Germany's introduction of the 49 euro flat-rate for a monthly nationwide transportation pass, the "Deutschlandticket", has resulted in a ten percent increase in ticket subscriptions for local public transportation services. But only one fifth of the new subscribers have reduced their use of automobiles at the same time. These findings are the outcome of the research project "Mobilität.Leben", organized by an interdisciplinary research team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) working at the TUM Think Tank.
Data on the "Deutschlandticket", a standardized, Germany-wide public transportation ticket introduced in May 2023, was collected in surveys and captured via smartphone app. The data show that the Deutschlandticket had particularly little impact on the use of automobiles among people who already subscribed to public transportation services before acquiring the new Ticket. This group only reduced its automobile use by approximately 7 percent. Among all those Deutschlandticket holders covered by the study, the share of public transportation in the respective mix of transportation modes used rose on the order of 5 to 7 percentage points.
Dr. Allister Loder, lead author of the study, regards the marketing success of the Deutschlandticket at 49 euros per month positively: "Initial findings indicate success in improving the attractiveness of public transportation in Germany and in initiating steps towards a more sustainable mobility system," says Loder. "What is urgently needed now however is the comprehensive expansion of the public transportation service spectrum so that even more people can actually make viable use of the Deutschlandticket."
