Germany ticket: The ticket should be that expensive

The price of the Germany ticket in local transport is scheduled to increase from currently 58 euros to 63 euros a month in the coming year. This was decided by the Conference of Transport Ministers in Munich, as the German press agency learned from participant circles.

At the beginning of the year, the price of the ticket rose from 49 euros to 58. The Germany ticket has been around since May 2023. According to the industry, it is used by around 14 million people and enables trips in public regional and local transport nationwide.

The background to the new price increase on January 1, 2026 is a financial dispute between the federal and state governments. The stick point in negotiations was the question of how expected additional costs should be compensated for in transport companies – beyond the three billion euros per year that the federal and state governments have so far provided together and also want to give together for the coming year. Both the federal government and the countries each give 1.5 billion euros. The Germany ticket is cheaper compared to previous subscriptions, which ensures that the income is taken.

Without a “dynamization” of the three billion euros from the federal and state governments, a massive funding gap from forecast 800 million euros, Alexander Möller, managing director of the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV), had already said.

Before the Conference of Ministers of Transport, the federal government’s ministers of the federal government blamed a price increase. The Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of Transport Katrin Eder (Greens) said that the federal government does not solve its promises from the coalition agreement. In the CDU, CSU and SPD coalition agreement, the Germany ticket states that the proportion of user financing should be increased gradually and socially acceptable from 2029.

However, in the coalition agreement there are generally under financing reservations. In the federal financial planning of the federal government gaps. Even the countries did not want to give more than 1.5 billion euros per year.

The Transport Ministers’ Conference (VMK) of the federal states set the price for the ticket. The federal government is a guest. The increase is then formally decided again in the Federal Council. Federal Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder (CDU) was not there at the conversations in Munich, he is represented by a state secretary.

A price mechanism was discussed in Munich. In a resolution, it was said that from 2027 the price of the Germany ticket should be continued based on a cost index to be developed up to the Conference of Ministers of Transport in autumn 2025. This index should in particular map personnel and energy costs and should be determined after hearing the industry.