What can we learn from Germany's 9 euros monthly train pass?
What can we learn from Germany's 9 euros monthly train pass?
photo 13: The Regional Train
Dear Reader,
Paying the bill after going to a restaurant is not a problem. Putting this and that in your shopping cart on Amazon and then paying for them takes a few clicks. But when you're new in town and want to ride the subway for the first time, and you're approaching the ticket machine, you know that this will take a while.
Why is that?
Short answer: public transport is a monopoly. There is little need to improve service. People only have limited choices.
I'm telling you that because an experiment ended last week in Germany, that will hopefully change public transport forever.
From the beginning of June to the end of August, to help offset the inflationary pressures, the German government subsidised (with 2.5 billion euros) all-you-can-ride monthly rail tickets for only 9 euros.
The ticket was a political victory for the German government. A majority would like it to continue.
The success is not only due to the price. Travel suddenly became easy. With the 9-euro ticket, once bought, you could travel in all cities in Germany and on all regional buses and trains for a whole month.
That was a very new experience for the people in Germany.
Public transport has so far often been a service desert. In Germany, there are around 75 transport associations and about 450 companies in local public transport (called ÖPNV) – almost every association with its own tariff system. Those who do not regularly travel by bus and train quickly lose track of things.
The main problem: tariffs and transport associations didn't focus on customers but political levels. Often, single districts have their own local public transport system. Connections to the neighbouring district are often flawed, or one has to buy another ticket.
The 9-euro ticket didn't improve the connections, but at least made the existing ones easier to use – in one fell swoop. With this ticket, wherever you were in Germany, you could always board a bus, subway or regional train. No extra ticket purchase, no ticket inspection, no uncertainty.
There is now a lot of discussion in Germany about what price the tickets should have in the future. And yes, an affordable fare is needed so that many people (can) use public transport. But more importantly, public transport has to be easy to use.
I am convinced that no political party will fall behind this experience in their next election manifestos.
And, of course, public transit has to be available. It is often not in Germany. In rural regions, in particular, connections and frequencies are poor.
But I am pretty sure that with uniform tickets throughout Germany, that would also change. Because the political pressure to expand local transport would increase if people realised that public transportation was easy to use everywhere, just not where they live.
Things have gotten moving in Germany. Yesterday the German government decided on a successor for the 9-euro ticket. The new ticket, which will also be valid nationwide, is to cost between 49 and 69 euros a month. I very like this development.
Onwards,
Johannes Eber
sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/world/europe/germanys-trains-9euro-pass.html
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/should-public-transit-be-free/