Germany Smart and Affordable Public Transit

Germany is introducing an affordable public transit offer,known as the Deutschland-Ticket, setting a new standard for encouraging carowners to switch to public transportation. For €49 a month, travelers can enjoyunlimited rides on city buses, subways, and trams across the country. Thisinitiative aims to reduce transport emissions and pressure the government toimprove the current network. The ticket is an extended version of a popular €9ticket introduced last summer in response to an energy crisis. Since theintroduction of the unlimited travel ticket in May, the number of trainjourneys exceeding 30 km has surged by 27.5% in June during workweek mornings.This increase is evident when comparing data from April, with over 123,000trips in June compared to less than 97,000 previously.

This initiative marks a shift towards considering publictransportation as a national policy rather than just a local service. Thesimplicity of the offering is seen as a positive step, but experts emphasizethe need for improved service to effectively reduce road traffic. Thisnationwide initiative aims to reduce carbon emissions by incentivizing greateruse of public transportation. Notably, there were nearly 100,000 fewer dailycar trips on average in June compared to the same period in 2019, attributed tothe impact of last year's and the ongoing influence of the pandemic. It isestimated that this initiative saved 1.8 million tons of CO2, equivalent to theemission from powering 350,000 homes annually.

Reference:

Stefan Nicola and Josefine Fokuhl. (2022, August 30).Germany’s Ultra-Cheap Train Ticket Saved 1.8 Million Tons of CO2. BloombergCityLab.

Josefine Fokuhl, Wilfried Eckl-Dorna and Feargus O’Sullivan.(2023, April 29). Germany Sets the New Standard for Cheap, National MassTransit. Bloomberg CityLab.

Chris Reiter. (2023, July 23). Germany’s Cheap TransitTicket Is Starting to Boost Train Trips. Bloomberg CityLab. 

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