A rude awakening after a 9-euro ticket is already in the offing

It’s there, the 9-euro ticket is valid and the first experiences have been made. Use large parts of the local and regional transport throughout Germany for 9 euros a month – the price is a real challenge. But from September it will be over again and then train drivers will be in for a rude awakening.

After the 9 euro ticket: ticket prices will increase

The 9-euro ticket makes train and bus travel so cheap that the rush is great. Several million monthly tickets were already sold in advance. They are now valid and many travelers will take advantage of the offer to get from A to B for a month for little money.

But it is already clear that the monthly ticket will not last forever. It will be over again on September 1st, after which the usual prices will come back – at best. “We will fall back on the old ticket prices and framework conditions, mainly because we as an industry also have to shoulder the cost increases in energy prices,” explains Ingo Wortmann, President of the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV), in an interview Editorial network Germany.

But the old prices will not end there. Wortman explains:

In the medium term, we will have to allocate the missing funds to fares or limit the offer. Ticket prices will therefore continue to rise – not directly on September 1st, but in the next price rounds. Unfortunately, we then get into the situation where people who are already burdened have to pay more for their journeys.

The missing funds, by which he means the additional costs and loss of income in public transport that are caused by the 9-euro ticket and are to be borne by the state.

What you should know about traveling with the 9-euro ticket:

Delays inevitable: Deutsche Bahn is renovating the rail network

Accordingly, for those who like to travel by bus and train, it should not be much more expensive than before when the cheap monthly ticket ends. But the 9-euro ticket will probably be too not the starting signal for affordable public transport become, as some are already demanding.

The necessary expansion and repair of the German rail network is just beginning. In the coming months, they are likely to cause dissatisfaction and even more delays.