You’re not dead yet, there are still a few precious hours left to hop on the next bus or train with you and dare a journey into the unknown. You were with us for three months, but on September 1st, dear nine-euro ticket, you will be history. Lost, ticket invalid, please get off. And thanks for the ride.
You were, no exaggeration, an adventure for this country. You moved us, sometimes faster, sometimes slower. You were proof that politics can have the courage to make radical decisions. Every journey with you in the regional train could become a journey into the unknown, not always voluntarily. And yet you have made many friends: colleague H. thought you were so great that he paid the nine euros several times – even though he didn’t take the train at all. Before the tariff and zone chaos returns, let’s commemorate our time together.
A journey with you from Munich to Regensburg is vividly remembered. On the train, which was packed 15 minutes before departure, the only place to sit was the sticky floor by the door. If you want luxury, you should drive a Mercedes – after all, you are there for everyone. But your huge popularity turned out to be the biggest flaw: Already at the first stop, so many other passengers squeezed in that the engine driver threatened that the federal police would evict them due to overcrowding. A few of your fans remained disappointed on the platform.
When you continued your journey late, one of your trailers finally blocked the door at every stop. Which annoyed the conductor so much that he announced over the loudspeaker that this was not just any open-door train in India. “We are here in Germany, we drive clean.” A station later then the scandal: “So, the train driver is behind. It’s over for you now.”
It’s over for you too, dear nine-euro ticket. But you probably won’t disappear completely: Berlin was the first federal state to announce that it would remain loyal to you, the SPD in the federal government wants to introduce a 49-euro ticket. And Bavaria? The government is more interested in your wayward twin brother. Finance Minister Albert Füracker (CSU) demanded: The “Tank discount must stay!”
You will still be missed – a little bit.