The 9 Euro Ticket

The 9 Euro ticket is an offer that was established in the summer of 2022 to provide the people in Germany with a very cheap and reasonable price for unlimited metro, bus, and regional train services. The offer was a part of a three-month long experiment conducted by the government amidst increased inflation following the global pandemic. Moreover, because there are so many different transportation options and networks throughout the country, the 9 Euro ticket eliminated the hassle of paying different prices depending on the transit system.

The deal prompted the sale of 52 million tickets and also brought new customers into the fold (Pladson, 2022). It made luxury travel and visits to farther cities more accessible for low-income riders. However, the deal also exposed flaws and underinvestment in Germany’s public transit infrastructure as the 9 Euro ticket caused congestion on public transit lines with citizens reporting crowded trains and delays (Pladson, 2022). People recorded these issues on social media and put a spotlight on areas of improvement for the government.

In turn, the 9 Euro ticket sparked debates over how public money in the transport sector should be spent, with some arguing for infrastructure improvement and others arguing for the continuation of the ticket as it helped replace car travel and reduced carbon emissions (Pladson, 2022).

Personally, I think that the offer should be reintroduced as the reduced rate helped more people use public transportation as a substitute for car travel. Furthermore, intrinsic to public transportation should be its accessibility. The cheap price of the ticket may seem low to economic stakeholders wanting to make a profit, but travel and mobility should not be a luxury that only the wealthy can afford. If more people ride as a result of the cheaper ticket, Germany will save money in the long run if their air is much cleaner and they are closer to meeting their climate goals. Moreover, fares on public transportation systems are extremely bureaucratic and make systems less user-friendly. Germany spends money on employing monitors that check if you bought a ticket, fining you if you did not. With a cheaper system, they won’t need the monitors at all.

In class, my political party, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), recently agreed on an initiative providing a low-cost ticket in Berlin beginning the fall of 2022. Furthermore, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is a member of the SPD and called the 9 Euro ticket “one of the best ideas we had” (Kirby, 2022).