An unprecedented traffic experiment will soon begin in Germany.

The price for a monthly ticket is reduced so drastically between the beginning of June and the end of August that only a symbolic amount of 9 euros remains - for all local public transport, mind you, i.e. for buses, S-Bahn, U-Bahn and regional trains.

In many regions, this is only a tenth of the price otherwise called for.

Corinna Budras

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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This makes the use of the public offer so unbelievably cheap that nobody can avoid it.

At least that is the calculation behind the proposal, which was surprisingly born at the end of March in a nightly meeting of the traffic light coalition as part of a comprehensive relief package.

In order to understand the magnitude of the proposal, one has to consider the expected costs of around 2.5 billion euros.

Because at 9 euros a month, the amount, which is purely marketing-oriented, is still far below the Vienna model of the 365-euro annual ticket.

Apparently, citizens in the energy crisis in this country cannot even be expected to pay one euro a day for functioning local public transport.

The basic idea of ​​getting more people onto buses and trains is correct - especially since the transport sector has just been certified to have broken the climate targets in 2021.

Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) will therefore have to develop an immediate program.

A convincing building block is the concept of using buses and trains to get to work, to family or to relax.

But for this to happen, the public offering must be competitive not only in terms of price, but above all in terms of travel time and comfort.

In many cases it is faster and more convenient to go by car.

The problems have long been recognised, and there are plenty of ideas for a better mix of means of transport and a focus on “on demand” offers.

Realizing it is difficult and costly.

In this situation, it is absurd to force the transport companies into a tax-financed, limited discount model without warning, which is completely useless in the long run.

That would be like the state spending billions for three months giving away vegetables just to get people to finally turn their backs on meat.

Such a measure would probably get applause.

However, this project inevitably produced bottlenecks.

And it ignores the simple fact that a lot of people really like meat.

The reasons for getting into the car are just as mundane: convenience and time savings.

Luring car users onto overcrowded and therefore less punctual trains in the hot summer months is not a promising approach.

It would be more effective to set up a constant offer for quick, traffic jam-free commuting with a means of transport in which one can use the time well.

A hasty marketing gimmick

The transport companies know that.

The hasty marketing gimmick should make you queasy.

In Germany there is no applause for a functioning local public transport system, it is taken for granted despite the high costs and the unbelievable organizational effort.

This obviously also applies to politics – even to the Greens.

They have known buses and trains for a long time, but they too seem to have missed the burdens they are burdening the transport companies with the three-month campaign.

Even the preparation is an organizational challenge.

Setting up a nationwide Germany discount is anything but trivial.

The details are being worked on frantically, Wissing wants to present the draft law next week.

The companies will then go along with it, they ultimately have no choice.

If politicians provided taxpayers with money almost unconditionally, the transport companies would be crazy to close themselves off to the unexpected advertising campaign after two years of Corona with extreme passenger numbers.

Nevertheless, it would have made more sense to use the billions to make local public transport more attractive in the long term.

This requires intelligent concepts outside of the big cities.

At least there is hope that political attention will not disappear after the end of the haphazard 9 euro experiment - and at least after that there will be courageous work on expanding the offer.