German Transport Ministers have announced that the Deutschlandticket will continue to cost 49-euros per month for the whole of 2024.
Minister for Transportation in North Rhine-Westphalia Oliver Krischer (Greens) has announced to the dpa that the Deutschlandticket subscription will continue to cost 49 euros per month for the whole of 2024.
The ticket, which was first launched in May 2023, offers holders unlimited access to public and regional transport across the whole of Germany for just 49 euros per month.
Krischer’s announcement follows a special conference between the transport ministers of Germany’s 16 federal states, during which it was decided that unspent funds for 2023 will be used to offset the financial deficit that the Deutschlandticket scheme is expected to incur in 2024. This money will top up the 3-billion-euro funding packet already put forward by state and federal governments.
The announcement comes after months of discussions in 2023 about how the ticket would be funded in 2024 and 2025, and what proportion of the financial burden should come from the federal versus state governments.
The ministers hope that the decision will mean that more people opt to buy the Deutschlandticket.“This is important because every additional ticket sold will better secure future financing,” transport minister for Lower Saxony Olaf Lies told the dpa.
Though the ticket launched with immense popularity and was bought 11 million times in the first five months of sales, several shortcomings - such as criticism about how useful the ticket is to those living in more rural areas - meant that a significant portion of initial users cancelled their subscriptions during 2023.
While certainty about the price for 2024 has been restored, it is still unknown what kind of price rise passengers can expect in 2025. Environmental organisations such as BUND have already pointed out that continued uncertainty is likely to have an undesired effect on sales. They argue that passengers are more likely to change their travel habits for good if they know that the ticket will remain affordable in the long term.
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