Transport Minister Manja Schreiner (CDU) has announced that the cost of travelling on public transport in Berlin will likely increase from 2024. Some ticket models may disappear completely.
Berlin transport tickets scheduled for 2024 price hike
In an interview with Berliner Zeitung, Transport Minister for Berlin Manja Schreiner has announced that public transport users in the German city can soon expect a ticket price hike for BVG and VBB services. An exact date is still to be determined but the change is likely to come with the new year.
Schreiner told the newspaper that the cost of a ticket for transportation is about to go up by an average of 6,7 percent. The cost of a single ticket for Berlin’s AB zone will rise by 30 cents to 3,50 euros. Monthly tickets for the region will also increase in price; the cost of the AB-Umweltticket is set to rise from 66,90 euros to 71,40 euros per month.
The price rises come as little surprise given recent, rising inflation. Back in 2014, the BVG agreed on a fare development procedure that lays out how fares would be adjusted annually. These adjustments take into account the cost of living and the cost of energy and electricity for the transport company.
BVG and VBB will likely axe some ticket models
As well as the price rises, some ticket models are likely to be axed. Eclipsed by the Deutschlandticket, which allows nationwide travel for 49 euros per month, some of Berlin’s tickets could disappear because it makes little sense to buy them anymore, given that they are more expensive than the Deutchlandticket and only permit travel within the capital.
One likely candidate is the yearly subscription and the subscription for the over-65s, which costs around 53 euros per month and is only valid in Berlin and Brandenburg. The fate of the 9am and 10am tickets is also being called into question but has not yet been confirmed.
The BVG’s AB-Umweltkarte is likely to survive though, since it allows subscribers to take a fellow passenger along for free in the evenings and at the weekends - an advantage not included with the Deutschlandticket.
Things will remain uncertain until the end of September, when the local transport associations from Berlin and Brandenburg will meet to discuss changes and decide which ticket models will be scrapped.