Editor in chief at IamExpat Media
The city-state of Berlin is pressing ahead with its own temporary follow-up to the 9-euro ticket. The 29-euro ticket, which gives the holder unlimited travel on public transport in the Berlin AB fare area for 29 euros per month, has been on sale since Monday.
The ticket - designed as a stop-gap to relieve residents from the rising cost of living while the federal government and federal states iron out the details of a permanent follow-up to the discounted 9-euro ticket scheme - will be available in October, November and December this year.
“Wherever we were able to provide relief quickly, we acted,” Berlin Transport Senator Bettina Jarasch told rbb. “Hundreds of thousands of people are benefiting from the offer to use buses and trains anywhere in the city for only 29 euros in this crisis-ridden autumn and winter.”
Rather than being able to purchase individual monthly tickets from ticket machines, users in Berlin need to take out a 12-month subscription to benefit from the 29-euro price tag. If you take out a new subscription, you can cancel it free of charge at the end of the promotional period in December 2022; if you don’t cancel it, it will continue at the regular rate from January 2023.
Anyone who already has an AB subscription will see their bill automatically reduce to 29 euros for the duration of the scheme. This includes tickets like the VBB-Umweltkarte, the 10-Uhr-Karte, the VBB-Firmenticket and the Abo-Ausbildung that are valid in the AB fare zones.
However, the discount will not apply for subscriptions that are also valid outside the AB fare zone (for instance in Brandenburg), such as the VBB-Abo 65plus, the VBB-Abo Azubi or the ABC Berlin Abo. Students with semester tickets will also not benefit from the discount.
New subscribers need to act quickly to take advantage of the deal: because subscriptions begin on the first of each month, you should ideally take out your new Abo as soon as possible to start on October 1 to get the most out of the offer.
The Senate has explained that, for legal reasons, the subscription model was the only realistic way of implementing the 29-euro ticket scheme.