Protest announced – “Will go to the barricades”

The 49-euro ticket is coming: On May 1st, the ticket for local and regional transport will be introduced. For a transitional period, the Deutschlandticket will also be available in paper form, but only in digital form afterwards. There is now resistance to this – with sometimes drastic words.

The hassle about paper has accompanied the 49-euro ticket for months. Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) only wants it in digital form, while the federal states are also pushing for a paper ticket. They now get backing from senior citizens’ associations.

49-euro ticket: Seniors against digital coercion

“Our society really only thinks about the young!” complains Ingeborg Staudenmeyer, Senior Citizens Advisory Board Neuhausen-Nymphenburg, about the digital requirement for the 49-euro ticket (source: TZ). Then not all seniors have a smartphone or PC and would be excluded.

It is similar to Dr. Reinhard Bauer, Chairman of the Munich Senior Advisory Board: “This ticket decision is unreasonable,” said the 72-year-old outraged. one will “go to the barricades against it.”

Only until the end of the year should the 49-euro ticket temporarily also in paper form be available. After that, it should only be available via smartphone app or chip card, reports TZ. A subscription, which can be canceled monthly, should be necessary in any case.

The 49-euro ticket is not the only change coming to German citizens in 2023:

District council president criticizes Deutschlandticket

There is also criticism of the Germany ticket from other quarters. Reinhard Sager, President of the German District Association, predicts bumps “at every corner and end” at the start of May 1st. The CDU politician would have preferred more investment in public transport than a cheap ticket. That was already the case with the predecessor, because: “What use is a 9-euro ticket for a bus that doesn’t run?”