The Berlin Senate announced intentions to extend the sale of the €29 ticket for the Berlin AB zone until at least the end of March 2023 and to cut the price of the €9 social ticket to just €8.
The state-funded €29 monthly ticket has been offered in Berlin since the beginning of October as a replacement for the €9 ticket that was accessible nationally over the summer.
Prior to Tuesday, the idea was to maintain the €29 ticket offer until the end of December, after which a new countrywide €49 monthly ticket was scheduled to be introduced.
According to Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey, however, the Berlin Senate no longer believes that the €49 ticket will be ready for sale by the start of 2023 and has consequently opted to extend the €29 ticket for an initial three-month period.
The Senate also announced that a new social ticket will be available in Berlin for €9 per month beginning in January 2023 and lasting until at least the end of March. Presently, the “Sozialticket” in Berlin costs €27.50 and is only available to people who qualify for the Berlin Pass, such as welfare recipients.
The timing of the launch of the €49 countrywide travel card will determine how April 2023 will progress.
According to Greens senator for mobility Bettina Jarasch, one idea under consideration is to “build on the €49 ticket in some regions” and offer a cheaper version for Berlin. Together with the Berlin-Brandenburg Transport Association, she also proposed building a socially graduated public transportation fare system in the region (VBB).
Tuesday, the Berlin Senate approved a €2.6 billion supplemental budget to assist pay for this and other relief measures for the city’s people. In 2022 and 2023, the cheaper ticket alone will cost the state of Berlin €500 million.
In the first week alone, railway journeys between 100 kilometers (62 miles) and 300 kilometers (186 miles) in length climbed by about half compared to pre-pandemic norms, and those between 30 kilometers and 100 kilometers by nearly sixty percent. The national office of statistics reports that overall train network usage is around 42% more than the corresponding pre-pandemic June of 2019. Weekend rail usage has increased by up to 83%.
TomTom, a producer of satellite navigation systems, reported that congestion has decreased in 23 of the 26 German cities it examined.
About 10 million of the 31 million persons who purchased tickets in June were previously subscribed to a regional transit network. These subscribers will receive rebates from local operators to reduce their monthly cost to €9.
The rate of participation in July appears to have been comparable thus far.
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Volker Wissing, the transport minister and a member of the pro-business Free Democratic Party, has signaled a willingness to examine how the scheme’s spirit may be sustained, despite stating that, at a cost of €2.5 billion to the public purse, it is too expensive to continue in its current form.
He stated that the plan has revealed the uncertainty and ambiguity of having too many operators with varying ticket prices across the nation, and he would like to see the entire system simplified.
Critics of the plan have been quick to point out what they perceive to be its flaws. In other instances, overcrowding on trains has necessitated police intervention and forced people to stand close to one another.
Near Llanes, west of Bilbao, as seen from a Renfe train traveling along the northern coast of Spain, near Bilbao.
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People who often transport their bikes on regional trains for recreation or to facilitate a door-to-door commute to work have frequently been barred from doing so owing to overcrowding.
According to a survey conducted by Civey, 45% of Germans would like the program to continue beyond August, while 43% would prefer it not to.
It is still unclear how many people have made the switch from regular car travel to public transportation. According to the Office of National Statistics, there was only a minor drop in road traffic during the initial weeks of the scheme. As a result of the Covid outbreak, individuals moved from public transportation to automobiles.
The government’s choice to simultaneously introduce subsidies at the gas pump has been criticized as a paradoxical action, partially overshadowing the praise it has received internationally for subsidizing public transportation.
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