"Rail" magazine article on Lessons from 9 Euro German Flat Fare scheme

[aavm]

Rail Magazine has an article on last summer's German 9 euro per month flat fare public transport scheme.
- it was was very popular
- was expensive to subsidise (2.5 BN).
- people liked the flat fare nature of the scheme (I think German local and regional trains have separate tickets)
- it made little difference to car use (i.e. trips were extra, not replacing a car journey)
- its being replaced by a new £40 - 60 per month flat fare scheme

Interesting that it made little difference to existing car use (87% of trips in the UK).

Research into the economic benefit of all the spending during the extra trips would be interesting (same argument as for cutting fuel duty).

We can only dream of a similar scheme here, maybe a cheaper off-peak version

 

[30907]

Rail Magazine has an article on last summer's German 9 euro per month flat fare public transport scheme.

- people liked the flat fare nature of the scheme (I think German local and regional trains have separate tickets)

Not exactly. There are overlapping local/regional fare systems but they cover the same trains.
There were/are flat fares, day tickets etc, but they were pitched at a higher level.

- it made little difference to car use (i.e. trips were extra, not replacing a car journey)

It also AIUI caused a considerable switch from IC/ICE services. The same effect was noticed in the early days of the Schönes Wochenende Ticket 30 years ago, and was followed by price adjustments both ways.

Interesting that it made little difference to existing car use

... despite that being part of the rationale, along with getting people travelling again.
That said, it is possible that without the ticket there would have been a significant increase in road traffic as COVID restrictions ended.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It also AIUI caused a considerable switch from IC/ICE services. The same effect was noticed in the early days of the Schönes Wochenende Ticket 30 years ago, and was followed by price adjustments both ways.

In the late 90s the SWT caused an interesting effect - the whole regional network would be about 20 minutes late by the end of the day due to waiting connections and high volumes of passengers doing long trips with many changes.