Germany: €9 a month for 3 months from June 1

[D365]

This afternoon in Munich was chaotic with a signal failure west of Ostbahnhof on the S-Bahn core. DB ops staff doing their usual best to make sure that passengers couldn't find their way home, at the expense of frontline sanity.

However, I'm not sure how many of the passengers were just regular commuters, as opposed to extra traffic generated by the 9€ tickets.

 

[Fragezeichnen]

It's amazing that Germany is doing this to attract people back to the trains just as our DfT/Treasury is wanting big cost reductions on our railways to pay for Covid. Germany has also had Covid and presumably their train usage fell away much as ours did. The railways weren't to blame for Covid but here it's being used as an excuse for the biggest fare increase in nine years and service cuts, but this won't be the end of it. If the UK tried to replicate Germany's offer it would be chaos as we don't have nearly enough trains or crews to cope with the resulting increase in passengers. How many other European countries treat their railways as we do in Britain?

The main aim of the project is to reduce costs for commuters, increased leisure travel is something of a side effect.

The UK does seem to be suffering noticeable cuts, but the conditions in Germany are somewhat different.

I would imagine rail travel fell less in Germany, because there was no ruling or even suggestion that public transport should be reserved for use by "key workers" or any other group. Anything you were permitted to do, you could use a train or bus to go there.

Germany does not have a franchise system so a drop in revenue does not lead to the operators immediately asking for financial assistance and contract renogotiation. Germany will have to contend with rising costs and dropping revenue too, but the effects of this will materialise over years as contracts for the provision of public transport are renewed with possibly less ambitious offerings. In Germany the state government can simply decide to cease train services on a line without any public consultation and I know of one line already which will be shut in December as a result of a last minute change to the Invitation to Tender.

 

[Austriantrain]

It's amazing that Germany is doing this to attract people back to the trains just as our DfT/Treasury is wanting big cost reductions on our railways to pay for Covid. Germany has also had Covid and presumably their train usage fell away much as ours did. The railways weren't to blame for Covid but here it's being used as an excuse for the biggest fare increase in nine years and service cuts, but this won't be the end of it. If the UK tried to replicate Germany's offer it would be chaos as we don't have nearly enough trains or crews to cope with the resulting increase in passengers. How many other European countries treat their railways as we do in Britain?

At least in Central Europe, we do tend to take a longer-term view. Yes, passenger numbers broke down during the pandemic, but no, they won’t stay low forever and we do want people to switch from the car, so no point in dialing everything down to save some bucks only to have to invest even more later on to increase capacity once again (and if peak commuter numbers stay down for a while, thus avoiding the costliest part of railway service and expensive investment to eke out one or two additional trains per hour, so much for the better - however, I do appreciate that these services, unlike around London, never brought in money for the railways on the continent).

It does make us look old-fashioned from time to time though - witness all those trams running around Central European cities when the rest of the world thought buses are the new modern…

 

[yorksrob]

Long term thinking. That really is a foreign concept to this country.

The only long term effect evident on the management of the railway in Britain is the accumulative effect of decades of bad government decisions.

 

[Austriantrain]

Long term thinking. That really is a foreign concept to this country.

The only long term effect evident on the management of the railway in Britain is the accumulative effect of decades of bad government decisions.

I am not even sure if it really is deliberate long-termism in our part of the woods. It often just seems a delayed reaction to change - which sometimes (not always) has positive effects (see my example on trams).

 

[YorkshireBear]

Bought our 9 euro tickets for this weekends trip, painless. Very handy, does anyone know if they are valid on the Dusseldorf airport sky train.

 

[Golghar]

They are valid on the Dusseldorf Airport Sky Train but last Friday it wasn't running. They had a bus service instead. The S11 train from the Terminal to the Dusseldorf main station is running normally.

 

[YorkshireBear]

They are valid on the Dusseldorf Airport Sky Train but last Friday it wasn't running. They had a bus service instead. The S11 train from the Terminal to the Dusseldorf main station is running normally.

Ah okay will double check when we arrive. Thanks for that.

 

[DanielB]

It's amazing that Germany is doing this to attract people back to the trains just as our DfT/Treasury is wanting big cost reductions on our railways to pay for Covid. Germany has also had Covid and presumably their train usage fell away much as ours did. The railways weren't to blame for Covid but here it's being used as an excuse for the biggest fare increase in nine years and service cuts, but this won't be the end of it. If the UK tried to replicate Germany's offer it would be chaos as we don't have nearly enough trains or crews to cope with the resulting increase in passengers. How many other European countries treat their railways as we do in Britain?

Many organisations in the Netherlands are trying to avoid it from happening, but current status here is quite similar to Britain. When the state secretary continues to insist she doesn't want to spend additional money on public transport as of 2023 (compensating the slow recovery of passenger numbers) we'd also get a huge fare increase and service cuts here.

 

[AlbertBeale]

Mixed reports on German forums - with a lot emphasising “see what happens at the weekend”

Over the last 6 days, I've used a variety of local and regional trains (and some U-Bahn, and some local and regional buses) - all in one region (NRW) - with my 9 Euro ticket. This has spanned weekdays and weekend, city centres and in between, and peak hours and other times. My impression was that most services I used were fairly-well loaded, but I can only remember one that was completely full to capacity (not counting a few rush-hour buses that would be like that anyway).

I got my 9-Euro ticket from a machine at the first station I got to in Germany - it was the first ticket offered on the screen, and I just put in 9 Euros in cash and and that was it! (A friend got one from the ticket office at the same station, and the woman issuing the ticket was most apologetic when explaining that it was for a calendar month - and June had started a week earlier - rather for a full month from when you bought it!)

Incidentally, I was never subject to a ticket check at any stage on any train - not did I see any happening. The nearest I got to that was when I'd popped into the Netherlands and was getting a bus back, and paid the driver for a ticket to the border. When reaching the last stop in the Netherlands the driver helpfully pointed out to me (an obvious non-local, who was sitting near the driver) that I'd gone as far as my ticket allowed. I explained that I had a German 9 Euro ticket and offered to show it to him but he wasn't very interested...

If the UK government really cared about levelling up, and/or the climate crisis, then rather than fretting about petrol prices going up for motorists, they'd rake in as much petrol tax as possible and slash pubic transport fares instead.

 

[185]

No issues with the pass and the anticipated overcrowding on local / regio trains wasn't so. Did get randomly asked for an ID / Passport on an NX service.

 

[zero]

I travelled from the Belgian border to the Swiss border over several days (NRW-RP-Saarland-RP-Hesse-BW, in a roundabout manner). My trains were not any more crowded than I would have expected them to be in June 2019.

In contrast to Albert Beale, my ticket was checked on almost every train, including at 11pm and at 5am (actually twice on the same train within 30 minutes by different people, and none of the other continuing passengers made a fuss!). Nobody has asked for ID yet. Also I guess I'm not travelling on tourist-heavy routes, but it seems that very few passengers are using 9 euro tickets, most of them are still presenting some sort of season ticket card.

I also took some buses and none of the drivers were bothered about tickets at all, they waved me on when I tried to get it out of my pocket.

In previous years I travelled around similar areas with day tickets from BW, RP, VRR, VRS, etc., and those were very rarely checked on trains, yet bus drivers always wanted to see them and would get confused when presented with tickets bought at DB machines (except in some cities where it seemed to be the norm to board by back doors - mainly Wiesbaden IIRC).

I also took some ICEs in Germany where the regional timetable was poor - and my (separately purchased) tickets were not checked on any of these.

In Switzerland I used Saver Day Passes. My ticket was rarely checked on board trains including some very long journeys, even though I would have expected it to be checked quite frequently based on my 2019 and 2020 experiences where they also asked for ID often.

 

[dutchflyer]

Have used it on roughly half of the days till now-starting on day 1 and very mixed experience. My main aim is tram+bus, try to avoid trains as can, and on bustram never problems-except late running on many regional buslines.
Weekends are by far much worse-was in Stuttgart the long weekend of 4+5/6 and it was rammed. But on THu/Fri 16/17 in Niedersachsen (HTL in Bremen) and busier as usual bot always seats, some quite nice long bus rides.
When checked in trains around half the times they also ask for ID-which of course makes all checks take much longer. My easy to find NS Chipcard (personal, with foto+name on it) was sometimes taken/admired, sometimes not. I have found at least 2 empty cards-thrown away, without name on.
If someone happens to be in Bavaria: on FRI there is FREE transprot in whole Salzburgerland (bezin frei) and this is extended till sept-take that chance!

 

[U-Bahnfreund]

I travelled from Karlsruhe to Strasbourg today, outward via Appenweier, return via Lauterbourg.

Got on the RE from Karlsruhe towards Konstanz (four double-deck coaches) about 10 minutes before departure and still got a seat, but after that more and more people came. Many announcements "please get out of the door" and when getting off in Appenweier the lower dock was rammed. On the platform to Strasbourg first a train from Strasbourg to Offenburg arrived (three single deck RS1 units), which was really even fuller than before, with people squeezed at the door frames. My train towards Strasbourg was only two cars, but it was relatively empty, only every seat filled (I guess some people who waited in Appenweier earlier were turned off by the full Offenburg train). When we reached Kehl, there were about 20 people or so, who seemed like they couldn't get on that earlier train.
For return we went up the French portion of the Rhine instead and that wasn't as full, but in Lauterbourg (first 9€ ticket valid station), loads of Germans got on.

Also last week I travelled back from Ruhr area to Karlsruhe, with also quite full trains: RB26 through Rhine valley was rammed, as was the RE14 from Mainz towards Mannheim with lots of people standing

 

[johncrossley]

The ticket is not valid on some buses to Dortmund airport, including the "AirportExpress" to Dortmund Hbf and "AirportShuttle" to the nearest station, about 1.5 km away. The exclusion is mentioned on their website

Travelling by Bus and Train | Dortmund Airport

If you want to travel to and from the airport using public transport, you can take the AirportExpress which connects directly with Dortmund Central Station. If you choose to take the AirportShuttle, this takes you directly to Holzwickede station. You can travel to both stations on the Deutsche...

www.dortmund-airport.com

The AirportExpress operates between Dortmund Central Station and the airport terminal during airport opening hours. The journey time is about 25 minutes (non-stop).

The stop for the AirportExpress service is located directly on the Central Station forecourt (Königswall/City exit) near the taxi rank.

The fare is €9.00 for a single ticket. Children under 14 pay €2.00 and children under six travel free. Tickets can be purchased from the bus driver (cash payment only), as well as from a ticket machine in front of the terminal (cash payment (notes and coins) and cashless payment with EC card, credit card possible). VRR tickets and the so-called 9€ ticket available from 01.06.2022 are not valid.

You can travel between Holzwickede station and the Dortmund Airport terminal on the AirportShuttle. The journey time is about 6 minutes.

The fare is €3.00 for a single ticket. Children under 14 pay €2.00 and children under six travel free. Tickets can be purchased from the bus driver (cash payment only), as well as from a ticket machine in front of the terminal (cash payment (notes and coins) and cashless payment with EC card, credit card possible). VRR tickets and the so-called 9€ ticket available from 01.06.2022 are not valid.

These buses are shown on the DB journey planners, so be careful. There are other normal VRR services that can be used.

 

[YorkshireBear]

Getting the ticket checked regularly but not finding the trains to be any more or less full than usual, not yet had to stand up on any trains round Cologne. Only had to stand on trams and the Wuppertal Overhead Railway.

 

[AlbertBeale]

Getting the ticket checked regularly but not finding the trains to be any more or less full than usual, not yet had to stand up on any trains round Cologne. Only had to stand on trams and the Wuppertal Overhead Railway.

I forgot to add, in my earlier post, that I also did the Wuppertal suspended monorail - and great fun it was too. Even though it was getting towards rush hour, it wasn't completely full.

 

[slowjoe]

it seems that very few passengers are using 9 euro tickets, most of them are still presenting some sort of season ticket card

Just to add here, any kind of season ticket from anywhere in Germany counts as a 9 Euro Ticket for the whole of Germany (and the cost has been discounted to 9 euros for the next three months)
They did this because they didn't want a whole load of people cancelling their seasons to get the 9 Euro Ticket instead.

It also has the advantage that most of these are photocards, so there is no need for an extra ID check.

 

[zero]

Just to add here, any kind of season ticket from anywhere in Germany counts as a 9 Euro Ticket for the whole of Germany (and the cost has been discounted to 9 euros for the next three months)
They did this because they didn't want a whole load of people cancelling their seasons to get the 9 Euro Ticket instead.

It also has the advantage that most of these are photocards, so there is no need for an extra ID check.

Oh I see, that makes a lot of sense.

 

[dutchflyer]

Now that the first month has nearly come to an end-not quite-there are some cases where this ticket is the better to buy as a normal single some results:
slightly over 20 million have been sold- plus a little more as 10 mln existing seasonticketholders got their fee reduced to 9€, in total well over 30 mln (Germany has a little over 80 mil citizens), a little more as expected before by the transport companies.
Most notable find was that local traffic IN cities was slightly less jammed up.......
Still-I wanted another style next month- I could not get the july issue out of a HVV/Hamburg metro machine after 18.00-DB has them-also for august already, but I have one of them for june. There has also been a report for someone being accused of black riding/fare evasion as he showed the july ticket which was registered-it later turned out it was just an oversight. Will probably give many more confusions tomorrow.
It varies enormously how strict it is checked and then still often with the cumbersome ID to be shown-this only on trains.
It also varies enormously how accomodating the regions are in trying to add capacity, lay in extra´s or lengthen etc. Long distance rides with 3-4 trains between main cities and the on weekends go to the beach/mountains/lakes lines are the bottlenecks. And even more alternative routes bypassing replacement buses on major lines.

 

[Feuillesmortes]

the cumbersome ID to be shown-this only on trains.

What's the solution here - move away from tickets that can be shown on phones, and go back to paper tickets which can't be duplicated?

 

[Cloud Strife]

What's the solution here - move away from tickets that can be shown on phones, and go back to paper tickets which can't be duplicated?

I don't think there's any reason to not do it. It's not a big deal to show your ID card along with the ticket, and at least in PL, this is the norm on PKP Intercity trains with electronic tickets. Having said that, it's the kind of thing that should be done at random, which will achieve the same result as checking every individual person.

 

[zero]

I'm guessing that there weren't that many tourists overall, and let's say 5 million under 6s, so still over half the population who didn't use (or pay for) public transport exceeding 9 euros for the whole month (or they somehow didn't hear about this, or perhaps they felt morally obliged to pay the normal fares rather than getting subsidised??)

In the last week I did see quite a lot of people buying individual tickets on trams and buses.


I was never asked for ID and I had more ticket checks in Germany over 4 days in June 2022 than the 10 years from 2012-2021 (ok, I only spent about 30 days in Germany over those 10 years).


I wonder if there's any chance the government(s) would continue this in the future? For the travel I did in June, as a tourist I would have been happy to pay 90 euros. I suspect that the regular price of my travel did exceed 90 euros, but then I took some buses 1 stop where I might have walked - though some of those buses may have been covered by a day ticket I would have bought instead. Even if the regular price was a bit less than 90 euros I would have paid it for the convenience of being able to take anything without having to check the honeycomb zone map, or look up the price or buy a separate ticket.

 

[Andypandy1968]

I hope they don't continue this, the local trains around Koln were rammed last week!

 

[duesselmartin]

I dont think they will to that price. There is a discussion of a follow up model analogue to Austria's Klimaticket. So it is possible that future regional services will be cheaper than before but nothing is certain.

 

[Feuillesmortes]

For the travel I did in June, as a tourist I would have been happy to pay 90 euros.

The Quer-durchs-Land-Ticket, and Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket, for 42 euros for one day, don't even include buses and trams anymore.

So 90 euros for a month would be optimistic (and would even be cheaper than the KlimaTicket).

 

[dutchflyer]

Happy weekend was withdrawn long before covid struck.
ALL the ´Länder´-some combined have since their own Landestickets, most valid in all transport-incl local bus/tram etc. with prices around 24-25€ for 1 person (mo-fr from 9.00, sat/sun all day, from 0.01) with a low additional price for 2nd-5th of 5-6€ each. Exceptions are NRW, where the base price is higher at 33€ and Hessen-which only does a fairly expensive 5-person version-but the 2 Verbünde here have much cheaper offers.
Some very good prices for very long trips can be made: Niedersachsen-from Helmstedt or Goslar or Göttingen via Hannover-Bremen to the NorthSea above Emden, nearly all in comfy doubledeckers.
Schleswig-Holstein is also valid in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (nickname MacPommes)-thats from danish border till POland.
Also all the Verkehrverbünde offer their own daytickets-most are valid for 24 hrs or have no peak restrictions.
If you plan daytrips or outings when the 9€ is gone, plan according to that-stay in some place at border of 2 Länder and happy travels again!
Today (now sitting in a hotel with british label and looking out on the tracks of a main station, it will also offer a cooked british brekkie tomorrow morning) was rather empty trains in this Rhein Ruhr area-and even the delays were not overly big in the trains I took (max 12 mins ).

 

[Porty]

All very straightforward to usewith the €9 ticket visible on ticket machines, in my case on arriving at Hamburg Airport. Hamburg Ubahn and SBahn fairly busy but then I don't know how they are normally.

Took about 10 RE trains across northern Germany, most were pretty busy but I always got a seat and in almost all cases had a pair of seats to myself. Ticket checked once only.

 

[rg177]

Having been using the ticket for a few days now, I mean, its incredible value. You can't deny that it's certainly done much to encourage people to travel.

Most trains have been fine but noticeably some of the longer distance REs have been hellish.

Caught the RE2 yesterday from Wismar to Wittenberge and it was crushloaded by Schwerin with passengers left behind. As a result it progressively lost time and I missed my connection to Magdeburg.

The RE1 from Göttingen to Glauchau was F&S on departure and actively leaving people behind. It was formed of two 612 units with one going only to Gera, so it could ideally done with being a treble, even if the third unit was just going to Erfurt or Gera. Definitely one to avoid at intermediate stops.

In general, reliability isn't particularly wonderful. Germany has never been great but every day has involved at least one missed connection. Still, it's cheap and accessible travel.

 

[dutchflyer]

Well-was on that one too-yesterday and today/morning-3 units and normally busy for the time (around 8.00). Today the school holidays start in this area (Thüringen, also in Sachsen) and this was noticeable. Tomorrow the works start and bus-replacement.
Went on the Selketalbahn=the eastern and lesser used branch of HarzQuerbahn (steam!-on some trains) the tiny motorcars were about half full. Now had the chance to do the otherwise quite expensive Oberweissbacher Bahn (south of Erfurt- a kind of cablecar with special set-up- the open to ´cabrio´ was running) and Augustusberg bahn-and on normal weekdays quiet. Quiet too on all buses I took.One train very busy-but the one before was cancelled, so it was double load. The east-west RE that link the east with nearby west (still use the terms) to connect with other RE and so to avoid ICE are superbusy-the more so weekends. Plus that quite a few are broken up due to works and bus-replacements.