There seems to be little public support for a consultant’s proposal that Berlin shore up financing for its U-Bahn and S-Bahn urban rail systems by setting aside 10% of its capacity for premium-price seats with extra benefits.
The proposal by the U.S.-based Boston Consulting Group, says the system could charge about €10 for better seating, WiFi and just plain exclusivity, while reducing regular fares by 20% and get a 28% boost in revenue. They suggest that would make the system more attractive to wealthier riders.
Ironically, while most city transit systems around the world had first- and second-class seating earlier in the 20th century, those distinctions were abolished years ago.
Berlin newspapers and transit users have rejected the group’s ideas, some on grounds that it is politically against Berlin’s beliefs in equality and others on grounds that it will cause increased crowding for non-premium passengers. One newspaper suggested that a better way to get more people to use transit would be to make parking at outer stations free and make parking expensive downtown.
I initially inferred that the Berlin authorities had commissioned this study and found it difficult to believe that. It turns out that it was the World Economic Forum. The Berliner Zeitung called it a ‘Schnapsidee’ – a colloquial German term for an idea conceived in a state of inebriation – and added that it showed that the authors of the study did not understand what Berlin was about.