Hot on the heels of Germany's summer inflation-fighting €9 all-you-can-ride ticket for local transit and regional trains, more ideas are popping up for lower-cost riding both to fight inflation and lower carbon emissions.
Germany is already discussing a variety of proposals, including two possible ways of cutting transit cost for most people to around €1 a day, similar to Austria's 'klimaticket' that is available at that price for local transit.
But the two proposals have a difference; the €365 per year subscription plan would cover only the area where it was sold; the other version, a €29 a month ticket would operate like the summer €9 ticket, covering every local transit system in the country and regional trains around each city. There's considerable support for both, which would require federal subsidies, but no clear way to say which, if either, will pass.
In Spain, meanwhile, the national government has confirmed that it will act to slash public transit prices in the face of 10%+ inflation. A 50% discount will go into effect on most RENFE inter-city rail services except for the high-speed lines, and a 30% discount will be subsidized for regional and local services from September 1 through December 31. Several cities have indicated they will pony up a bit more so that the local cuts will also be 50%.
Back to Germany for a moment: Deutsche Bahn, the national railroad operator, has a discount scheme of its own in the works, a flat-rate €39 ticket to travel wherever, on any type of train, including the long-distance and high-speed ICE, EC and IC trains that were excluded from the €9 ticket. It's called the "Egal Wohin" ticket which translates approximately to "no matter where." The ticket is sold alongside the gift cards at supermarkets and other stores, and comes with a code that is entered on the DB website to pay for a ticket. The ticket is available through June 30 next year, for travel through Dec. 9, 2023.
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