Germany releases a monthly travel pass for 49 Euros!

[thewayne]

What an excellent idea! All buses and trains, unlimited ridership, about $53USD. Of course you can never see something like that in the USA because that would be SOCIALISM! Or something like that. Also a huge PITA to administer.

This would be a heck of a bargain if you're going to vacation in Germany for a couple of weeks, even more so if you live there. ;-)

As the article says, it's valid for "almost all forms of public transport apart from long-distance intercity trains. Cross-country travel will still be possible using regional trains, significantly reducing costs for some people who used to pay hundreds of euros a month for their regular commutes."

https://apnews.com/article/germany-public-transit-cheap-ticket-trains-metro-3d83f1a35ab8e3945b8034b9bd511c29

Comments

[dewline]

And we can't have it up here in Canada, because we're stuck right next door to the transit shitshow as you describe it on your side of the border. Dammit.

[thewayne]

But isn't it nice to think of Leelu holding up a card and saying 'Multipass!'

[dewline]

Yep.

[kaishin108]

What a great deal! They are working on better transportation options here and the bus is cheap. I think some of Bidens infrastructure money is supposed to help, in our area at least.

Still, it won't compare to that deal.

[thewayne]

I used the bus frequently when i was in high school, I was taking classes at the community college in downtown Phoenix and we lived a block away from the main line that went all the way downtown.  My folks would pick me up at night after i was done.  And I use the Metro in DC when I'm there.  And we used the U-Bahn subway system in Berlin when we spent a week there in '15.  But otherwise, it's ineffective here.  While Alamogordo does have busses, they don't run the 20 miles up the mountain to Cloudcroft. I do wish we had effective train service in this country in the western half.  We really enjoyed taking a train from Berlin to Prague on that trip, so much easier than flying, for the most part.

[kaishin108]

It doesn't seem like they care to service the railroad tracks here! All the accidents. They applied for a train to come back in service from here to Portland and also south to SLC. I hope so.

And there is a bus that is expanding routes from Boise to SLC and Seattle and Vegas too. I hope things improve on that front here in the Western states.

[disneydream06]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wish I was going to Germany. :o
Hugs, Jon

[silveradept]

That sounds excellent, and I'm glad to see it happen in Germany. If we had a developed enough rail and bus network in the States, that would be about the right price for a regional rail pass per month.

[thewayne]

Aside from in-city travel, wouldn't it be fantastic for summer vacation travel if we had better infrastructure!  We were only in Berlin for a week, but we used the heck out of their trains and subways.  The only taxis we took were to and from the airport, everything else was subway and walk.

[silveradept]

Summer vacationers would be good for the transit system, and to help it get around. We do at least have some decent greater metropolitan region transit options for helping people get to and from athletic events and the various conventions being held, but anything that's in-city or meant to leave the greater metro area, not that many options.

[thewayne]

For our Berlin trip, I made sure to book our rooms near subway stations.  Our initial stay was also near a train station.  On the day we were to transit from Berlin to Prague, we bought tickets for both legs - from where we were in Berlin to the main station, and also on the train to Prague!  One stop shopping!  I loved how integrated it was.