Public transport: does the 49-euro ticket start on May 1st? – Business

The launch of the “Deutschlandticket” – also known as the 49-euro ticket – has been delayed several times. Many doubt that it should now be available nationwide by May 1 at the latest, as stated by Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP). Rightly so: In order to introduce it, the legal framework must be in place by March, and the transport companies want to start advance sales in April. The industry is still sticking to this date, said Ingo Wortmann, President of the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV) at the annual conference in Berlin. And yes, May Day is realistic. Politicians must, however, remove two obstacles.

The first is a bureaucratic problem: If the 49-euro ticket were to go the prescribed way, all 16 state parliaments would have to agree to the new tariff structure for it to apply nationwide. “But we can’t wait for each individual country,” says Oliver Wolff, Managing Director of the VDV. The 1st of May could not be kept like this. In addition: As soon as even one country rejects the tariff, a “patchwork quilt” emerges, which one does not want at the moment. The VDV therefore proposes that the federal government first take over and standardize the tariff approval. It was the same with the nine-euro ticket.

The second hurdle for the transport associations is the European Union: the federal government must obtain permission from the EU Commission so that the state can compensate for the companies’ expected loss of income. Because it is a kind of aid for private companies. Only when the EU gives the green light can the federal government change the regionalization law and pay the billions in aid for the ticket. On Wednesday, the federal government will hold talks with EU representatives, saying that this is “on the right track,” according to government circles. The necessary draft law for the changeover to the 49-euro ticket has now also been initiated, so that it can still pass through the Bundestag and Bundesrat in good time.

In the past few days, the federal and state governments have blamed each other for the fact that the negotiations are not progressing quickly enough. Federal representatives are said to have appeared at working meetings with the federal states without the necessary mandates, which made the talks more difficult, according to negotiating circles. For its part, the Federal Ministry of Transport sees responsibility in the federal states.

Only digital or also on paper?

And there are still unsolved problems. This includes the fact that the 49-euro ticket was planned to be purely digital. “We need a transition phase until the end of the year with paper solutions,” says association president Wortmann. Otherwise you will not be able to sell a ticket to everyone who is interested from April. This could be in the form of a printout that you carry with you like the provisional Bahncard until you have received the chip card. By the way, the federal government and transport companies agree that this transitional phase is needed towards paperless tickets.

Managing Director Wolff pointed out that the non-transferrable Deutschlandticket would not replace “the old world of tariffs”. For example, in cities where you can take your bike or other passengers with you on weekends for free, you can do this with the 49-euro ticket – at least in your own region.

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