The first 9 euro ticket weekend is done. Balance: well-filled regional trains, full platforms and a temporarily closed Cologne Central Station. Climate catastrophe or not – public transport in Germany cannot cope with many more passengers who switch from cars to trains.
“I think full trains are good,” says the President of the Association of German Transport Companies, Ingo Wortmann, in the 290th episode of “important today”. Not everyone sees it that way – and especially when many drivers change, the existing capacities are not sufficient at all. Public transport needs money: “If we want to achieve our climate goals, or if public transport is to make a contribution to them, then we will need eleven billion euros in 2030,” says Wortmann.
9 euro ticket despite skyrocketing energy costs
Local transport is also suffering above all from the increased energy costs: “We also have massive energy price increases […[ and of course they are not refinanced with the compensation funds for the 9-euro ticket, so we have to see how we deal with it”, says Ingo Wortmann, announcing that fares will become more expensive after the summer.
In particular, the President of the VDV advocates that the networks be expanded in rural areas, even if no money is initially earned: “You have to create the offer, you also have to pre-finance it a bit, you then have to experience that you then there is a year with not so good utilization and you have to advertise that very intensively.”
You can’t just postpone the climate crisis because of overcrowded trains, instead you should look at examples like Vienna. There is a 365 euro ticket there – subscription customers only pay one euro a day and within a few years the number of passengers has doubled. “Viennese have their passenger numbers mainly because they have massively expanded the offer in the past 20 years,” says Ingo Wortmann.
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