From June 1, 2022, the so-called nine-euro ticket will be valid in Germany. This is offered for three months and allows the use of all public transport in regional traffic. The advance sale has already started.

You can use public transport in Germany for a month for just nine euros. Excluded are long-distance trains and long-distance buses from private operators such as Flixbus. The ticket is also not valid on special tourist trains. In theory, you can travel by ticket from Munich to Hamburg or from Freiburg to Sylt. But since you are not allowed to use long-distance trains such as Intercity, Eurocity or Intercity Express, you have to calculate a lot of time.

The idea of ​​the German federal government: In view of the sharp rise in fuel prices, they want to make the use of public transport attractive. Although the nine-euro ticket will initially only be available in June, July and August 2022, it is expected that many people will switch to public transport. However, not all Germans benefit from this, because there are rural areas where neither trains nor buses run. Or the frequencies are so low that public transport is not an alternative to the car.

Although the German federal government primarily wants to relieve commuters with the cheap network card, use for leisure purposes is expressly not prohibited. The ticket can be used to travel to visit friends and relatives, but also for a holiday within Germany. The only catch: long-distance trains and buses cannot be used, so that you have to take into account numerous changes and a long journey for longer distances. But it is literally dirt cheap.

The nine-euro tickets are available from the usual sales outlets where regional tickets can be bought. Tickets can be purchased, for example, at ticket counters, machines or via the websites of DB or the transport associations. The month in which the nine-euro ticket is to be valid can be chosen freely. You can only buy for June 2022 or up to and including August 2022. You don’t have to commit yourself to the following months either, because buying later is no problem at all.

Cheap tickets can not only be bought by Germans

The name of the ticket holder is usually printed on online tickets. This is not the case with machine and counter tickets. This must then be entered by hand, as the nine-euro ticket is not transferable. In other words, every passenger needs their own ticket. Important: It applies to second class and additional payments to first class, which is available on many regional trains in Germany, are not possible. You can't buy an "upgrade" either.

The nine-euro ticket is open to anyone who wants it. In concrete terms, this means that tourists and business travelers can easily purchase this online, at a machine or at the counter and travel across Germany on public transport. The nine-euro ticket should be attractive, especially for city tourists, because a short-distance single journey in Munich, for example, costs 1,80 euros. Day and multi-day tickets can cost more than nine euros in many German cities. It therefore makes sense for people traveling to Germany to check whether the nine-euro ticket might be the cheapest solution for local public transport.

Since this cheap ticket is valid throughout Germany in regional transport, tourists and locals can also use it for trips to the surrounding area or to the other end of the state. Hamburg vacationers can use this, for example, for day trips to Lübeck or Bremen. Another possible application: Traveling by public transport to an airport that is further away in order to travel from there with a cheaper flight ticket. Pretty much anything is possible, as long as you consider that long-distance trains such as Eurocity, Intercity and Intercity Express as well as long-distance buses are taboo. When planning, you should keep in mind that the nine-euro ticket is only available in June, July and August 2022 as things currently stand. From September 1, 2022, the regular tariffs will apply again.