Despite full trains: According to surveys, most people are satisfied with the 9-euro ticket. But with the beginning of the summer holidays, the next endurance test in local public transport is already on the agenda.
The summer holidays have already begun in North Rhine-Westphalia, and other federal states will follow shortly. Because of the 9-euro ticket, many buses and trains should be full again – often overcrowded.
“Of course there will be tense situations on the individual regional transport routes, between the large cities in North Rhine-Westphalia and in the direction of the North Sea,” said the President of the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV) of the German Press Agency with a view to the start of the holiday season in the most populous federal state. “We encourage passengers to plan more time, be more understanding – and leave their bikes at home.”
Already four weeks in use
Most passengers with a 9-euro ticket should have gotten used to this notice by now. The special ticket has been available for almost four weeks now and entitles you to use local public transport throughout Germany in June, July and August. The ticket has once again boosted demand in buses and trains. According to the VDV, around 16 million tickets were sold nationwide between the start of sales and mid-June.
The utilization of the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), for example, is currently almost at the level before the Corona crisis, the company announced a few days ago. In May, before the ticket was launched, demand was still 20 percent below the pre-crisis level.
But as expected, the ticket also shows the bottlenecks in the transport companies and in the route network. Numerous construction sites throughout Germany are slowing down rail traffic. After all, the rail subsidiary DB Regio can offer 250 additional journeys daily during the ticket period. But in view of around 22,000 regional train journeys every day, that’s not too much
“But the companies can certainly not retrofit any more because there are neither the vehicles nor the staff, especially in NRW,” said Karl-Peter Naumann, honorary chairman of the Pro Bahn passenger association. “We recommend to all travelers: If you want to go on vacation now, you should use long-distance transport and reserve seats there.” Demand is otherwise too high, especially on routes with a fast regional express connection.
Long-distance travel still popular
In fact, long-distance transport seems to remain a popular option for many travelers despite the cheap regional transport offers. With a view to the summer holidays in North Rhine-Westphalia, the VDV is observing “that holidaymakers on the long routes, for example in the direction of Bavaria or Berlin, sometimes switch to long-distance rail transport or long-distance buses, which require fewer changes and are faster,” said association president Wortmann.
But many are apparently hardly bothered by the full trains. In a recent representative survey of the population by the opinion research institute Forsa on behalf of the VDV, almost 90 percent of those questioned stated that they were satisfied with the public transport ticket on their last trip. The most important purchase motivation – more than 70 percent voted for this option – is therefore the price. According to the survey, for at least 40 percent, not owning a car is the main reason.
But from the point of view of Pro-Bahn chairman Naumann, it could be commuters in particular who are turning away from public transport due to the high demand for tickets. “We have a clientele that takes full trains in view of the low price,” he emphasized. “But we also have a different clientele, which is quite deterrent.” After all, significantly fewer people are likely to be on the road in rush hour traffic during the summer holidays. (dpa)