However, the agreement is still subject to the EU Commission approving the 49-euro ticket.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin After weeks of consultation, the federal and state governments have agreed on a nationwide valid 49-euro ticket for local and regional transport. According to this, the transport companies are to sell the monthly ticket, which can be canceled monthly, from April 3rd. It is valid from May 1st.
According to information from the Handelsblatt from negotiating circles, employees with a job ticket should also benefit from this. As it was said, there is a five percent discount on the monthly ticket if the employer subsidizes “at least 25 percent”. It has also been agreed that customers can cancel the ticket monthly without having to pay a fee. This was initially brought into play by the local transport companies.
The ticket should always be sold digitally. Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) insisted on this. Transport companies that want to issue a chip card can first issue a “digitally controllable paper ticket” until enough chip cards are available and issued, at the latest by December 31, 2023, according to the resolution paper of the federal-state working group.
The Association of German Transport Companies should help all transport companies with a free app “to support continuous controllability”. The association is also to evaluate the first nationwide tariff. It should initially be set up for two years and will remain stable at 49 euros until then.
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As it was said, the companies could not agree on a nationwide uniform marketing campaign. On the other hand, the local transport associations, which also include the Federal Association of German Bus Companies or the Federal Association of Local Rail Passenger Transport, should agree on a joint service provider.
Wissing wants to modernize the industry
Minister of Transport Wissing promises that the ticket will fundamentally modernize the industry. However, the ticket will be one of many and will initially not replace nearly as many tariffs as some experts had hoped.
Minister of Transport Wissing promises that the ticket will fundamentally modernize the industry.
(Photo: IMAGO/Chris Emil Janssen)
The federal and state governments had been arguing about the ticket for months. The collective bargaining authority in local transport lies with the municipalities and states, not with the federal government. He has agreed to support the loss of income from the new ticket with 1.5 billion euros a year.
Minister Wissing will shortly present his bill on the tariff. To do this, the regionalization law, through which the federal government finances local transport in the federal states, must be changed. In the first year, the federal government will now also take over the tariff approval, as it was said.
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