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Germany approves €9 public transport ticket for summer

It's official - people in Germany will get cheap public transport for three months this summer after the €9 ticket was approved.

Published: 20 May 2022 11:30 CEST
The €9 ticket on Munich's local transport provider MVG app.
The €9 ticket on Munich's local transport provider MVG app. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Matthias Balk

As part of a host of energy relief measures to cushion the cost of living crisis, the German government is offering cheap public transport for the months of June, July and August. 

Monthly tickets will be available at a price of €9 (or €27 for all three months) and they will allow people to use all buses, trains and trams in local and regional transport throughout the country.

So even if people buy the ticket in Munich, they will also be able to use local and regional buses, trains and trams elsewhere in Germany, whether it’s Hamburg or Cologne. 

READ ALSO: How to explore Germany by train with the €9 ticket

The ticket will not be valid, however, on long-distance transport such as ICE trains or Flixbus.

The offer was put together by the coalition government – made of the Social Democrats, the Greens and the FDP.

The Bundestag voted for the initiative on Thursday, agreeing to give federal states a subsidy of €2.5 billion to fund the project. 

And on Friday, the Bundesrat – the upper house of parliament that represents the states – gave the green light to the ticket, paving the way for it to begin on June 1st. 

States had wanted an extra €1.5 billion funding boost to deal with lost revenue, however it would have been hugely controversial if they had blocked it.

READ ALSO: German states threaten to block the €9 ticket in the Bundesrat

During a debate on Thursday, federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) said the €9 project was “already a success”.

“All of Germany is talking about local public transport,” he said, adding that it is also being viewed with interest abroad. 

READ ALSO: ‘Fantastic’: Your verdict on Germany’s €9 ticket

The Left party (Die Linke) voted in favour of the €9 ticket, but leader Bernd Riexinger said he thought the plan didn’t go far enough. “Three months is simply too little,” he said.

The opposition, however, slammed the move. Christian Democrat Michael Donth called it an “expensive experiment”.

Rail operator Deutsche Bahn will offer the ticket for sale as early as Monday. Local public transport providers across the country are also preparing their ticket machines for the initiative. It will also be available in travel centres.

People with subscriptions to local transport will automatically benefit from the offer. 

In some regions, such as Stuttgart and Freiburg, the ticket is already available for purchase.

READ ALSO: How to get a hold of the €9 ticket in Berlin

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HEALTH

‘Untenable’: Legalise abortions in first trimester, urges German commission

Abortion should be legalised in Germany in the early stages of pregnancy, a commission set up by the government recommended on Monday.

Published: 15 April 2024 17:26 CEST
'Untenable': Legalise abortions in first trimester, urges German commission

Under current German law, abortion is illegal but tolerated in practice for women who are up to 12 weeks pregnant and have received compulsory counselling.

There are also exceptions for women who have been raped or whose life is in danger.

The commission, set up last year by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government, recommended relaxing the law in a 600-page report published on Monday.

The current situation is “untenable”, said Liane Woerner, a law professor and member of the group, urging the government to “take action to make abortion legal and unpunishable” in the first trimester.

READ ALSO: Will abortion in Germany soon become legal?

The commission also recommended examining whether abortion could be made legal at up to 22 weeks.

In the later stages of pregnancy, abortion should remain illegal, but “does not necessarily have to be punishable”, Woerner said.

The government will now study the report “carefully to determine the next steps”, Justice Minister Marco Buschmann told a press conference, warning against “debates that could inflame our society”.

The Centre for Reproductive Rights NGO welcomed the commission’s recommendations, saying Germany now had a “historic opportunity to modernise the law”.

“German law on abortion stigmatises women who seek abortion care and demeans their ability to make autonomous and informed decisions about their pregnancies,” said Adriana Lamackova, associate director for the NGO in Europe.

Reforming Germany’s abortion law was a flagship pledge of the current government, a coalition between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the liberal FDP.

READ ALSO: Reader question – Is abortion illegal in Germany?

In 2022, the German parliament voted to remove a Nazi-era law that limited the information doctors and clinics could provide about abortions.

Government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann on Monday declined to comment on whether abortion could now be legalised before Germany’s next election in 2025.

“It will depend on how the debate develops,” she told a government press conference.

The opposition conservatives and the far right have rejected any relaxation of the law.

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