Financial challenge: The transport industry is signaling that a price adjustment for the Germany ticket is essential in order to maintain the offer.
For this year, the price for the Deutschlandticket remains at 49 euros per month – but in the medium term, the subscription will have to become more expensive from the transport industry’s perspective. “The ticket is not a 365 euro ticket that cannot be increased,” said the President of the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV), Ingo Wortmann.
“The ticket is actually one that needs to be increased and adjusted to the cost,” Wortmann said. With the current tariff, no transport company is able to maintain local public transport services without financial support.
How much more expensive the subscription has to become also depends on how much companies’ costs continue to rise and how much the federal government expands its financial support. “It could be 5 euros or 15 euros or 10 euros. We’ll have to see that,” said VDV managing director Oliver Wolff about possible price increases.
Price increases have been under discussion for a long time
The Deutschlandticket is a public transport subscription. Since May, it has enabled nationwide travel on local and regional transport and can be canceled on a monthly basis. The federal and state governments each subsidize the offer with 1.5 billion euros per year in order to compensate for the transport companies’ losses. Since the subscription began, there has been talk of a price increase because it is unclear whether the compensation payments are sufficient for the companies.
At a special conference, the transport ministers of the federal states decided that the price should remain unchanged at least for this year. Leftover federal and state funds from last year should also be used in 2024. From the VDV’s perspective, it is unclear whether there will be any money left over again this year. Wolff emphasized that one must be careful that the unclear forecasts do not necessitate large price jumps that would reduce the attractiveness of the ticket.
Source: Stern
