Jun 08, 2022
Prof. Georg Hirte as a guest on "FAKT IST!"
Travel nationwide on public transport – and for only nine euros per month. From June 2022, this will be possible in Germany for a quarter of a year. Prof. Georg Hirte (TU Dresden, Chair of Economics, esp. Transport Policy and Spatial Economics), Lydia Hüskens (Ministry of Infrastructure Saxony-Anhalt), Vivian Draschoff (commuter), and Stefan Dietrich (Abellio Rail Mitteldeutschland) discussed the sense and benefits of the nine-euro ticket on "Fakt ist!"
On May 9th, 2022, Prof. Georg Hirte, holder of the Chair of Economics, was invited to the MDR talk show "FAKT IST!" on the topic of the nine-euro ticket. In the lively discussion with intense audience participation, he put forward the following theses: The ticket is largely a waste of money and goes well beyond relieving the burden. Regular public transport users are indeed relieved, but in his opinion this would only be necessary for people with low incomes. Alternatively, prices could be fixed upwards for some time to prevent price increases and additional burdens. The nine-euro ticket is a nice gift or a great bargain promotion for irregular users or non-users. This will lead to more leisure traffic at weekends in particular during the three summer months, according to previous experience from campaigns studied worldwide. However, the hoped-for advertising effect will most likely fizzle out. To make public transport more attractive, massive investments would have to be made in quality instead, which is much more important for public transport use than price, as we know from Vienna, for example. Nevertheless, a price reduction for lower income groups would be a sensible measure in the long run, as for them the use of public transport is very expensive in relation to their disposable income and their participation in mobility is thus limited.
The guests of the MDR talk show "FAKT IST!" on May 9th, 2022
The video can be seen in the media library until May 23rd, 2023.