Germany’s flat-fee nationwide public transport ticket (Deutschlandticket) went on sale on Monday. Starting May 1, travelers will be able to use local public transport around the country for 49 euros (53 U.S. dollars) a month.
The ticket succeeds the popular 9-euro ticket, which was sold 52 million times as an inflation relief measure in the summer months of 2022. “The Deutschlandticket is now to build on the success of this temporary campaign as a permanent offer,” the German government said in a statement.
The heavily subsidized transport pass will be jointly financed by the federal and state governments, with each chipping in 1.5 billion euros annually.
Existing local transport passes can be converted to the Deutschlandticket. Semester tickets of students as well as job tickets can be upgraded, the latter being discounted in case of a surcharge by employers and costing only 34.3 euros per month.
“With this, we hope to see a real increase in job tickets, which are already among the most purchased public transport season tickets,” Ingo Wortmann, president of the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV), said in a statement on Monday.
In an initial forecast, the VDV assumes that around 5.6 million new customers will buy the Deutschlandticket in addition to the existing season tickets for local public transport.
“The ticket will open up new opportunities for many people to be mobile in Germany — in everyday life, during leisure time or even on vacation,” Minister of Transport Volker Wissing said last Friday.
“It will bring noticeable relief, motivate people to make a climate-friendly switch and will make public transport more attractive in the long term,” he said. (1 euro = 1.09 U.S. dollar) ■
