THIS summer, 52 million people bought a monthly ticket for 9 euros for public transport across Germany. The “cheap and simple” experiment has ended and discussions are now underway about whether it was successful and what comes next.

The public transport ticketing system in Germany is so complicated that there is even a song about it. In the composition Out of Bempflingen, the band “Choir of Monks” sings about their difficulties crossing “no man's land” – the area between two regional transport associations, writes Deutsche Welle.

“The counter is empty, need a machine, a ticket from Metzingen to Bempflingen, that's difficult,” the lyrics say. These are two German towns only five kilometers apart. Since the poor fellows cannot figure out which ticket they need to buy, they give up and walk instead. “It's a true story,” Michael Niethammer, one of the members of that group of musician-cabaret performers, told DW.

Everything was nine euros

This summer the ticket sales system was very simple. Instead of struggling through the jungle of more than 60 fare and transport networks in Germany, from June 1 to August 31 people could travel across the country on all local and regional buses and trains for 9 euros a month using a single ticket. But the three-month experiment has ended.

The measure, which the German magazine Der Spiegel called “the biggest experiment Germany has ever undertaken in the public transport system,” was introduced in a fairly short time as part of the federal government's aid package to help consumers. Even the transport companies were surprised by this measure and had very little time to prepare.

Now, at the end of the experiment, the question arises: was the cheap national transport ticket successful.

Big savings for passengers, reduced inflation

According to the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV), more than 52 million people bought the ticket – which is more than 60 percent of the country's population. Another ten million people automatically received a discount through an existing annual subscription for a local or regional transport network.

According to ADAC, Germany's largest automobile club, such subscriptions cost around 80 euros a month in larger German cities. During the three summer months, those passengers therefore automatically saved more than 200 euros.

The inflation rate in Germany also fell slightly during the experiment, which the Federal Statistical Office attributes, among other things, to the low price of public transport travel. The offer also attracted many new passengers. According to a VDV survey, 15 percent of users of the 9-euro ticket stated that without this cheap ticket they would not have traveled as much as they did.

“Millions of people receiving social assistance or with low wages are usually denied that. And they will again be denied it after this cheap ticket expires,” Ulrich Schneider, general director of the social association Deutscher Paritätischer Gesamtverband, writes in a commentary.

“Whether the national 9-euro ticket was successful depends on the goal. If it was about financially relieving citizens, I would say it was a success. If the goal was to promote public transport, I would say it was not,” Jonathan Lazer from the public-sector-specialized consulting company Management Consultants told DW.

Huge demand revealed weaknesses in the system

It is still not clear whether new customers would switch to public transport in the longer term (permanently). This summer, stories about overcrowded trains, broken air-conditioning units, and delays of an hour (or more) circulated daily on social media.

The reason for this is also the fact that Germany invests heavily in road traffic and less in rail, something public transport advocates have complained about for years. Even before the 9-euro ticket, passengers were faced with countless delays and overcrowded trains.

The federal government made an additional 2.5 billion euros available to Germany's 16 federal states – to compensate for the loss in ticket sales at the “normal” fare. However, there was no additional funding for extra capacity, staff, and maintenance to meet the increased demand.

“The 9-euro ticket made the problems in regional transport visible to everyone. There is not enough staff, and especially not enough vehicles to respond to the increase in passenger numbers in the future,” Ralf Damde, head of the Works Council at DB Regio, the Deutsche Bahn company responsible for regional transport, told the Germany Editorial Network (RND).

The ticket expired – the discussion continues

But what next? Critics of cheap tickets say it would be better to invest the money in infrastructure. However, despite unpleasant travel conditions, many are calling for the cheap fare to be extended, especially since Germany has recently failed to achieve its climate protection goals. Some want both:

“The solution is obviously not to make public transport less attractive again (with expensive tickets), but to repair/build the necessary infrastructure,” says a discussion on the social platform Reddit.

Although the experiment – a 9-euro ticket for all of Germany – ended on August 31, politicians are still debating whether some similar tickets should perhaps be introduced and how much they should cost.

Jonathan Lazer says that price is only part of this story. The experiment also showed the value of a streamlined ticket sales system. “We can talk about the price, but we also need to talk about how complicated it is to buy a ticket. Do we really need to have so many different systems? Or can we simplify them?”

Source: Index.hr