From €9 monthly tickets in Germany to free journey’s in Spain, European countries are reviving rail to beat cost of living pressures and save energy
“One in five €9 ticket users has rediscovered public transport,” said Evelyn Palla, Deutsche Bahn’s new regional transport director said, pointing to the 20 per cent of tickets sold to people who do not normally use trains, buses and metros. The experiment generated admirers outside Germany. This week, Spain went even further, making train journeys up to 300km free of charge until the end of the year, with tickets funded by a new windfall tax on banks and energy companies. Other European Union countries are mulling similar offers as they bid to promote rail as a way to travel: Luxembourg has made public transport free for all since 2020, while Malta is set to follow from October.
Other EU countries have also been reluctant to stump up the hundreds of billions of euros needed to improve the infrastructure and develop rail as a reliable service. Despite carrying 11 per cent of the EU’s freight and seven per cent of passengers, railways account for only 0.4 per cent of the bloc’s emissions.