Spain is ramping up to follow Germany’s Deutschland Ticket, which gives nationwide public transit access for a flat rate.
I love our Deutschland Tickets. The subscription system is wonky, but once you have it running it’s wonderful.
Nice work, Spain!
Really puts it into perspective, we here in Germany complained (online) like hell when the price was raised from 58€ to 63€ this year and tied to inflation, yet it seems to be a rather standard fare. Train service notwithstanding, I do think Germany’s rail network might be worth 3€ more to a passenger than Spain’s.
It would be worth more if IT WERENT DB!!
It’s a good price, but should be lowered over time. Drop it below inflation to push people into transit over driving. That said, the pillars of German economic thinking still revolve.around car manufacturing, so it’s a tough sell.
May we should make it cost an inverse amount to how badly DB does every year? I don’t know, but 63€ isn’t killer, but we have five people to pay for and kindergeld isn’t going up as fast as the D-ticket is. Nor is my raise, of course.
Can’t wait for this to come to Germany.
I mean the trains. We already have the tickets, though.
Are we sure DB can handle even more? They cant even handle what we got
There’s plenty of trains here. What time they’ll arrive, though, it a bit of a mystery.
I ride the regionals and local trains daily. Some are highly variable on timing, but most of time it’s fine. Riding the long distance ones is basically just hoping you’ll get it the right city.
They should do European passes to challenge cheap flights, or family passes.
You mean Interrail? It’s not a monthly pass, but you will probably find a pass that suits your trip.
Yes but one shot, not monthly: family inter-state tickets would be greatly appreciated to avoid the frenetic way of life, that’s already enough during work days
I’m envious. In the Netherlands, you can only buy a train pass for 376 Euros. And that’s just the train: no buses, no trams, not even those faster “intercity” trains.
In Norway I pay about €150 a month for a 25 minute commute. Between three cities though, but still. Hopeful that one of the supporting parties to the ruling party elected this year has been promised a national €40 monthly ticket from 2027, but still a long way away.
Though you can cycle for free ^^
And that’s most frequently the fastest and easiest transport between two points in a city, by a margin.
(I’m still envious about the rail prices.)
wait wait wait, why does germany get the praise when the Generalabonnament (GA) has been a thing in switzerland since *opens Ecosia* 1898?!?!
Our GA is older than germany?!?!
TIL:
Generalabonnament
I didn’t know about the GA in Switzerland. That’s great to hear.
Of course, then I look at the price. It’s CHF 355, which is about 379 Euro/month. That’s crazy high compared to these other programs. It might get access to better trains, such as the HSR system that the D-Ticket doesn’t, but most people don’t need those on a monthly basis.
Points for a unified system, negative points for being crazy expensive, unless I’m missing something, of course.
The great thing about the GA that it truly is a “Generalabonnament”. It includes practically every form of transport in the country. Every train, every bus, the ships, most of the gondolas and even many of the more touristey connections. It’s so comfortable to know you can just go to the trainstation, take any train to any city, get there and then take any bus (or tram or subway or ship or whatever) once you arrive at your destination without ever having to worry about or buy a ticket.
Also the price varies a lot. For example, in a family GA a child will only pay 60.- CHF per month (yearly GA) which makes it a lot more attractive again. And similarly for your Partner a GA Duo will only cost 240.- if you already have one.
Nitpick, oder than the federal republic of Germany yes, older than the German Empire founded in 1870, no
This costs less than a monthly ticket in Helsinki…
Although the service you get for it is not bad ngl.
The trams and metro system in Helsinki is amazing! I spent a few days there and the quality of the system is top flight.
I did manage to fall into the Baltic Sea while visiting, but that was my own efforts. It did give me a broken phone so I couldn’t show my train ticket. Helsinki uses the “no gates, we’ll check you sometimes” model and it saved me then. No phone, covered in seawater, in October (gentle snow), and I was able to get on a tram to make it back to my hotel no issues. Thank you, Finland!
I’d go back any time. Hell, I’d live there given a chance again.
Your wet clothes probably might have saved you from a ticket even if they had checked…
Sounds good when said, but I fear it will make transportation worse.
Centralized funding will make existing tensions between Madrid and Autonomous Communities even worse. There’s a clear division of competencies, and this move gives the central government a lot of say over local issues.
