Germany is set to increase the price of its countrywide shared mobility travel pass by 18% in 2025.
The “Deutschland-Ticket” has cost 49 euros per month since its inception in 2023, allowing passengers to use local and regional trains, buses and subways nationwide in a bid to reduce carbon emissions from cars and provide some cost-of-living respite to consumers amid soaring fuel and food inflation.
Another feature of the scheme was to provide an affordable shared mobility option that helped to simplify the process of buying tickets across multiple operators, something Germans have long complained makes using public transport options discouragingly complex.
“Unavoidable” increase in cost
After extensions to the popular scheme, nearly two years have gone by and seen the ticket’s uptake grow to be taken up by 15 % of the population, with around 13 million people in possession of one. It has also inspired similar programmes across European neighbour France and over in Portugal.
But though stakeholders across the German political spectrum agreed they “want to stick to the successful model of the Germany Ticket and further develop it”, they also agree that continued subsidisation of the scheme to the same extent cannot continue, Bavaria’s transport minister, Christian Bernreiter said. He added that with sales not as high as expected, a price rise is “unavoidable” if the country is to avoid a deficit in public finances next year.
Still an “attractive” price
The agreement by Germany’s 16 states sets the new price for the Deutschland-Ticket at €58 from the start of 2025. “With this price, we will manage to keep the ticket attractive and put the financing on a more solid footing,” Oliver Krischer, the transport minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, told German news agency dpa.
It’s not the first time a cheap public transport option and the public purse strings have collided. An initial trial ticket offering unlimited travel for €9 per month was piloted over the summer season in 2022 and saw sales rocket to 52 million, but that level of value offer was not sustainable financially in the long-term, the authorities said.
Some operators will welcome the price change, having seen profits from single tickets and other seasonal passes drop, but the chair of the Federation of German Consumer Organizations, Ramona Pop, said the transport providers risked passengers abandoning trains and busses if authorities raised the price of the Deutschlandticket too far.
“The Deutschlandticket is a highlight of the ‘traffic light’ government that has been met with a lot of approval. It must remain affordable for all,” she said.
