At a joint conference of transport ministers on Monday, the federal and state governments are struggling to find a successor to the nine-euro ticket. There are many suggestions and sums in the room: from 29 to 69 euros per month up to a 365 euros annual ticket. It all sounds good, but ultimately the whole thing has to be affordable – especially for the countries. And it is precisely on this question that there is a need for clarification.
The federal government’s regionalization funds are also on the agenda at the special transport ministers’ conference, as is the expansion and modernization of public transport. Bremen’s Senator for Transport, Maike Schaefer (Greens), is in the chair. A press conference is scheduled at around 2:30 p.m. FOCUS online accompanies the press conference in the live ticker.
The German counties had previously warned of funding gaps and failures in local public transport. From North Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg there were renewed demands for more money from the federal government for the expansion of the infrastructure.
The biggest problem is “that in view of the massive increase in energy costs, there is not enough money to finance the existing local transport,” said the President of the German District Association, Reinhard Sager, of the “Rheinische Post”. Market prices for construction services, labor and energy costs have risen “dramatically,” he added. The current discussion has been going the wrong way for weeks, said the district council president. “Tariffs alone cannot compensate for insufficient supply. The experience with the nine-euro ticket shows that expanding the offer is more important than a very cheap ticket.”
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Transport Minister Oliver Krischer (Greens) called the nine-euro ticket a successful model and called for a new ticket to “continue to be cheap and easy”. He also called for a concrete federal financing plan for the expansion of the infrastructure. Brandenburg’s Infrastructure Minister Guido Beermann (CDU) told RBB that the states needed an additional 1.5 billion euros to make the offer “attractive, reliable and fast”. According to the constitution, the ball is “clearly in the hands of the federal government”.
The federal states are currently receiving 9.5 billion euros in regionalization funds, but that is not enough, said Beermann. If there is not enough support, it could happen “that investments are stopped, that local transport is thinned out and, in the worst case, that orders have to be canceled”.
The federal states have been demanding additional funds from the federal government for public transport for weeks because of the high energy costs. The German Environmental Aid and Greenpeace called for a climate ticket at the weekend, which should cost a maximum of one euro a day. To finance this, they want to reform the company car privilege.
