traffic
Fares for buses and trains are sometimes rising sharply
Passengers will soon have to pay more for local transport. Photo: Britta Pedersen / dpa-Zentralbild / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
For some, Corona is a reason to make tickets more expensive – for others it is precisely not. Many people will soon have to dig deeper into their pockets for bus and train tickets. But there are exceptions.
It is not just fuel and food that are becoming more expensive. Many people in Germany will soon have to pay extra for bus and train travel. In winter, prices rise not only in long-distance transport, but also in local transport in numerous regions.
As a result, many daily trips are sometimes significantly more expensive: Depending on the transport association, the average tariff increases by up to 5.5 percent. This emerges from resolutions on the upcoming price round at the turn of the year, which the German Press Agency has evaluated. Elsewhere, on the other hand, prices do not change at all.
As the last of the large associations, the Hamburger Verkehrsverbund is working on a price increase. The Hanseatic population is expected to pay an average of 1.3 percent more from the turn of the year. “Nobody is happy about that”, confesses the association. “Please bear in mind during the discussion: Everything will be more expensive.” Only part of the higher costs are passed on to the passengers. The tax office takes over the much larger part.
Fuel, electricity, new offers – in many regions these are the main arguments for higher prices. The slump in fare income puts the 135 member companies in dire straits, according to the transport association for the greater Nuremberg area. There the tariffs are rising for the first time in three years and therefore by an average of 5.5 percent. Only in the city of Nuremberg itself do millions from the city coffers ensure that the tariffs can once again remain stable.
In Munich and the surrounding area, too, it will be significantly more expensive: plus 3.7 percent will apply from mid-December. “The corona pandemic brought us enormous revenue shortfalls,” said the local transport association. Nevertheless, the offer was almost completely maintained.
The left chairman Janine Wissler spoke of a fatal signal in view of the prize round. Regular bus and train travel is unaffordable for people on a budget. The federal government must secure investments in local transport. The offer must be expanded, but prices are falling. “Buses
and railways must be the backbone of the traffic turnaround, ”said Wissler, referring to the goal of reducing car traffic.
“The mobility transition needs a powerful and economically healthy public transport,” it was also said by the Association of German Transport Companies. However, the industry representatives emphasized: “The fare income plays a decisive role in this.” The electricity, diesel and personnel costs also increased significantly during the corona pandemic. How the ticket prices develop on site was decided by those responsible with the municipalities, depending on the economic situation.
There is an increase well below the inflation rate in Stuttgart and the surrounding area with an increase of 2.5 percent. In the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr, the most populous in Germany, the tariffs are increasing by 1.7 percent. It is 1.5 percent in the neighboring Rhein-Sieg- and Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund, which includes large parts of Hesse.
For trips outside of associations, Deutsche Bahn had announced a tariff surcharge of 1.7 percent. In long-distance transport, it will increase fares on December 12 by an average of 1.9 percent.
But passengers don’t have to dig deeper into their pockets everywhere. Nothing will change in the local transport of Bremen, its environs in Lower Saxony as well as in Berlin and Brandenburg. Bremer can even look forward to the second clear round in a row. These transport associations cite an argument that others expressly use for price increases: the decrease in passengers in the corona pandemic. They want to get customers back on buses and trains with stable prices.
To this end, more flexible ticket and subscription models are being worked on in some places, for example in Leipzig, Berlin and Frankfurt (Oder), in Baden-Württemberg and on the Rhine and Ruhr. Because the transport companies expect that some people will work at home from time to time even after the pandemic and that buses and trains will only be needed on a daily basis.