Passengers will still have to wait for the option of unlimited travel by train and bus for nine euros a month.

"We believe that it will be June 1st, but nobody can say for sure," said Jörg Sandvoß, CEO of Deutsche Bahn subsidiary DB Regio, in Frankfurt on Tuesday.

The preparatory work is considerable, so May 1st is not possible.

Four weeks in advance are necessary, but that is calculated from the point at which everything has been clarified, such as the financing.

But it's not that far yet.

Sandvoß pointed out that there are hundreds of local transport companies in Germany, so the effort is high.

Manfred Koehler

Head of department of the Rhein-Main editorial team of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

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The CEO of the company, which organizes regional transport for Deutsche Bahn, emphasized that today's local transport customers would by no means be put at a disadvantage.

This means regular buyers of monthly tickets, which are consistently more expensive.

Knut Ringat, Managing Director of the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund, agreed.

He also pointed out that many questions remained unanswered.

The transport companies would have been grateful if they hadn't heard about this project from the media, he said.

In any case, the federal government would have to pay for all loss of income, for advertising the offer and for the administrative costs.

He expects total costs of three to three and a half billion euros.

Ringat said rail and bus services are permanently underfunded.

When a 365-euro ticket for a year was discussed, he said that local public transport could not be organized with such low income.

But instead of one euro a day, only 30 cents are planned.

Of course he hopes that "many, many" will use the trains and buses in the three months for which the discounted ticket is offered.

Financing not yet clear

The Hessian Transport Minister Tarek Al-Wazir (The Greens) said the nine-euro ticket was "probably the biggest experiment in local transport".

The excuse that you don't use trains and buses because they are too expensive no longer applies.

The minister confessed that the idea of ​​a monthly ticket for nine euros "fell from heaven" for him too.

As far as he knew, the Greens in the coalition had insisted on easing the burden on users of local public transport after the decision had been made to ease the burden on motorists.

He is now waiting for funding proposals from the Federal Ministry of Transport.

It should be borne in mind that so far it has not even been negotiated how the transport associations should be compensated for the loss of income in the past year caused by the corona pandemic.

Al-Wazir expressed confidence that a pragmatic solution could be found for the special offer.

There were also initially skeptical voices when the cheap student ticket was introduced in Hesse.

In any case, the nine-euro ticket must be designed in such a way that it is valid in different transport associations.

In Hesse, it is less of a problem that passengers encounter a network border, but it is in Baden-Württemberg, for example, with its many smaller transport networks.

Train stations are to be modernized

During a press conference on Tuesday, Ringat, Al-Wazir and representatives of Deutsche Bahn took stock of the "intensive program" for rail transport in Hesse, which they had started in 2019.

Among other things, they recalled that several S-Bahn stations such as those at the Frankfurt Hauptwache and at the Galluswarte had been modernized, that there were now additional doors at the end of the platforms at various underground stations, which made it possible to walk into the tunnel the result of operational disruptions prevented that there was more information in Frankfurt's main station and specially monitored points, so that disruptions could be detected more quickly.

Bernd Koch, CEO of Deutsche Bahn subsidiary DB Station & Services, said passengers should feel comfortable at the stations.

The modernization of the Offenbach-Marktplatz and Hofheim stations is being prepared.

According to the Deutsche Bahn, six million euros are spent every year on cleaning the train stations in Hesse.

For the subsidiary DB Netz, Gerd-Dietrich Bolte, head of infrastructure projects in the central region, pointed out that the group is investing 1.55 billion euros in Hesse this year, more than ever before.