Editor in chief at IamExpat Media
If you live in Berlin and you travel to work using public transportation, you can count on lower fares from summer onwards - as long as your employer co-operates.
VBB, the public transport association in Berlin, has today announced that from late summer 2019 all job tickets (Firmentickets) will be much cheaper. Currently, standard company tickets are only subject to a five percent discount, amounting to a saving of around three euros per month.
From mid-summer onwards, however, companies who contribute towards their employees’ travel costs will be able to take advantage of much greater discounts. All employers who pay at least 10 euros in tax per employee per month are eligible for a discount of four euros per month on job tickets for their employees. Compared with a regular subscription price, this is a saving of around 22 percent.
For employers who contribute towards commuting costs, there will be the possibility to make an even greater saving. If a company grants a monthly travel allowance of at least 15 euros to its employees, a discount of eight euros per month will be granted. This amounts to a saving of 36 percent.
If employers do not want to provide a subsidy towards a job ticket, the previous company ticket will remain an alternative - but only for the next two years. After that, employees who do not receive a travel contribution from their employers will have to buy a regular monthly subscription.
The government hopes that by making job tickets cheaper they can encourage more people working in Germany to use modes of transport like buses and S-bahns on their journeys to and from work. In Berlin, subsidised tickets for apprentices and schoolchildren are also in the planning phases.