Transportation
Germany Sets the New Standard for Cheap, National Mass Transit
- €49 buys a month of rides on all urban buses, trams and trains
- Plan puts pressure on government to upgrade patchy network
Germany will start one of the most affordable public transit offers anywhere in the world on Monday, setting a new benchmark to encourage consumers to ditch their cars and putting pressure on Berlin to make the shift work.
For just €49 ($54) a month, holders get unlimited travel on all city buses, subways and trams in every municipality across the country. That means with one ticket — which breaks down to less than the cost on one espresso a day — you can ride buses along the shores of Lake Constance on the Swiss border and traverse Hamburg’s harbor on the North Sea.