On Thursday, the Bundestag passed the law introducing the Deutschlandticket. It will be introduced on 1 May and is valid for local transport nationwide. The law of the traffic light coalition did not agree to the Union and the AfD, the Left abstained.
In the concluding debate, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) said: "What we decide today has what it takes to rewrite the history of local public transport. With this reform, we are showing that Germany can modern, Germany can be digital, Germany can simply."
Monthly cancellable subscription
The 49-euro ticket, also known as Deutschlandticket or D-Ticket for short, is to be sold from 3 April. It is available as a monthly subscription via the websites or apps of the transport associations, at the railway and in customer centres. Passengers receive it via a smartphone app or as a chip card, and for a transitional period also as a paper ticket.
The law is primarily about the financing of the ticket. From 2023 to 2025, the federal government will pay the states 1.5 billion euros annually to compensate for half of the revenue losses suffered by transport companies. The other half is borne by the countries. In the year of introduction, the Federal Government and the Länder also share possible additional costs. A new decision on financing is to be made in 2025.
The Federal Council still has to approve it at its next meeting at the end of March. The 49-euro ticket had been agreed after lengthy negotiations between the federal government and the states as a follow-up ticket to the 9-euro ticket from last summer.