Ever since the 9-euro ticket first launched on June 1, there’s only really been one question on people’s lips: will the German government come through with a more permanent scheme? We’ve had both the 29-euro ticket and the 365-euro ticket touted as replacements, but now there’s a slightly more concrete option: the “climate ticket” (Klimaticket). 

Climate ticket could be 9–euro ticket’s successor in Germany

Following the success of the 9-euro ticket - which after selling 20 million times in June 2022 alone is due to come to an end in September - the federal government is thinking about introducing a “climate ticket” as a new scheme to subsidise public transport in the face of record-high prices for fuel.

According to a draft version of the government’s Emergency Climate Protection Programme (Klimaschutzsofortprogramm), which is due to be launched in July, the government has said that it is ready to “financially support” a scheme to “permanently increase the attractiveness of local public transport,” according to a report in Handelsblatt.

The proposal states that “a discounted “climate ticket” as a standardised monthly or annual public transport ticket for regional rail, buses, and trams could help to keep public transport affordable in the future."

So far, however, that’s the limit of what we know about the plans. More concrete details, such as how much the climate ticket would cost consumers, are yet to be released or even decided. When asked, the Federal Ministry for the Environment refused to comment on the report.

Austria sets example for discounted public transport

Since the beginning of June, the 9-euro ticket has given people in Germany unlimited travel on regional trains, S-Bahns, U-Bahns, buses and trams for just nine euros per month. The government previously said that the scheme was too expensive to consider extending, but rumours have been growing that a successor model could be in the offing to help the government achieve its climate targets.

The concept of a “Klimaticket” is a borrowing from Austria, where a similar scheme has been running since October 2021. The ticket permits unlimited travel on regional and long-distance transport across the whole country, but at 1.095 euros per year doesn’t come cheap. However, the scheme also includes region-specific tickets that cost a lot less.