Imagine being able to travel for a whole month, on all regional and local trains in a country, for just 49 euros. Too good to be true? With trains in Germany it is reality. The “Germany ticket” has unleashed a veritable train fever, filling the carriages and emptying the highways. An experiment in sustainable mobility that has exceeded all expectations, showing that radical change is possible.
Trains in Germany: All aboard the change
It seems that the Germans have discovered that trains are not just those long things that pass by while you wait for the level crossing barrier to go up. With the introduction of the 49 euro ticket, suddenly, traveling by train has become more interesting than sitting in traffic while listening to “99 Luftballons” on the radio for the thousandth time.
The result? A 30,4% boom in train journeys over 30 km. I imagine that German stations now look more like rock concerts than places of transit. “Tickets, please” has become the new “One more!” of the wild fans.
The car? No, thank you
The real surprise was to see the Germans abandoning their beloved cars. As we know, Germany is the country of the free autobahn (lucky you), where the speed limit is often just a kind suggestion. And yet, with the introduction of the Germany Ticket, car kilometres travelled decreased by 7,6%.
It's as if millions of Germans woke up one morning and thought, "You know what? Today I'm going to leave my trusty BMW in the garage and venture out into the wild world of public transportation." I wonder if cars feel betrayed.
A ticket to save the planet?
This simple piece of paper (or more likely, an app on your phone) did something incredible: it cut 6,7 million tons of CO2. It’s as if we shut down a coal power plant that was particularly enthusiastic about its work.
4,7% of total transport emissions in Germany: gone. Puff! Like magic.
Now, brace yourselves for some barroom math. Before the magic ticket, about 10% of trips in Germany were made by train. After? 12%. Does that seem like a small amount? Well, think about how many millions of people travel in Germany every day. Suddenly, that 2% becomes a crowd that would make Oktoberfest pale in comparison. It's as if an entire city decided to abandon its cars and hop on the train. Probably the same train, given the increase in passengers.
Of course, I anticipate some predictable superficial criticism, it's not all roses and flowers (or rather, rails and locomotives). The price of success has been high.
Alas, as in every good story, there is always a villain. In this case, it is called “price increase”. The transport ministers of the German states, in a moment of particular inspiration, decided to increase the price of the ticket from 49 to 58 euros per month.
According to the researchers' predictions, this could lead to to a 14% drop in train travel and a 3,5% increase in car kilometres travelled. It's as if they decided to put spokes in the wheels of the train of progress. Literally.
Trains in Germany, the moral of the story
What can we learn from this German rail adventure? I say there are 3 key lessons to be learned.
Fine: Germans, despite their reputation for car-loving people, can be surprisingly flexible when it comes to saving money and saving the planet. Second, sometimes the simplest solutions (like a cheap ticket) can have huge effects. Third: maybe, just maybe, the future of sustainable mobility is not made of flying cars or teleportation, but of good old trains. Who would have thought?
In conclusion, if you want to see a revolution in action, buy a train ticket in Germany. But do it quickly, before the price goes up and the magic fades. And remember: the next time someone tells you that you can't change the world with 49 euros, tell them this story. They might not believe it, but hey, the numbers speak for themselves. And in this case, they speak German.
