against extending the 9-euro ticket and referred to the monthly costs of over one billion euros. “Steps towards free public transport are critical because shortages cannot then be controlled via price,” said the FDP leader. There is also a risk that capacities will be used unnecessarily and excessively.