The Deutschlandticket for 49 euros a month is intended to attract millions of students and employees. In order to achieve this, the transport ministers of the federal states adopted uniform regulations at their spring conference in Aachen. In the future, students will be able to use the Germany-wide 49-euro ticket by simply "upgrading" their semester ticket, said the chairman of the state committee, North Rhine-Westphalian Transport Minister Oliver Krischer (Greens).

Corinna Budras

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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According to the current regulation, students pay a semester fee, usually between 20 and 36 euros per month, and can then use public transport in their region. If they want to purchase a Deutschlandticket from 1 May, they only have to pay the difference. This population group uses buses and trains particularly often, which is why they want to win this group for the Deutschlandticket, stressed Saarland Transport Minister Petra Berg (SPD).

Appeal to workers

In the eyes of politicians and transport companies, the 46 million people in employment in Germany are also a suitable target group for the new ticket, which the transport ministers described either as a "revolution" or as a "new era". Hesse's Transport Minister Tarek Al-Wazir (Greens) appealed to all employers to provide their employees with such a ticket.

"The more people participate, the smaller the hole in the pocket becomes," he stressed. Because the Deutschlandticket with a starting price of 49 euros a month will mean a significant saving for customers in many transport associations, Al-Wazir calculated. In Hesse, the most expensive ticket costs 250 euros, if you are traveling between Fulda and Wiesbaden. "The Deutschlandticket means a significant reduction in the price with a significant expansion of the service," he said. "City borders, network borders, even national borders will no longer play a role from 1 May."

Ticket digital or by chip card

Conversely, however, this will also mean considerable losses in revenue for transport companies. The federal and state governments are therefore contributing an additional three billion euros. The ticket can be purchased from 3 April. It is only available as a subscription, but it can be cancelled monthly. It will also be the first ticket that can only be purchased digitally. However, this does not necessarily require a smartphone. The transport associations also offer it in their sales outlets.

If you don't have a smartphone or don't want to use it for it, you can also buy a chip card that can be used to digitally retrieve data. The digital ticket is also intended to better control traffic planning in the future: This is the only way to collect and evaluate users' data anonymously.

In addition to the Deutschlandticket, the transport ministers also dealt with a number of other topics at their two-day conference, including the long-demanded expansion of 30 km/h zones in municipalities. The transport ministers have agreed to draw up a catalogue of criteria for the reform of road traffic law in a working group.

So far, the possibilities of the municipalities to set up 30 km/h zones are very restrictive, criticized Krischer. Therefore, one now wants to take up the demands of a large city alliance, which wants to expand the scope. The catalogue should be ready by the next autumn conference and then handed over to the Federal Ministry of Transport for the development of a new regulation.