[lgrapenthin]

Wrong. It flooded the network with vacationers who normally could not afford travelling at all, while workers had to resort to their cars again to reach their jobs in time.

Counting everyone who "would not have travelled by train", meaning "likely not at all" as saved emission is not very convincing.

[rurban]

I know nobody who had to switch to their car to come to work in time.

On the hand, most coworkers tried the bus in the morning, or switched to bycicles, with the occasional bus trip when it rained. It was a huge success, people flooded the trains.

[ellareen]

I actually did borrow my parents car because the commute got so bad. I commute from Aachen to Cologne. After 2 trips there and back which would usually take me about 4 hours total, I had accumulated over 8 hours of total travel time and kinda had enough. Was very glad i was able to WFH.

[netsharc]

Huh, why did the 9 Euro ticket double your travel time? Did the trains get slower? Did they cancel the fast trains? Were the trains so full you had to wait 2 hours to find space in one?

[pjmlp]

They actually did, they got so full that they started to take ages in each single station, given the amount of passagers getting on/off.

[Schroedingersat]

As someone living in an area with abysmal intercity transit, the idea of being able to get out of my city in an hour or even two is wild.

Busses are often slower than a brisk walk.

[hedora]

According to the article, the study accounts for this.

Do you have some evidence that it does not?

[rad_gruchalski]

> According to the article, the study accounts for this.

Can you please point out the part of the article supporting this claim?

[cgeier]

> The Association of German Transport Companies (VDV), which carried out the research, said the number of people who switched from cars to public transport as a result of the €9 ticket was behind the saving in emissions.

[MildlySerious]

I am assuming a large part of that influx was from people who made extensive use of it because of its limited nature. If a similar option was always available, there would be a lot less pressure to squeeze every opportunity into such a short time frame.

If the 69€ ticket came to pass, it would still be more expensive than, or in the same ballpark as most one-off trips. People would make use of it, but the urge to take advantage of it while it lasts would be gone.