For Bernd Rosenbusch, December 10th of this year is a special date. Because of the timetable change on this day, the Munich Transport and Tariff Association (MVV) is growing like no other since it was founded 51 years ago, as the MVV boss explained on Thursday. In the future, the southern district of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen, the district of Miesbach as well as the city and district of Rosenheim will also be accessible with a single MVV ticket.
According to Rosenbusch, this expansion will save at least 600,000 car trips. If the districts of Landsberg am Lech, Mühldorf and Weilheim join in 2025 and possibly the districts of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Landshut, including the independent city, in 2026, up to 1.5 million car journeys could be eliminated. The Weilheim district recently decided to join on January 1, 2025.
The MVV area could be expanded by the end of next year.
(Photo: SZ map: Mainka/Mapcreator.io/OSM)
The MVV derives its traffic forecast from existing commuter movements and leisure traffic from Munich to the surrounding area. According to Rosenbusch, around 422,000 people commute from outside the MVV area or vice versa every day; most of them currently use the Germany ticket, which costs just 49 euros. For them, association boundaries play no role.
Things are different for occasional drivers. Many of them do not need the Deutschland Ticket, which is only available as a subscription. You just buy single or day tickets. According to MVV calculations, with twelve million trips (as of 2019), up to one million car trips can be saved. The MVV still sells 90 million tickets a year, be they strip tickets, single tickets or day tickets.
And there could be more. Experience from other associations showed an increase in public transport use of ten to 15 percent. Rosenbusch also expects this for the MVV. A standard tariff not only makes many things easier, but in some cases also makes it much cheaper, as examples show.
If a hiking group of five wants to travel from Munich to Spitzingsee, they usually take a Bayern ticket for 69 euros. In the future there will be a group day ticket for just 35.80 euros.
The savings are only small if an individual wants to travel from Munich’s Ostbahnhof to Rosenheim’s city center. Anyone who currently books a one-way trip with the Bayerische Regiobahn (BRB) for 15.60 euros will then need a single trip for city transport in Rosenheim, which costs another 2.10 euros. With an MVV ticket it will only be 60 cents cheaper in the future, but the passenger does not have to buy two tickets. If you travel back on the same day, you can still get away cheaper with the Bayernticket for 29 euros.
The new ski combination tickets for the Brauneck (Lenggries), Spitzingsee and Sudelfeld (Bayrischzell) ski areas should be attractive for winter sports enthusiasts. Tickets are available at MVG machines and in the BRB customer centers. They cost 59 euros (55 euros for young people and 31 euros for children up to 14 years) or 56 euros at Spitzingsee (reduced 52 and 31 euros) and include a day ski pass, which is available with the MVV ticket at the ticket office of the respective ski area, and the return journey. For comparison: a ski day pass at Brauneck alone costs 49.50 euros for adults.
The new MVV area should also relieve road traffic
The more people switch to public transport, the more relaxed the situation on the streets becomes, and not just in Munich. If the Garmisch-Partenkirchen district joins, day-trippers from the state capital would be able to travel easily and cheaply without a car, while at the same time the popular excursion destination would probably have fewer traffic problems than it currently does.
If you use a smartphone, using the new MVV tariffs is clear and easy with the MVV app. From next September there will also be an electronic ticket so that users no longer have to worry about distances. You check in with a swipe in the app and check out again at your destination. At the end of the day, Rosenbusch promises, the passenger will be charged the cheapest price.