In politics, the pressure is increasing to find a successor to the popular 9-euro ticket.

However, funding is a source of debate.

While Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) tried at the weekend to dampen hopes for a permanently low price in local public transport (ÖPNV), the SPD campaigned on Monday for an extension of the discount campaign.

Corinna Budras

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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SPD leader Lars Klingbeil, for example, would like to finance a successor to the 9-euro ticket with a special tax on high additional profits from energy companies.

There are companies that "make massive profits from the Russian war in Ukraine without even shaking hands," said Klingbeil on NDR.

"That's why I demand that we also introduce an excess profit tax in Germany."

The money could be used to pay for the "urgently needed" successor to the 9-euro ticket.

"We should ensure that the citizens can continue to use local public transport at low cost," said Klingbeil.

"The money is there, we just have to want it."

Costs of 10 billion euros per year

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) also praised the success of the three-month relief through his spokesman Steffen Hebestreit.

The discussion about a successor is in full swing, but this is very complex and cannot be conducted at the federal level alone.

After all, the federal states are primarily responsible for public transport.

However, he made it clear that the successor model would have to cost more than 9 euros a month.

"This is about very large sums that cannot be extended indefinitely," said Hebestreit.

Estimates assume that an extension of the 9-euro ticket in its current form - valid for all S-Bahn and U-Bahn, regional trains and buses throughout Germany - would cost around 10 billion euros a year.

“The annual budget of entire ministries covers 10 billion euros,” he emphasized.

At the beginning of the year, the idea of ​​Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) to introduce not only a tank discount but also a cheap local transport ticket for a period of three months to relieve citizens of the high energy costs was still met with great concern.

The traffic light government had also always emphasized that there could be no extension because of the high costs.

Since the start of sales at the end of May, however, demand has been high: around 38 million tickets have been sold in the past two months, plus ten million subscribers, as the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV) announced on Monday.

"Free mentality à la unconditional basic income"

The initial skepticism has therefore given way to loud calls for a successor model.

The leader of the Greens, Ricarda Lang, spoke to the FAZ early on in favor of a successor. There are now several proposals on the table, and Wissing was also open in principle.

The VDV advocates a monthly ticket of 69 euros, which, however, would not represent any relief in some regions.

The Greens advocate a regional ticket for 29 euros per month for one federal state or at least several tariff zones.

A nationwide ticket could cost 49 euros according to their ideas.

But that would mean that the state would have to inject billions more.

The federal government is already paying more than 10 billion euros to the federal states so that they can finance rail transport.

The discussion has therefore picked up speed again after Finance Minister Lindner spoke out vehemently against it for the first time.

There are no funds available for this in the financial planning, he told the “Augsburger Allgemeine”.

The minister said that he was not convinced of a "free mentality à la unconditional basic income" in local public transport either.

"Every tax subsidy for a ticket that doesn't cover the costs means redistribution." He doesn't think it's fair if people in the country, who don't have a train station nearby and are dependent on the car, subsidize cheap local transport.

The benefit of the discount campaign is also still unclear: while the desired relief for citizens is undisputed, the second desired effect has not materialized so far: people have tended to use the ticket for additional trips and not to leave their car at home: previous ones Studies by the VDV, for example, show only a slight shift from the road to public transport.