GERMANY: Transport ministers in the Länder favour keeping the flat-fare Deutschland-Ticket for the long term.
In a debate on April 18 in Münster about the future of the ticket, currently priced at €49 for one month’s travel on local and regional rail services, as well as buses, the ministers backed a proposal to continue the arrangement under which federal government and regional governments each pay half the €3bn annual cost of the scheme.
Currently chaired by Nordrhein-Westfalen, the Land Conference of Transport Ministers proposed keeping the state subsidy for the Deutschland-Ticket ‘initially for a period of 10 years from 2026’. As an interim step they want the federal government to use €700m remaining in unspent funds from 2023 towards the 2024 costs of the pass, which had been launched in May 2023. This would help to mitigate rising costs, which are likely to force up the price of the pass in the medium term ― the 2025 price is due to be agreed in the second half of this year.
The Deutschland-Ticket is considered to be very successful. Transport Minister for Nordrhein-Westfalen Oliver Krischer said that the pass was ‘the most successful ticket in the history of public transport’ with about 130 million tickets sold in the first year.
‘This shows what added value the D-Ticket offers’, added Krischer. ‘It is not just an incentive to change to public transport. It also makes a contribution towards climate protection and saves commuters billions’, he noted. He also warned that securing long-term funding remained an outstanding issue.
