As Deutsche Welle emphasizes, this refers to buses, trams, subways, commuter trains, river crossings, water trams, and even cable cars. However, the latter is still exotic, although experts predict a great future for cable cars in cities as one of the alternatives.
In June of this year, the German Automobile Club (ADAC) published the results of its study on public transport prices in major German cities. The current comparison was conducted for seven most common ticket categories: a single standard trip and a single short trip for adults, a standard child ticket, and passes for one day, one week, and one month, as well as an additional ticket for transporting a bicycle. There are many more tariffs, but they are not offered everywhere, so they are not suitable for a comparative study.
Looking at the results, one can envy the residents of Munich and Stuttgart, while sympathizing with the wallets of public transport passengers in Cologne, Bonn, and Hamburg.
Monthly passes
Let's start with unified monthly passes (German: Monatskarte). The cheapest such pass is offered to passengers in the Bavarian capital Munich – €55.20. The top five also includes Dresden (€61.50), Hanover (€63.00), Karlsruhe (€64.00), and Bremen (€66.30).
Let's glance at the bottom of the list, which overall includes the names of 21 cities with a population of over 300,000. The most expensive monthly pass for public transport costs passengers almost twice as much as Munich's! It costs €109.20 and gives the right to travel around Hamburg and its surroundings for a whole month. The neighboring lines are occupied by Cologne and Bonn (common tariff system – €98.50), Frankfurt am Main (€90.40), and Berlin (€80.10). The average price of a monthly pass in all major cities was €77.50.
Note that enterprises and organizations, for example in Cologne, can conclude special collective agreements with transport companies, under which employees purchase personal monthly passes at more favorable rates. For example, for employees of the University of Cologne, it is currently €64.70 – instead of the standard €98.50. In turn, students in Germany have their own special semester tickets – Semesterticket, but we will return to regular passengers.
Weekly passes and day tickets
The Bavarian capital Munich also leads in the category of cheapest weekly passes (German: Wochenkarte) – €15.40. The most expensive is in Berlin (€30). However, they are not offered at all by transport companies in Hanover and Karlsruhe.
As for day tickets (German: Tageskarte), the most advantageous are in Stuttgart (€5.20). The most you will have to pay is in Cologne and Bonn – €8.80. The average price across Germany was €7.02. In some cities, they are valid for 24 hours from the time of validation, in others – until the end of service, a certain time of night, or even the morning of the next day – for example, in Munich, Karlsruhe, and Hamburg – until six in the morning of the next day, in Stuttgart – until seven in the morning.
Single trip and short distance tickets
The cheapest tariff for a single standard trip for adults (German: Einzelfahrkarte) is in Mannheim – €1.80. In Nuremberg, such a ticket will cost €3.20. The average price across Germany is €2.74. There are also many nuances here. In most cities – with the exception of Frankfurt am Main – such a trip can be interrupted or transfers made, but the trip must be in one direction. At the same time, in Dresden and Leipzig, such tickets allow you to travel in all directions for a whole hour and make any number of transfers.
The cheapest short trip (German: Kurzstrecke) is in Stuttgart (€1.40). The most expensive is in Cologne and Bonn (€2.00). However, when purchasing such tickets, you should carefully study the conditions. For example, in Stuttgart, they are valid up to the third stop without transfers from the start of the trip on a bus or tram, but only up to the next stop on a suburban train. In Cologne – four stops in one direction with transfers or 20 minutes from the start of the trip.
Some German cities already offer special flexible tariffs for mobile apps (eTarife), where the cost of a trip depends on the specific distance – moreover, as the crow flies. Such apps are already working in Karlsruhe (€1 per trip + €0.25 per kilometer) and Mannheim (€0.80 per trip + €0.20 per kilometer).
Children under six – free
What about children's tickets? Up to the age of six, the youngest passengers are transported free of charge in all cities, and in Dresden and Leipzig – until the start of school. Leipzig has the lowest tariff for children's tickets up to the age of 14 – €1.20 per trip. The most expensive are in the tariff association of the Ruhr region cities (Bochum, Dortmund, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, Wuppertal) and Berlin – €1.70.
Transporting bicycles and scooters
How much do you need to pay for transporting a bicycle (German: Fahrradmitnahme)? In the just-mentioned tariff association of the Ruhr region cities – €3.60. The national average is €2.25, but in Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, and Hanover it is free. However, in all cases, passengers have priority, meaning that if public transport is overcrowded, transporting a bicycle may be refused.
By the way, regarding electric scooters, which have just been officially allowed on streets in Germany, German laws generally do not prohibit their transport on public transport, but the final decision must be made by local transport companies. The federal industry association VDV recommended that they allow the transport of electric scooters – in folded form and not very heavy models. In that case, they are considered ordinary luggage. In turn, larger models may be equated to bicycles and transported according to the relevant rules and tariffs.