Shortly before the 9-euro ticket expires, the transport companies draw a positive balance. According to the VDV, the ticket was sold more than 60 million times. In ten percent of the journeys, users left their cars behind. Many even boarded buses and trains for the first time.
The Association of German Transport Companies (VDV) has shown its initial satisfaction with the 9-euro ticket. “The ticket was very successful and it’s worth thinking about the continuation,” said VDV general manager Oliver Wolff in Berlin. A total of around 52 million tickets were sold; another ten million went to people who already had a subscription for a monthly ticket.
At the same time, Wolff presented the interim results of a study in which 6,000 people aged 14 and over were asked about the ticket weekly – 78,000 surveys were collected over the entire campaign period from June to August. A key finding is “that we have many transfer passengers,” said Wolff. According to the VDV, ten percent of trips with the 9-euro ticket were used for a route that would otherwise have been driven by car. Overall, the proportion of trips shifted from other means of transport is 17 percent. The VDV estimates the amount of greenhouse gas saved at 1.8 million tons.
At the same time, Wolff pointed out that people in rural areas were often unable to use the ticket. The main reason given by people in rural areas for not buying a ticket was, at 37 percent, the “lack of reason to use it”. This shows that the price and quality of local public transport “must urgently be discussed together,” said Wolff.
The chairwoman of the conference of transport ministers of the federal states, Bremen’s mobility senator Maike Schaefer, said at the joint press conference that there had been “a real run” on the 9-euro ticket. Many people would have used public transport for the first time because of this offer. “First of all, that’s a success.” Ultimately, however, it is only a real success “if there is also a successor plan”. Otherwise, the ticket would only have been “a nice holiday campaign,” said the Green politician.
However, the successor regulation “cannot be passed on to the federal states alone,” Schaefer demanded. She expects corresponding proposals from the federal government – so far “there has only been a blockade attitude,” she said, without naming Finance Minister Christian Lindner and Transport Minister Volker Wissing directly. The two FDP ministers had rejected a successor plan. The argument: the states are responsible for local transport.
For June, July and August, the 9-euro ticket enabled travel on all local public transport in Germany for a monthly fee of 9 euros. The ticket was one of several measures taken by the federal government to relieve consumers in the face of high energy prices.
