Mobility researcher Knie: “Driving will have to become more expensive”

The federal and state governments are fighting for the successor to the 9-euro ticket. The mobility researcher Knie pushes the pace. In the daily topics he advocated introducing a 29-euro ticket quickly. Subsidies for the car should be dropped.

After the end of the 9-euro ticket, the federal and state governments are aiming for clarity about a follow-up offer by mid-October. However, they are still fighting for additional billions for the entire local transport system. The goal is reportedly a price between 49 and 69 euros per month. So far, however, the major point of contention remains the financing of the project.

Due to high energy costs, the federal states generally insist on more money from the federal government for buses and trains. They expect more than the 1.5 billion euros that the Ministry of Transport has promised.

Delay “almost tragic”

Both sides have now decided to adopt the follow-up offer in a working group by October – much to the displeasure of mobility researcher Andreas Knie from the Berlin Science Center. “Today was not a glorification sheet for German transport policy,” he commented in the daily topics the consultations of the federal and state governments on Monday. “We had so much euphoria and momentum with the 9-euro ticket.” Now the politicians cannot agree. “It’s almost tragic.”

Knie would like the successor to the 9-euro ticket to have a uniform price. In his opinion, the scope should be “all corners of the Federal Republic”. “That should be a real cracker for the traffic turnaround,” says Knie.

Research would have shown that 29 euros would be a good price. But it is not enough to just cover local transport. The ticket must also be valid for long-distance transport and for the shared taxi. “Then we would have a really good alternative to the car.”

Distance allowance and company car privilege

Knie, on the other hand, does not believe that it would be better to put more money into expanding infrastructure such as motorways. “Of course we need more money. But there’s a lot of money in the car. We have to divert some of that.” You have to put subsidies such as the distance allowance and the company car privilege to the test.

“Driving will have to become more expensive,” says Knie. By contrast, buses, trains and the last mile should become cheaper. “We all benefit from that, especially the lower income brackets,” said the mobility researcher. “Then we would actually have done something for the Paris climate goals, which we are currently not achieving.”