
Tickets to ride just got more expensive in Berlin, as the cash-strapped city looks to squeeze a bit more out of those of us packing onto the rush-hour Ringbahn or sobering up on the U8. The €29-per-month local transit pass, which was only just launched in July, is being scrapped altogether, while one-off tickets are once again being hiked by around 7.5% – with an Einzelfahrt for the AB zones set to cost €3.80 each (just two years ago, it was a neat €3, and is currently at €3.50).
The wallet wallop is not just Berlin but Germany-wide, as the popular Deutschlandticket has also got its own price bump, from €49 to €58 per month. Of course, that’s still cheaper than the old BVG monthly pass for just Berlin, which was setting commuters back €86 in 2022, but it’s no longer quite as sweet of a deal. The cheapest monthly AB pass is now be a good bit costlier than the Deutschlandticket at €76.70.
But don’t expect any more bang for the extra buck. Behind all the price hikes is the same basic problem: money is tight, and politicians are looking to trim subsidies for public-transport riders, or at least keep them in check, so there are no plans to use the extra fare revenue to actually improve service. Berlin’s €29 ticket was budgeted to cost about €300 million per year, and with Berlin’s CDU-led government slashing spending left and right, that deal was quickly on the chopping block.

The Senate, not the BVG, has the final say on fares – and better to hike tickets than taxes, or something like that. Transportation funding, in fact, is set to take the biggest hit in Mayor Kai Wegner’s austerity programme, to the tune of €660 million, even as the cultural cutbacks get most of the headlines. The €29 ticket’s cancellation is also, by the way, a bit of a political black eye for Berlin’s economy senator (and former mayor) Franziska Giffey, who made the €29 ticket a cornerstone of the SPD’s local election campaign.
Money is tight, and politicians are looking to trim subsidies for public-transport riders.
Berlin’s €29 ticket drew immediate flak from elsewhere in Germany when it was rolled out, blamed for possibly sucking away passengers from the national Deutschlandticket, whose financing relies on delicate negotiations and cost-sharing deals between scores of local transit agencies, Germany’s federal government and each of the 16 states. The nationwide pass launched on the heels of the wildly popular – but maybe too wonderful to last – temporary €9-ticket from the summer of 2022.
A reported 15 million people are currently signed up for the Deutschlandticket, and a recent study credited the deal with boosting rail travel by more than 30%, while cutting the number of kilometres driven by car by 7.6%. That study estimated the reduced driving cut CO2 emissions by 6.7 million tonnes per year. It also forecast that a price hike to €58 per month would cut the benefits by about half – nudging car journeys upwards by 3.5%, while train trips would dip by 14%.
But the huge popularity means it has also cost a pretty penny for local transport operators whose sales are going down despite increased ridership, and the initial public subsidies to offset the low cost of the Deutschlandticket – €3 billion per year in total – won’t actually be enough.
After Chancellor (for now) Olaf Scholz’s government spent months locked in squabbling over a massive hole in the budget that ultimately brought down the coalition, it’s now on riders to make up at least some of the difference. Another looming problem: the Deutschlandticket is only funded through the end of 2025, meaning that its continued existence beyond the upcoming year likely hinges on the outcome of the upcoming early federal elections.

A big part of the idea behind the affordable flat-rate monthly passes was to entice more people onto public transit by making an irresistible offer. Compared to what monthly passes used to cost just a few years ago, the new fares are still a pretty good deal – but every price hike makes signing up a bit less attractive. Indeed, a survey by the Frauenhofer Institute found that most people described a monthly price around €55 as the upper end of what they consider affordable – and that €75 was definitely “too high” for most people.
“This is a step in the wrong direction,” Horst Vöge, the president of the VdK social advocacy group, told FOCUS magazine recently of the Deutschlandticket price bump. “An affordable social ticket is essential for participation and equal opportunities in our society.”
The bigger problem is Germany’s creaking infrastructure…which has suffered from chronic underinvestment.
The bigger problem is Germany’s creaking infrastructure – including the railways, trams and bus lines – which has suffered from chronic underinvestment. The smash success of the Deutschlandticket brought more riders, but cut the revenue transport operators collect from ticket sales – and government funding hasn’t managed to make up the difference.
Germany needs to expand the public transit system, increase frequency and bring the chronically late Deutsche Bahn back up to snuff. Some critics contend that Berlin would’ve been better off spending the €300 million set aside for the €29 pass on building up the BVG’s infrastructure instead.
But the goals of improving service and boosting ridership don’t have to be in conflict. Another key idea behind deals like the Deutschlandticket and the €29 Berlin pass was that a surge in riders might offset some of the revenue losses from lower prices.
That hasn’t quite worked out so far – many of the people who’ve booked a Deutschlandticket were already riding the rails, just on a pricier pass – but it still could. Surveys have found that the most-cited reason for not buying one wasn’t the price, but the fact that the available transport connections weren’t attractive – either not running where they wanted to go, or running too slowly to be worth boarding at all.
If Germany’s serious about cutting climate emissions, easing congestion and making sure everyone can afford to get around, the country needs to both rebuild the transit network and tempt riders away from their cars with tickets they can easily afford. But in these days of belt-tightening and budget cuts, we’re not holding our breath.