Pirate Party Germany
Düsseldorf (ots)
From May 1, 2023 there will be a Germany-wide 49-euro ticket, the Bundestag has decided. The Federal Council is expected to pass the law on March 31st.
Oliver Bayer, ex-Member of the Landtag and from 2014 to 2017 chairman of the commission of inquiry on the financing, innovation and use of public transport comments: “The Germany ticket, even at 49 euros, is a game changer for public transport, because it is the de facto abolition of the tariff limits for at least one ticket category. Anyone who has the money can buy a ticket – without having completed a three-year tariff study. However, that also means that those who don’t have the money are left out or can only take part in social life and make necessary trips every second month – provided that the monthly cancellation of the subscription works.”
In most federal states, special regulations and discounts are now being considered and whether existing state-wide offers with the Deutschlandticket will become obsolete or will still be needed. It is currently still unclear whether there will be price reductions for pupils, students or trainees in NRW. In the basic security for jobseekers, since January 1 called citizen benefit, a monthly amount of only approx. 45 euros is provided for mobility. The state-wide student representation has also been pushing for months to find a solution for the future of the semester ticket based on a solidarity model (1). If you want to use the Deutschlandticket from May 1st, you have to order it by April 10th. The state government does not have much time left.
“A lower price generates demand. Demand is not only needed to ensure that people do without a car or at least a second car in the long term, but also to make the public transport system attractive enough in the first place. Up until now, there has never been enough due to a lack of basic attractiveness Demand pressure so that public transport can be expanded and made more attractive,” he knows Traffic expert Bayer. “The argument “before we can increase demand through the price, we first have to expand public transport” has been put forward for decades. Public transport has never been expanded and made more attractive through this argument. The thesis that it first has to be expanded has been widely accepted Disproved. That’s not how politics works.Only with corresponding demand will the capacity, availability and convenience of public transport increase massively.The expansion costs money.Nevertheless, the price per person for public transport depends on the number of users, and the more people use public transport, the better AND cheaper public transport becomes. It would be a shame to settle for a simple game changer.”
At the request of the pirate faction, the commission of inquiry “Financing options for public passenger transport in NRW in the context of social and technical change” was set up in the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia in 2014. We see the recommendations and guidelines of this commission as the basis for the long-term preservation and decisive improvements of local transport in NRW (2).
Sources:
(2) http://www.fahrscheinfrei.de/
Press contact:
Andrea Lidmann
Presseteam NRW
Pirate Party Germany
State Association of North Rhine-Westphalia
Selbecker Str. 22, 40472 Düsseldorf
Mobil: +49 (0)163 8797064
Telephone: +49 (0)211 54 22 33 10 (office/AB)
E-Mail: [email protected]
Original content from: Pirate Party Germany, transmitted by news aktuell
