On May 1st it should come, the Germany ticket for local transport, for 49 euros per month. Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) went one step further in the election year: From this autumn there will be an additional discounted ticket for young people in Bavaria, price: 29 euros. A “useful addition” to the Germany ticket, says Söder. But how is the 29-euro ticket supposed to work exactly? Answers to the most important questions.
For whom and from when is the Bavarian 29-euro ticket valid?
In addition to trainees and students, the ticket should also be able to be purchased by those who do voluntary service. For example, graduates of a voluntary social year or a voluntary ecological year. The starting date is September 1st, when trainees usually begin their vocational training. For students, this means that you cannot buy the 29-euro ticket in the summer semester, but only in the 2023/24 winter semester. The ticket should be able to be canceled monthly and not only be valid in Bavaria, but everywhere in the Federal Republic.
Why isn’t the Bavarian 29-euro ticket available in May when the Germany ticket starts?
Bavaria’s Ministry of Transport describes the Deutschlandticket as the “basis for the Bavarian discount ticket”. The ministry justifies the later start of the 29-euro ticket by saying that the Deutschlandticket, the introduction of which was planned for January 1, 2023, has also been delayed – and even now not all details have been clarified. In addition, there is talk of a necessary “preparation time on site”, which stands in the way of an earlier start.
Is the discount for young people only available in Bavaria?
No. There are similar plans in Saarland, Lower Saxony and Thuringia, for example. Incidentally, in Saarland, the ticket for young people should not only be valid in September, but as early as May 1st.
How is the financing of the Bavarian 29-euro ticket regulated?
The Free State will bear the costs of the discount for students, trainees and those doing voluntary service. You will take “considerable resources in hand,” says Transport Minister Christian Bernreiter (CSU). His company is not currently giving any more specific cost estimates.
Will the 29-euro ticket be offset against the local semester ticket?
This is apparently planned, but the student unions are still negotiating with the transport associations. To put it simply, there are probably two models, depending on how the semester ticket is collected. Michael Noghero from the Studierendenwerk explains model number one, as the University of Augsburg wants to implement it: The students pay the semester ticket as part of their semester fee. Everyone has to pay, everyone can use public transport. As a rule, these are smaller transport associations, the semester ticket is usually not too expensive, in Augsburg it currently costs 13.10 euros a month. Anyone who would like to have the 29-euro ticket can “upgrade” their semester ticket; the 13 euros already paid will be credited to them. The Deutschlandticket is to be dealt with in a similar way from May. That’s the theory. In practice, there are still a few questions to be clarified, such as how the data exchange between transport associations and universities can run without any legal problems.
Model number two primarily affects larger transport associations such as Munich or Nuremberg. In Nuremberg, for example, there is a basic card that all students have to pay for and that entitles them to travel in the evenings or at weekends. An additional ticket can be purchased to use the bus or train during the day, in Nuremberg for 222 euros. Only those who have such an additional card will receive a voucher for a Germany ticket, explains Uwe Scheer from the Nuremberg-Erlangen student union. The base card does not count. It is not yet clear how the announced youth ticket will be handled.
What are the students saying?
Thorsten Utz, spokesman for the Bavarian state student representation, wants what is probably planned anyway: the 49 and 29 euro tickets should be counted towards the semester tickets, he says. The ticket should also be voluntary. “A solidarity model that is mandatory everywhere is something that we believe should not happen. That would make training at many university locations dramatically more expensive.” The students are also wondering how the 49 and 29 euro tickets will develop in the long term. Please stay? Does the 29-euro ticket automatically become more expensive if, for example, the 49-euro ticket becomes more expensive?
Utz estimates that students in large metropolitan areas will use the 29-euro ticket very heavily because the difference would not be high. In the case of smaller universities, whose semester fees are significantly lower than the price of the tickets, the opinion is mixed. Here he assumes that students in particular who commute frequently and have a route that goes beyond the scope of their semester ticket buy the ticket.
If a trainee has already bought a 365-euro annual ticket, will he be refunded the difference to the 29-euro ticket?
Apparently yes. According to the Ministry of Transport, holders of the 365-euro ticket will be “created a tailor-made change option together with the municipal authorities”.
Other federal planners are also planning a cheaper social ticket. not Bavaria. Why?
Why only trainees and students should travel cheaper, but not the unemployed or single mothers, is not clear to social organizations such as the workers’ welfare. “In view of the current difficult financial situation for many sections of the population, the waiver of a solidarity ticket, as Hesse, for example, seems to be planning, is simply a socio-political fall from grace,” write the Awo state chairmen Nicole Schley and Stefan Wolfshörndl. Bayern would have the chance to become active themselves “instead of pointing the finger at Berlin as usual”. The planned model in Hesse provides for a 31-euro ticket for recipients of citizen’s benefit, housing benefit and social assistance from May 1st. No role model for Bavaria? The answer from the Ministry of Transport is short. “A general social ticket,” it says, “is not financially feasible without further participation by the federal government.”