Germany launches a single subscription at 49 euros

Traveling to Germany for 49 euros per month. This has been possible since Monday May 1, thanks to a new transport ticket presented as a “revolution”. With this initiative, Germany wants to both support the population in the face of inflation, while promoting the use of public transport, which pollutes less. The thermal individual car is a major source of greenhouse gases, driving global warming.

The “Deutschlandticket” offers unlimited access to buses, metros, local and regional trains – high-speed trains being excluded. The German Association of Public Transport Managers (VDV) expects at least 16 million future subscribers in a country of 84 million inhabitants. Around 750,000 tickets have already been sold, not counting users who have converted their regular subscription to a “Deutschlandticket”.

Criticisms of the cost of this measure

A financing agreement has been reached between the regions and the State, which will each pay 1.5 billion euros per year, to avoid further widening the deficit of Deutsche Bahn, the national rail operator, estimated at 30 billion euros. euros. These expenditures are criticized by the opposition. According to her, the money should have been used “to improve and renovate railway infrastructure”, lamented Christian Democrat MP Michael Donth. The network is aging, with an investment requirement of 8.6 billion euros per year over a decade.

Crowded trains, delays, technical problems… only 65.2% of long-distance trains arrived on time in 2022, a drop of 10 points over one year. These difficulties came to light when a first discounted transport ticket was introduced last summer. For 9 euros per month, the Germans had been able to borrow all regional transport.

The success had been immense with 52 million subscriptions sold but the railway operators had struggled to manage the craze. The experience of the 9 euro ticket had not convinced France: “It is expensive and there is very little transfer from the car to the train”declared in October Clément Beaune, the French Minister of Transport