Rail fare price cuts - Germany

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From DW

Train travelers in Germany have an extra reason to celebrate entering 2020 — the national railway company Deutsche Bahn is cutting prices for long-distance rides. The government wants more people to take the train.

Deutsche Bahn has unrolled new prices for 2020 and made its tickets 10% cheaper for long-distance traffic, the German railway company said. The move, which went into effect on Wednesday, stems from the climate protection measures passed by the German government – the Cabinet cut the value-added tax (VAT^▸ (Value Added Tax)) on rail travel in December from 19% to 7% in an effort to make train travel more attractive.

"We are passing on this tax cut to our customers," Deutsche Bahn said on its website.

The new prices apply to trips of over 50 kilometers (31 miles), but only if the passenger travels from one railway region into another.

The company is also cutting prices on special offers and additional services, such as fees for transporting bicycles.

Interesting story to pop up this morning on that early January day when RAIL FARE RISES hit the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) passenger and news media ... I have already been on BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Radio Wiltshire, where recordings of commuters are complaining about the reliability of the service they're buying and the randomness of the fares at times.

Before we hold the German example up as "could UK do this", we should note that it's funded by a cut in VAT on train fares, where in the UK we don't have VAT on travel fares in the first place.

[4064ReadingAbbey]

Effectively this only concerns the IC^▸ (Inter City) and ICE services run by DB^» (Deutsche Bahn - German State Railway - about) Fernverkehr. The Länder are now responsible for specifying and funding services (suburban services, IR and so on) within their area and the VAT^▸ (Value Added Tax) reduction does not apply to these services.

[stuving]

Effectively this only concerns the IC^▸ (Inter City) and ICE services run by DB^» (Deutsche Bahn - German State Railway - about) Fernverkehr. The Länder are now responsible for specifying and funding services (suburban services, IR and so on) within their area and the VAT^▸ (Value Added Tax) reduction does not apply to these services.

Surely the VAT rate is national, so that will be cut. If the Länder specify fares they can decide whether to pass the cut on, and presumably if they don't they will know where the money saved will end up.

[Bmblbzzz]

Unless there are different rates according to whether a fare is classed as regional or national?

[infoman]

Just in time for the Euro football tournament taking place in 2024,thats the year not the time.

[sikejsudjek3]

If we were serious about cutting carbon we'd cut fares and spend the money allocated for HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) on lengthening trains instead.

However we aren't serious about cutting carbon emissions so it won't happen. Instead we'll have continually rising prices, overcrowded trains and a huge white elephant to move people from Birmingham to London 20 minutes quicker.... and most of the public will love it and keep voting for it. 

Glad I have a reliable new car and don't use Crosscountry trains anymore ! 

[Bmblbzzz]

I don't entirely agree. If we were serious about cutting carbon emissions from transport, we would raise rail fares to discourage travel; but not by as much as we'd raise the cost of flying and driving.

But even if we were serious about cutting emissions, we couldn't face the changes needed to reduce travel and consumption, so we'll carry on as we are until we can't.

[TonyK]

Before we hold the German example up as "could UK^▸ (United Kingdom) do this", we should note that it's funded by a cut in VAT^▸ (Value Added Tax) on train fares, where in the UK we don't have VAT on travel fares in the first place.

Agreed. 50km is quite local in a lot of the UK, despite Germany being about 50% bigger. A lot of commuters take their morning ride to work on intercity trains, and our rail regions are somewhat arbitrary. Thus, we can't easily apply the same differences. Plus our peak services tend to be crammed beyond nominal capacity, with fare price being the only form of control of numbers, so we don't necessarily want more people on the most expensive services, much as we might as a nation say we do.

Any cut in VAT amounts to an increase in subsidy.Ask our government for similar, but don't expect a positive answer. At the moment, we are deadly serious about cutting the use of fossil fuels, but not at all serious about doing anything about it.