Status: 08/19/2022 8:38 p.m
After a first meeting between the federal and state governments, there is still little prospect of a successor to the nine-euro ticket. In Lower Saxony, organizations want an annual ticket for 365 euros.
The environmental association BUND, the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) and the local transport alliance Lower Saxony are in favor of introducing a state-wide 365-euro annual ticket for local public transport (ÖPNV). The goal of the future state government must be to massively expand public mobility offers in the city and in the country and to ensure a mobility guarantee for all people in Lower Saxony, it said. The nine-euro ticket expires at the end of August. Around 31 million tickets were sold nationwide by mid-July. Representatives of the federal and state governments are to meet today to discuss possible follow-up solutions.
Organizations in Lower Saxony support Ticket for different reasons
The BUND Lower Saxony argued that switching to bus and train would be a contribution to urgently needed energy saving. The great demand for the ticket shows that people are willing to switch to public transport if the general conditions are right. This willingness should not be slowed down now. The DGB called public transport “the backbone of a mobility turnaround for everyone”. Permanently attractive offers are needed. Such a nationwide ticket would also be an important step towards relieving people of mobility costs in view of the dramatically increasing cost of living. The local transport alliance Lower Saxony criticized the lack of public transport offers in rural areas. The cycle times are too short and the trains are not sufficient, especially for transporting commuters.
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Advance from Lower Saxony for the north
In the meantime, the Ministry of Transport in Lower Saxony had proposed a North German model: “If a nationwide ticket cannot be implemented, the five North German federal states could alternatively set something up,” it said. But you didn’t get any more specific. Schleswig-Holstein’s Transport Minister Claus Ruhe Madsen (independent) had referred to the federal government: “A northern German solution will not work without the federal government on board.” Lower Saxony’s Transport Minister Bernd Althusmann (CDU) had also appealed to the federal government: “It cannot be that the federal government initiates the ticket, leaves the implementation to the states, celebrates success and then does not want to take responsibility for a connection solution. “
The FDP in the federal government is against continuing the nine-euro ticket
A one-to-one continuation of the nationwide nine-euro ticket is considered unlikely: Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) is against it. Lindner has recently faced a lot of headwind: his statement about the “free mentality” for the nine-euro ticket confirms the reputation of the FDP as the “party of higher earners” for critics.
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