mobility
States expect movement from the federal government for a 49-euro ticket
Travelers are sitting in a regional express train operated by Deutsche Bahn. The cost of the 49-euro ticket is still being discussed. photo
© Philipp von Ditfurth/dpa
The 49-euro ticket has been decided. However, the federal states fear that the planned budget could be too tight. You have a clear idea of who should pay for the possible additional costs.
In the new dispute over the financing of the 49-euro ticket for local transport, the federal states are demanding that the federal government also bear half of any additional costs that may arise. There was a consensus on a half split between the federal and state governments, said Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) on Thursday after consultations with the states in Berlin. At the moment, however, it can be stated that the originally planned cost framework will “probably not be sustainable”. “That has to be discussed and hopefully clarified,” said Weil as chairman of the Prime Ministers’ Conference (MPK) before the start of the consultations between the heads of government and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) warned that the ticket price of 49 euros was too low. The transport industry calculated with 69 euros. If the traffic light government wants a 49-euro ticket, “then you won’t find a solution with the calculation basis of a 69-euro ticket,” said Wüst. “In the end, it must not go so far that the 49-euro ticket comes, but we cancel services, trains and buses.”
The “Germany ticket” for buses and trains in local transport with an introductory price of 49 euros per month is to come in the new year and tie in with the popular 9-euro ticket from the summer. The start date is still open, the countries are aiming for April 1st.
At the end of November, the transport ministers of the federal states declared that they expected the federal government to split possible additional costs equally between the federal and state governments and to bear them jointly. In general, the federal and state governments had agreed to finance up to three billion euros per year in half.