The federal and state governments are arguing about discount tickets in local transport

Companies warn against cannibalizing the tickets

The heads of the local transport industry had already advised on Thursday evening. It quickly became clear that every transport company and every association would have an enormous amount of work – possibly even Deutsche Bahn AG in long-distance transport. “In view of the administrative effort, the question arises as to whether it would not be better to let everyone drive for free for three months,” it said soberly.

In his letter, which is available to the Handelsblatt, Wolff warned the senator: “With a nine-euro subscription for the next three months, an exorbitant additional loss of income can be expected. Single tickets will practically no longer be purchased, as a nine-euro subscription will completely cannibalize this type of ticket.”

This applies to long-distance transport, “for which this subscription will provide a cheaper alternative. Existing subscription customers, regardless of the type, including the holders of job tickets, will have to be reimbursed by the companies or associations, and an as yet unforeseeable number of new customers will take advantage of the nine-euro subscription.”

The financial consequences are “not foreseeable”. However, the bureaucracy is certain: “considerable overhead costs” for the company due to “ad hoc significant additional administrative, IT-based and sales tasks”. Wolff demanded that the federal and state governments should request the additional traffic “quasi as an orderer” and compensate for “all the loss of income caused by the political decisions”.

>> Read here: Bahn apparently significantly reduces losses and creates record sales

The state transport ministers actually wanted a lot of money from the federal government because of other burdens. Because of the exploding energy costs, many medium-sized transport companies are already “endangered in their existence”, as stated in the draft resolution for the special conference. They could, for example, “not pass on the additional costs in a timely manner”, which does not make sense anyway, since many more people should use local transport to protect the climate. Rising prices are a deterrent. According to state ministers, it is about 900 million euros, which the federal government should compensate for once.

The federal states also want to extend the Corona rescue package for another year. According to the Association of Transport Companies, the industry will earn four billion euros less from fares in 2021 due to the pandemic, this year they expect 3.1 billion. So far, the federal and state governments have compensated for the losses equally. Passenger numbers are still well below the level of 2019. The association hopes to reach a level of 85 percent by the end of the year.

Proposal causes a lot of frustration in the industry

Last but not least, the countries are concerned with achieving the climate goals with significantly expanded local transport including modern buses and trains and doubling the number of passengers by 2030, as politically desired. They have already demanded 67.5 billion euros from the federal government by 2030, which the federal government rejected. For this year they are asking for 750 million euros and three billion euros more regionalization funds per year from 2023.

So it’s already about many billions of euros. Now the federal government has to compensate for the ticket discount. The proposal was not agreed with the industry and caused a lot of frustration.

No wonder the press conference on Friday started much later than planned. “Many questions arose for us in the federal states as to how the regulation should be implemented pragmatically,” said Chairwoman Schaefer after a good three hours delay. The majority of the conference called on the federal government to “keep the administrative effort low” and to “fully finance” the offer. The group recommended “introducing a zero tariff for 90 days instead of nine euros,” said Schaefer. “Then let’s do it right for once.”

“It’s about reducing energy consumption overall,” Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) justified the ticket discount of nine euros for three months for subscribers and single ticket buyers. “We will reimburse the federal states for the costs,” said the minister. It’s about 2.5 billion euros or possibly more.

He refused a free ticket. This would probably cost one to two billion euros more. A federal-state working group should now advise quickly. It’s supposed to start on May 1st.

BVG boss calls for more money for local transport in the country

The proposal for the ticket discount was made by the Greens in the Berlin coalition committee to set a counterpoint to the tank discount. Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) had previously surprised the SPD and the Greens with him. This would “not only relieve drivers as before,” said the traffic policy spokesman for the Greens parliamentary group, Stefan Gelbhaar.

FDP parliamentary group leader Tobias Dürr said after the agreement: “It was important to us that there was relief at the gas station.” After all, companies fear losing subscribers permanently if they cancel in order to drive for three months for 27 euros instead of the usual 200 euros or more.

The head of the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), Eva Kreienkamp, ​​suggested that in addition to the discount ticket, local transport in outskirts and rural areas should be significantly expanded. “First with buses before rails have to be laid everywhere,” said the BVG boss to the Handelsblatt. “Then people would really switch.”

She pointed out that inexpensive tickets “only worked with a significantly increased offer”. “We learned that from Vienna,” she said. In Vienna there is a 365 euro ticket. This was tested in several German cities for a year, but this hardly attracted any new customers in local transport.

First of all, however, the task is to integrate the special ticket for 90 days into the existing fare system, which is subject to a “quasi legislative nomenklatura”, as the VDV describes the complicated voting procedure. “We are currently working at full speed on an industry solution,” said a spokesman for the association. The federal states are responsible for local transport tariffs.

A proposal from the Berlin BVG is already circulating in the industry. In it, the company demands that subscribers drive for three months free of charge. “Expenditure and organization would be significantly reduced (simply let the subscription rest),” says the paper. If you buy an annual pass, you should also be able to travel for three months free of charge. Everyone else should be able to buy the nine-euro monthly ticket online. In the short term, a car-free Sunday would also make sense to set a signal. “300,000 liters of fuel can be saved for every car-free Sunday.”

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