Europe

Derek Scally: Germans form disorderly queue for €9 rail ticket

Travel on local and regional public transport from Hamburg to Heidelberg for less than price of two pints in Dublin

Germany’s federal government agreed on a summer public transport sale of the century. File photograph: Getty Images

Derek Scally's face
Derek Scally
Wed Jun 8 2022 - 06:00

Germans love complaining about their trains almost as much as they love their trains, but not as much as they love a bargain.

Combine all three and you have a good idea of why the country has embraced a new €9 monthly train ticket, allowing travel on all local and regional public transport from Hamburg to Heidelberg for less that the price of two pints in Dublin.

Germany’s federal government agreed on this summer sale of the century, nudging people from road to rail, to cut petrol consumption and travel costs in a time of rising inflation. A week in, Germany’s Deutsche Bahn (DB) rail company says it has sold nearly seven million tickets — one for almost one in 10 Germans. That doesn’t include tickets sold by regional transport authorities; Berlin’s BVG alone says it has sold one million tickets, meaning nearly every third Berliner has bought a €9 ticket.

But the €9 promotion, agreed in Berlin shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, has left DB and local German transport companies little time to secure additional vehicles or staff. And some already fear the daring move may prove a victim of its own success, particularly given its launch ahead of the June bank holiday weekend.

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In many regions of Germany, what is already a traditionally busy travel period turned into a game of sardines, with at least 700 cases of overcrowded, delayed and cancelled trains. Berlin regional trains — to the Baltic coast and other popular eastern weekend destinations — were dangerously full, even by early morning on Saturday.

“Overall, passengers needed significantly more assistance than usual in particular because many hadn’t ridden a train in a long time,” said DB regional spokesman Ralf Damde. “There were no cases of physical assault of staff but cases of verbal abuse.”

Some popular destinations had a rude €9 awakening: Sylt, the North Sea island favoured by the luxury-loving German jet-set was overrun at the weekend by a wave of bargain-seeking punks and their dogs.

On Monday morning, local police on Sylt reported “several deployments with disturbances of the peace … and further misdemeanours related to alcohol consumption”.

Regional transport authorities across German cities noted more passengers than normal, but most said it was nothing more than a usual Whitsun weekend.

A week into the three-month promotion, which is set to end on September 1st, German politicians remain hopeful that — despite early hiccups — enough people will embrace the opportunity.

Federal transport minister Volker Wissing has dubbed the €9 ticket a “field test” to see how much of a role price plays in the choice of means of transport.

“We have to use this chance to get people enthusiastic about public transport,” said Wissing, who has promised to refund transport companies any losses they sustain from the promotion.

Rail companies and passenger lobby groups are united in demanding more money for the publicly owned German rail operator and network. After nearly two decades of underspending, punctuality of long-distance German trains has dropped to below 80 per cent.

“A campaign like this needs more advanced planning and Deutsche Bahn simply has no reserves anymore,” said Joachim Barth of the Pro Bahn passenger lobby group, saying it would have made more sense to invest first then promote the expanded rail network.

“The interest shows that people are prepared to take the train but that the existing network cannot cope.”

Anyone wondering where Germany’s rail experiment is headed could look over the border to Austria. Last autumn state rail company ÖBB introduced a “climate ticket”, allowing people to travel across the entire public transport network — from city tram to inter-regional train — for €1,095 annually. Those who secured an early-booker discount pay just €80 a month. For an additional one-off payment of €110, up to four children can be added to the annual ticket.

“It has changed everything for us, we wouldn’t even think of travelling any other way,” said Julie Dawson, a Vienna-based researcher and mother of three. “Even more than the convenience is the financial benefit — we can travel without calculating extra hundreds per trip.”

Meanwhile, Bavarian prosecutors have begun preliminary investigations into three Deutsche Bahn employees in connection with last Friday’s rail crash that injured 40 and killed five people. Among the dead were two women who fled Ukraine while a sixth passenger remains in critical condition.

Investigators have yet to confirm how the incident happened, but media reports suggest a track defect is the most likely cause.