The new German government is offering a monthly subscription at a very reduced rate to encourage residents to leave their cars in the garage and offset the rise in energy prices.
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Nine euros to travel for a month throughout Germany and on all public transport: this is the initiative taken by the new German government. From June 1, this monthly subscription will come into effect, with the aim of combating climate change but also of offering a more economical solution to the car. Germans will be able to enjoy it for three months, excluding main lines and high-speed trains.
“It’s not worth using your car anymore! I’m saving, it’s great”, welcomes a German at Berlin’s central station who immediately adopted the season ticket. For this other user, on the other hand, the game is not worth the candle. “The trains from Berlin to the Baltic Sea are usually crowded in summer and the toilets are full. I find the price exaggerated.“However, with ever more expensive fuels – more than 2 euros per liter currently across the Rhine – the offer is unbeatable.
“I buy it because it is really advantageous and that even if for a single trip through the whole Republic, it must take me a little longer.”
A German met at Berlin Central Stationat franceinfo
To cope with a potential increase in passenger numbers, Deutsche Bahn plans to add 50 trains per day. But she still doesn’t know what the crowds will really be on board. Implementing this initiative in the middle of the summer is a mistake, according to some public transport users. “It’s not the right time. It would have made more sense in the winter. In the summer, many won’t benefit.”
For some, it is even a false ecological incentive or even a misuse of public money, the measure having cost 2.5 billion euros. However, when the first subscriptions for the month of June went on sale a week earlier, the website did not hold up and the distributors in the stations were taken by storm.