9 euro ticket more attractive
Private bus companies are losing customers
07/23/2022 11:22 am
You can currently travel through Germany on public buses and trains for nine euros – the ticket arrives. But not everywhere: Private bus companies are sounding the alarm. Important customers stay away.
The 9-euro ticket continues to be very popular – but other transport sectors face difficulties with the cheap offer for local public transport. Around half of all travel and long-distance bus companies reported a declining demand for their own offers in a quick survey by their own association, as reported by the Federal Association of German Bus Companies (bdo).
In particular, for school and club trips, the organizers would hire a private bus company less often due to the cheap public transport tickets, they say. For these two customer groups, demand from bus companies has fallen by more than half on average. In the case of seniors, the third important customer group, the industry even recorded a decline of more than two thirds on average.
“The aim of a tax-financed local public transport ticket cannot be that already environmentally friendly means of transport poach passengers from each other and thereby distort competition to the detriment of the coach industry,” says bdo general manager Christiane Leonard. “The common political task must rather be to reduce individual traffic with cars in order to finally successfully advance the traffic turnaround and climate protection.”
state should help
The association is demanding financial relief from politicians. “This is the only way the bus companies can make the necessary contribution to maintaining climate-friendly mobility in town and country after the 9-euro ticket has expired.” The association’s lightning survey of its own companies related to the effects of the 9-euro ticket for travel and long-distance bus providers in June. More recent findings are therefore not yet available.
The 9-euro tickets launched in June are still valid in July and August and enable one-month trips in buses and trains throughout Germany.