Affordable commuting in Germany – R150 for a monthly ticket

Bärbel Hell, who does not usually ride on trains, was delighted to discover the lumbering blue-and-white regional she had boarded one early afternoon was not too packed.

Even though it was warm, and even though the line she was on connects Germany’s second-largest city, Hamburg, with the country’s most exclusive resort destination, the island of Sylt, the coach was not overcrowded.

“It was easy – we found these seats right away,” she said.

Hell, returning home from a July shopping trip to Hamburg with friends, had been bracing for much worse – not only because of the holiday season but also because of a special pricing programme from Germany’s national rail service which many had been sceptical of.

Until the end of August, in a bid to help offset the inflationary pressures on so many other essential items, especially energy, the government is subsidising all-you-can-ride monthly rail tickets for only €9 (about R150).

“I think it helps a lot,” said Hell, 67, a retiree. “It gives people the chance to get away – because who can afford that with gas prices these days?”

For all the appeal of the low price, many train regulars, who have long had to deal with delayed or cancelled trips and overcrowded cars, were dreading the expected effect of the promotion.

While it promised to make train travel more affordable, putting hundreds of euros back in their pockets, it also loomed as a burden which could break a system already at its limit.

Before the tickets were even valid, the country’s tabloids were predicting “€9 chaos”.

A quarter of Germany’s population bought tickets during the first month of the promotion, but the passenger surge has turned out to be less problematic than many anticipated.

Despite an occasional overcrowded train, the offer has become popular. A recent poll conducted for Der Spiegel, a German news magazine, found that 55% of all Germans were in favour of extending the programme, with 34% against it.

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“This is one of the greatest things that Germany has thought about in recent years – I would almost say decades,” Felix Lobrecht, a well-known German comic and social observer, who by his own admission prefers his Mercedes to trains, said on a podcast.

Over the past couple of years, the number of trains that have arrived on time has plummeted.

While it was nearly 90% in 2020, now fewer than two-thirds pull into stations on time. The number of trains that are cancelled altogether has increased, too.

The biggest shares of the blame lie with ageing infrastructure and rising demand.

Even before the promotion, the 3 000 kilometres of tracks most used by passenger trains were running at 125% capacity.

The €9 ticket – courtesy of a €2.5 billion federal subsidy – was meant as a response to sharply rising energy costs, caused in part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Despite its temporary nature, the promotion has become part of a larger discussion about how to make German society more sustainable and less dependent on Russian oil through policies including encouraging the use of public transportation.

Modern German passenger trains generally belong to one of two service tiers.

The high-speed network the country started expanding in the 1990s connects major cities that, by German standards, are far apart.

Travellers can pay as much as an airline ticket for the service, but perks include an onboard restaurant, reclinable seats and internet.

When these trains deliver as promised, they can make the trip from Berlin to Munich in under four hours.

The workhorses of Germany’s rail system, however, are the more bare-bones regional trains.

At a maximum speed of about 96km/h, they cover routes of up to several hundred kilometres, connecting neighbouring cities or urban zones with their surrounding suburbs.

These are the trains that – together with urban public transportation– can be used anywhere at any time for €9 a month.

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