BERLIN (AP) — The cost of a popular ticket introduced last year that allows people to use all local and regional trains, buses and subway systems across Germany will rise by about 18% next year, a senior official said Monday.
The transport ministers of the 16 German states have agreed that the price of the germany ticketwhich has cost 49 euros ($54.70) per month since its introduction in May 2023, is expected to rise to 58 euros in early 2025.
“With this price, we can keep the ticket attractive and put the financing on a firmer foundation,” Oliver Krischer, the transport minister for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, told the German news agency dpa. He said the decision shows that German regional authorities “want to stick to the successful model of the Germany Ticket and develop it further.”
The Germany Ticket was designed to encourage people to ditch their cars in favor of more environmentally friendly forms of transportation. It followed a successful experimental ticket that offered unlimited travel for 9 euros per month, which was offered for three months in the summer of 2022 as part of a government program to combat high inflation and fuel prices.
Officials said the ultra-low price was not financially viable. But it, along with the Germany Ticket, had the added benefit of simplifying for ticket holders a fragmented public-transportation system in which individual regions offered myriad fare options that bewildered many travelers.
About 13 million people in the country with a population of 83 million use the Germany Ticket.
Bavarian Transport Minister Christian Bernreiter said a price hike was “unavoidable” as sales fell short of expectations, leaving a large financing gap looming next year.