VBB supervisory board meeting
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Can the Berlin ticket still be extended?
Tue 03/28/23 | 06:05 | From
The 29-euro ticket expires on April 30 – then the Germany ticket will come. But the inexpensive Berlin ticket is again on the agenda at the VBB supervisory board meeting on Thursday. The SPD wants to keep it going. Is this realistic? By Oda Tischewski
- A continuation of the 29-euro ticket beyond April seems unlikely
- Berlin and Brandenburg would have to come to an agreement as a group – and quickly
- According to the BVG, a seamless connection with the 29-euro ticket would no longer be feasible, if only in terms of time
The time between two governments is almost always a stalemate: the projects of the old senate may not come to fruition and the new one is not yet able to really get going. It’s the same with the 29-euro ticket.
The Verkehrsverbund Berlin Brandenburg, VBB for short, is responsible for ticket questions of all kinds. And he had decided in mid-December: until April 30, 2023, Berlin is offering the 29-euro ticket for tariff zones A and B, which will be replaced by the 49-euro ticket from May 1st. This then applies to the whole of Germany, but is not transferable, does not include any take-away regulations – and is also significantly more expensive.
SPD wants to continue the 29-euro ticket
For the SPD, the continuation of the cheap Berlin ticket is one of its “political priorities,” according to Franziska Giffey, which has made it its election campaign topic. The financing was secured by the old Senate. And your likely coalition partner, the CDU, has already signaled approval in the soundings. Alone: It could be too late. Because Berlin cannot decide alone.
Greens wanted cheap tickets through discounts
Because the old Senate – more precisely: the administration of Bettina Jarasch, who is still Senator for Transport – has not yet presented the VBB with a new template for a decision. Also because the Greens had sought a different solution from the start: Instead of a separate Berlin offer for 29 euros, they wanted to lower the price of the Germany ticket through discounts for various customer groups. Around 60 percent of Berliners would have the opportunity to use job, school or other discounted tickets – the same service for significantly less than 49 euros. At least the extension of the 9-euro social ticket for the AB area until the end of the year should be discussed in the Senate on Tuesday.
The situation is different with the 29-euro ticket: Because there is currently no basis for a new vote at the VBB, the old decision still applies and the ticket offer will expire at the end of April. Nevertheless, the 29-euro ticket is again on the agenda at the VBB supervisory board meeting on Thursday: A representative of the state of Berlin wants to advertise there again for a continuation of the offer.
In Brandenburg, he is unlikely to be well received: in the fall, the state was not very enthusiastic about going it alone in Berlin – the 29-euro ticket excludes Brandenburg commuters from the cheap solution. If what was then intended as a bridging solution until the introduction of the Germany ticket is now to become a permanent solution, resistance is to be expected. It will take a lot of persuasion.
Continuation is beyond the schedule
Die “Berliner Morgenpost” already quoted from an internal paper that is being discussed in the coalition negotiations. In it, the BVG makes it clear that, from its point of view, a seamless continuation of the 29-euro ticket would no longer be possible, also for practical reasons: because more than 100,000 BVG customers have already pre-ordered the Germany ticket and many have already booked their 29-euro If you canceled subscription tickets on the key date, continuing would pose considerable personnel and technical difficulties for the BVG. Only a reintroduction of the offer is realistic – around the beginning of 2024. The BVG wants to use the resulting gap to evaluate the introduction of the Deutschlandticket.
There are eight months in between, during which customers first have to laboriously switch to another offer and then return to the 29-euro ticket. With a uniform and This ticket chaos currently has little to do with a cheap solution that makes local transport more attractive – within the countries and across their borders.
Broadcast: rbb24 Inforadio, March 28, 2023, 7:55 a.m
