Free voters criticize cost explosion: Cologne: Public transport is becoming more expensive at the expense of customers
“A 49-euro ticket, but a 20 percent increase in single tickets!” – Free voters in Cologne criticize window dressing in regional train traffic
First 9 euros, soon 49 tickets – but in the end the “bargain” falls on the taxpayer, as the recent price increase by the Cologne public transport company (KVB) shows. That’s why the Free Voters Cologne are demanding: finally stop with half-baked gifts and promote local public transport on a regional basis!
Free public transport is still part of the election program for parties such as Die Grünen and Die Linke, although calculations clearly show that this cannot be financed if the nationwide debt brake is adhered to. Using the example of Cologne, Ludwig Degmayr, a member of the district association of free voters in the Middle Rhine region, explains why a 49-euro ticket, like its predecessor, is pure window dressing: “Free public transport is a contradiction in terms, because someone has to pay for it in the end. And that’s the taxpayer’s bottom line. The same applies to the discounted tickets: “If a 49-euro ticket is bluntly issued, & regional companies such as KVB die again at another point.
The latest facts prove the 23-year-old right. After the previous price of 2.80 euros, the KVB increased the price for a single ticket to 3.10 euros, and a further increase has already been announced for July. A rising 20 percent increase, which according to Degmayr “cannot only be explained by inflation and higher energy prices”. In fact, inflation fell to around 8.5 percent across Germany in December. It may also be an adjustment in anticipation of the 49-euro ticket starting in April, which allows you to use the entire German regional train network for just that price.
In the meantime, when it comes to public transport, things should finally be nailed down: “What is currently happening is neither fish nor meat. You always tried hard, you would say at school. It’s a noble motif, but a miserable implementation,” explains Degmayr, who would like to change public transport in other areas: “With ‘tourism tickets’ such as the 9-euro or 49-euro ticket – which has been proven to work for the first time scientific surveys have been determined in this way – when in doubt, more damage is monitored than benefit. The high prices are certainly a problem, why citizens prefer to use the car, which is currently expensive to use. But far more annoying for the train passenger are the constant train cancellations and the overall no longer up-to-date infrastructure of the railway. The lever must first be applied here, then the customers are willing to pay more than 49 euros a month.”
For years there has been lively discussion about a continuous renewal of Deutsche Bahn. Rightly so, as Degmayr explains: “When you read that the head of DB is pocketing three times the salary of the Federal Chancellor, while train attendants and train drivers have to keep fighting for wage increases, then the question arises as to whether the situation here has gone haywire .”
(Source: Freie Wahler Mittelrhein)