The Berlin SPD is planning to extend the nine-euro ticket for local transport, which is due to expire at the end of August, until the end of the year. The Social Democrats want to submit a corresponding proposal to their coalition partners, the Greens and the Left Party, at a coalition summit planned for Friday morning. First “rbb”, “Morgenpost” and “B.Z.” reported about it.
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Accordingly, the SPD’s proposal provides for a nine-euro ticket to be offered in the months of October, November and December. According to the report in the “Morgenpost”, the solution was not technically feasible in September and thus after the current offer. However, the ticket should then only be valid in Berlin and here in the inner city area, i.e. tariff zones A and B.
The ticket is to be financed – the costs are calculated at up to 400 million euros – through surpluses in the state budget. On Tuesday, Senator for Finance Daniel Wesener (Greens) presented a so-called status report from the financial administration, according to which Berlin had achieved a surplus of 2.3 billion euros in the first six months of the year – due to additional tax revenue and reduced spending.
The coalition partners want to negotiate what should happen with this money and how Berliners should be supported in compensating for the rising prices this Friday.
A spokesman for Transport Senator Bettina Jarasch (Greens) said in the morning that the proposal was an issue for the committee, and that the senator would comment on it in the afternoon. A spokeswoman for the left also said that she would first discuss her proposals with the coalition partners and then make them public.
In the run-up to the event, SPD parliamentary group and party leader Raed Saleh had urged that at least part of the additional money raised be returned to the people of Berlin. The proposal to extend the nine-euro ticket corresponds to the implementation of this announcement. The Greens had previously advocated a monthly 29-euro ticket in the region.
The nine-euro monthly ticket for local transport, which is valid nationwide, has been available from June to the end of August. The three-month campaign financed by the federal government was intended to support commuters in view of high energy prices and to promote a switch from cars to buses and trains. Possible successor solutions are discussed controversially, they are also a topic at a special conference of the transport ministers of the federal states this Friday.
