Germany heads to the polls on February 23. Immigration policy and Friedrich Merz’s collaboration with the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) have dominated the pre-election headlines. But what does a new, incoming coalition mean for the Deutschlandticket?

Deutschlandticket still popular in 2025, despite price rises

Ever since the ticket, a monthly subscription offering passengers unlimited public and regional transport travel, launched in May 2023, it has been hugely popular. “Our industry goal was that 15 million people would have a Deutschlandticket at the end of 2024. We surpassed this goal by around 10 percent,” President of the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV) Ingo Wortmann said in a recent press release.

The ticket price rise from 49 euros to 58 euros per month starting January 2025, does not seem to have dissuaded passengers. Deutschlandticket monthly cancellation rates sat at 8,1 percent in January 2025, only slightly over the average monthly cancellation rate of 7 percent during 2024.

Despite the ticket’s continued popularity, a question mark still hanging over how it will be funded in the long-term, and with a federal election now days away, Germany’s main parties and chancellor candidates have been relatively silent on their Deutschlandticket policy plans.

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is currently polling with 30 percent of the vote and is likely to head Germany’s next federal government in coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SPD). While the CDU is traditionally known as the party of middle to upper-class drivers, not regular public transport users, a recent study from the Institute for Traffic Research (DLR) found that people from high-income groups are more likely to have a Deutschlandticket. Nonetheless, the word “Deutschlanticket” remains absent from the party’s 2025 manifesto.

What funding questions still hang over the Deutschlandticket?

When the Deutschlandticket was launched it was pitched as a longer-term, more financially viable version of the beloved 9-euro ticket, a nationwide monthly transport pass rolled out to offset the rising cost of energy following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

The German federal government and state governments of the 16 Bundesländer would each pay 1,5 billion euros per year to public transport associations, to subsidise profit losses. But after the ticket was launched, sticking points remained over how funding responsibilities would be shared. While the Deutschlandticket was the brainchild of the federal government, which had long promised its 1,5-billion-euro share to the states, a cheque from Berlin still hadn't materialised by May 2024, a year after the ticket was launched. 

In July 2024, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) finally said the Bundestag would amend the Regionalisation Act, using leftover money from 2023 to pay missing funds out to state governments, meaning a Deutschlandticket price hike could be avoided until 2025. But implementation was put on the back burner. 

The traffic light coalition collapse in November meant the ticket’s fate hung in the balance once again. Transport ministers sounded the alarm that the July 2024 decision to amend the Regionalisation Act should be voted on in parliament as soon as possible before the traffic light coalition left office. After a scramble, the Regionalisation Act was amended in December 2024, allowing a price rise to 58 euros per month from 2025 and securing funding for the ticket until 2026. What happens on January 1, 2026, will be up to the incoming coalition.

The new coalition will have to contend with the fact that annual public transport use in Germany has still not returned to pre-coronavirus levels, down from 10,4 billion passengers per year to 9,8 in 2024. Because of falling passenger numbers - and because many passengers now have a Deutschlandticket rather than a standard, more localised travel pass - public transport associations’ income has reduced by over 3,2 billion euros. Meanwhile, staff and energy costs have increased. 

What are the CDU and SPD stances on the Deutschlandticket?

So with the CDU likely to lead the next German government, what plans does the party have for the Deutschlandticket? 

The CDU’s manifesto promises “more attractive and reliable public transport” and developing Deutsche Bahn track infrastructure among its transport and mobility policies. The Deutschlandticket is not mentioned, but comments from elsewhere give clues about the possible stance the CDU might take once in office. 

In Bavaria, Transport Minister Christian Bernreiter and State Premier Markus Söder, both of the CDU’s regional sister party CSU, have called on the federal government to take 100 percent responsibility for funding the Deutschlandticket. Söder promised the southern state would otherwise scrap the scheme. More recent comments from Berlin suggest Bavaria’s demands are unlikely to be met and a nationwide scrap may be on the cards. Speaking to Politico, CDU politician Christian Haase said the ticket would no longer be financially feasible after 2025.

Another CDU / CSU politician, Ulrich Lange, said that scrapping the ticket would leave “room to play around with something different”. Meanwhile, chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz has left things more open, saying that the fate of the Deutschlandticket can only be decided once the new coalition starts drawing up a budget.

This means that saving the Deutschlandticket would be up to the SPD. In its manifesto, the party has said it wants to continue the system of shared funding responsibilities between federal and state levels, keep the ticket price at 58 euros, and offer a discounted version for certain groups (such as pensioners, families with children and disabled people).

Whether the existing Deutschlandticket stays, let alone if any of these further subsidies are adopted, depends on how much sway election results grant the SPD in the new coalition.

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