“There and Away” column for the 49-euro ticket: the main thing is cheap – travel

Can a taxi driver just throw his drunk customers out on a cold winter night? No, he can’t, say the courts. Anyone who believes that such duties of care also apply to a well-staffed S-Bahn is wrong. In the outskirts, you get rid of the (sober) passengers without much ado: simply move the terminal station forward by three stops, stop at the next drafty platform and unload the passengers – without comment like bulk goods on a cold winter night. This is a tried-and-tested method used by Deutsche Bahn to make up for delays.

Now you can hear cheering from everywhere about the 49-euro ticket. The Association of German Transport Companies (VDV) estimates that around 5.6 million people could take out a subscription for local transport for the first time with the flat rate. In addition, around 11.3 million passengers are to switch from another subscription to the new offer. So will the access roads in metropolises like Munich suddenly become empty? More than half a million people flock to the Bavarian capital every working day. As soon as this commuter rush switches to the train, you can plant trees on the Altstadtring and create cycle paths like on the Vienna Ringstrasse. A dream.

So far, commuting from the outskirts into the city can be twice or three times as expensive as the planned almost 600 euros for the Germany ticket. The customer potential among (long-distance) commuters, who are stuck in traffic jams in capital cities like Munich for an average of more than 70 hours a year, is therefore large. But what actually happens when more than five million people push their way onto buses and trains? Are the scenes from last summer then repeated every working day, when thousands of holidaymakers stormed the regional trains?

And what do the new customers do when they find out for themselves that about every third train on the German Federal Railway is delayed and S-Bahn trains keep canceling? This is annoying in the city, but in the evenings in the outskirts with a 40-minute cycle it becomes a real test of patience. How often would you like to be abandoned at any train station on winter nights – before you open the bill again with the 49-euro ticket?

The mobile person is not stupid, but primarily concerned with his advantage. It’s not just the question of price that fattens the traffic jam monster. The (knockout) criteria are often completely different: Which means of transport takes longer and which one is the least uncomfortable? The answer is not always flattering for public transport, see above.

If local public transport is cheap but unreliable and uncomfortable, many new customers will soon change their minds. Because not all commuters will sell their car right away – and when you look at the digital road map, the pendulum could swing back again: “Oh, it’s green on Google Maps, you can finally drive your car quickly.” As actually happened in London with the congestion charge. The train should not do too much wrong with the Deutschlandticket.