Germany’s top consumer advocate Ramona Pop has spoken out in favor of a 29-euro ticket from September. The sales figures and full trains show that people are really using the 9-euro ticket, which is due to expire at the end of August, the head of the Federal Association of Consumer Centers told the newspapers of the Essen-based Funke media group on Friday, July 29. An alliance of ten youth organizations called for the 9-euro ticket to be continued “until at least the end of this year and in the long term free local transport for everyone”.
The former Berlin Senator for Economics Pop (Greens) referred to the advantages of a nationwide ticket for local transport. “You no longer have to understand the complicated tariff structures of different transport associations in order to buy the right ticket,” she said. With a low price, it is affordable for many people to travel in an environmentally friendly manner. At the same time, the offer must be expanded, especially in rural areas. “The dismantling of railway lines in the past decades was a wrong decision,” criticized Pop.
For the alliance of youth organizations and environmental associations, the initiator and executive federal youth leadership of the railway and transport union (EVG), Victoria Ebnet, called for a massive increase in personnel in the “RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland”, “not only at the railways, but also in industry to build vehicles to be able to”. The costs should be financed by the abolition of climate-damaging subsidies such as the company car privilege and the introduction of a kerosene tax, Ebnet said.
According to the information, the alliance also includes the BUND-Jugend, the German Federal Youth Council, the DGB-Jugend, the Young Socialists, the Green Youth, the Linksjugend solid as well as Fridays for Future, the Naju and the Naturfreunde Jugend.
