Was the 9 euro ticket experiment successful in Germany?

On August 31, a three-month experiment with ultra-cheap public transport tickets ended in Germany. Instead of using more than 60 fares and transport networks in Germany, from June to August, people could travel around the country on all local and regional buses and trains (except long-distance high-speed trains) on a single ticket for only 9 euros a month.

Goals

Cheap public transport was introduced this summer to help people cope with record inflation. Also in this project, the government pursued climate goals: Germany is not yet able to implement a plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Win

Many people were delighted with cheap tickets. Over the past three months in Germany, where more than 83 million people live, sold at least 52 million tickets. To use the discount for the three months that the promotion lasted, three tickets had to be purchased. They were allowed to buy not only residents of the country, but also tourists.

Note! Another 10 million people received the discount automatically through pre-existing subscriptions to local transport networks. According to ADAC, Germany's largest association of motorists, such a subscription in major German cities costs about 80 euros per month, so these travelers automatically saved more than 200 euros over the three summer months.

From the point of view of achieving climate goals, success is mixed. A cheap ticket turned out to be an alternative to a car for only a small part of the passengers - only one in ten said they used it instead of a car. But in general, this is due to a large number of trips. According to the Association of German Transport Companies (Verband Deutscher Verkehrsunternehmen, VDV), this still led to a significant reduction in CO2 emissions: by 1,8 million tons.

Minus

As noted in the VDV, cheap ticket sales lead to XNUMX billion additional trips per month. In advance, there were serious concerns about whether the transport industry could cope with the additional influx of passengers. In general, the crowd seemed to be manageable, but the trains during the experiment period were very crowded and followed with delays.

Note! During the Trinity weekend, a week after the introduction of the special ticket, there were reports of trains that people fell out of when the doors opened. Despite the extra carriages, some trains could not leave the station because too many people were trying to board. The staff had to work overtime.

Who bought the ticket?

The offer to purchase a ticket for 9 euros was used by a wide variety of age, education, profession and gender groups of the population. However, in remote regions, the ticket was not bought with such enthusiasm as in big cities. The reason for this is limited access to public transport. To catch a bus or train, people in such areas have to walk long distances to the bus stop, then travel with transfers, wasting time waiting. The VDV figures show that in rural areas, a ticket for 9 euros was used half as often as in cities and their environs.

tourism boom

A study by the German Federal Bureau of Statistics (Statistisches Bundesamt), which took into account data from mobile phones, shows that people often used the ticket for tourist trips. The number of trips to the North and Baltic Seas, to the Alps has increased, the number of trips to the countryside for recreation has almost doubled. According to a VDV survey, 15% of buyers of €9 tickets said they would not have made such trips without the special price.

Will there be a continuation?

Among the main reasons for buying a ticket, passengers named low price and ease of use: one ticket could be used on all modes of transport in all regions. Now that the special offer is gone, people are unlikely to use public transport with the same enthusiasm as in the summer.

German Road Traffic Minister Volker Wissing named the ticket as a whole Huge success — a great success, showing that people would like to use public transport more. There are incentives for similar projects in the future, but there is little chance that public transport will become as cheap again.

Numbers

It was an expensive project, as tickets were sold for much less than cost. Federal the government provided 16 German states with an additional 2,5 billion eurosto make up for losses, but this figure does not include the cost of expanding the public transport fleet and additional staff.

Note! In some regions the number of passengers on railway lines has tripled. Vehicles and personnel were clearly not enough to satisfy the so increased needs of passengers.

Instead of 9 euros for a month, there are proposals to introduce a ticket for 69 euros for a month, or 365 euros for a year. The government will also have to allocate a lot of additional money for such projects. The unions are in favor of a new low-cost ticket, but also want more investment in the railroad and more staff to reduce the workload.

I wonder what will be the results of the experiment on the sale of per diem ticket for 1 euro in Amsterdam. We will tell you as soon as we know about it.

Publication Date: 07.09.2022