It always creates an aha experience when you read official letters, for example the “Conditions of carriage and fare for the special offer ‘9-euro ticket for new customers'”, or the “Conditions of carriage and fare for the special offer ‘Recognition of subscription season tickets of the SPNV and public transport for Germany-wide use of the 9-euro ticket for regular customers”. Or short and understandable: “9-Euro ticket for regular customers”. Under the respective point 5 (“transportation fee”) it says: “The 9-euro ticket costs 9.00 €.” Aha! Who would have thought?
So, given the introductory announcements, it’s not surprising that the price of nine euros applies to both new and regular customers. However, it is surprising that dog customers and customer dogs are excluded from the campaign. The regulations expressly state: “The 9-euro ticket cannot be purchased for a dog that is subject to a fee.”
Why not now? And what is a “fee-based dog” anyway? According to the Bahn’s definition, a dog “larger than a house cat”. You should be able to take it with you for free. Aha!
The fact that they can’t buy a nine-euro ticket for their pets made dog owners against the train in the first week of the campaign. A reader from Munich, who often travels through the Free State with her dog on regional trains, has calculated that the supposedly cheap offer actually means a price increase of more than 300 percent for her pet! “I’m sure,” she writes, “that I’m not the only train driver with a dog who is throwing her hands over her head right now.”
So far, the woman has used the Bayern ticket for 26 euros for her excursions and was able to take her dog with her for a further 8 euros, because in this case – according to the terms and conditions of the railway – “counts like an adult passenger”. But if the woman drives with the nine-euro ticket, her dog needs its own ticket – and he gets it for the adult price of 26 euros.
For the track, a dog that is bigger than a cat counts, so somehow as a human, but somehow not. Otherwise he would have to be able to purchase a nine-euro ticket, as a new customer, so to speak.