With the launch of the nine-euro ticket, the demand for the discounted offer for local and regional transport in Berlin has once again skyrocketed. As of midnight on Saturday night, the BVG has sold 930,000 of these tickets. This was announced by BVG spokesman Markus Falkner to the Tagesspiegel.
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765,000 of these cheap tickets relate to use in June, the rest have already been sold for the months of July and August. The tickets must be purchased anew for each month. Half a million more tickets were sold within a few days: by last Sunday, the BVG had sold 450,000 tickets, of which 130,000 were on the first sales weekend.
Many more people benefit from the offer: the 870,000 BVG subscribers, i.e. owners of environmental and student card subscriptions, annual cards, semester and senior citizen tickets, do not have to buy the tickets separately; the reduced price is offset against their monthly or annual bill . Deutsche Bahn also sells the ticket in Berlin, but there are no figures from this site.
The federal government introduced the nine-euro ticket on June 1 to compensate for the sharp rise in fuel prices and at the same time provide an incentive for more trips by bus and train. It applies to local public transport and regional trains, but not to long-distance transport. Also excluded are some regional trains that also operate as intercity trains.
At Pentecost, the nine-euro ticket obviously increased the travel chaos. Many S-Bahn and regional trains were overcrowded on Saturday and Friday evening. On Saturday, for example, there was a big crowd at the main station. The trains to Stralsund and Rostock in particular were full of people and bicycles. S-Bahn and regional trains are the responsibility of Deutsche Bahn.
However, the ticket had no effect on BVG operations on Pentecost Saturday, as Falkner explained. The control center of the BVG speaks of a “regular operation”. The number of passengers was therefore completely normal and corresponded to the usual level at the weekend.
