By Isabel Pfannkuche and Stefan Peter
The queue went about 200 meters through the Alexanderplatz underground station on Wednesday evening: many Berliners wanted to buy new monthly tickets in the BVG customer center after the 9-euro ticket had expired.
“Many customers obviously waited until the end to get a connection ticket,” says BVG spokesman Jannes Schwentu when asked by the BZ.
Some passengers would always have been automatically sent a monthly ticket before the offer price in June, July and August. Now they also had to buy a new ticket, which is why, according to the BVG, there was more traffic than usual at the end of the month. Waiting time in the evening: up to an hour!
The BVG therefore deployed more staff and tried to guide customers to the machines. You can actually buy all tickets there without queuing – apart from the trainee ticket.
Giffey keeps fighting for a new €9 ticket! Brandenburg is still hesitating
Roland Kühl (66), pensioner from Marzahn: “I saved about 160 euros in three months with the 9-euro ticket. A follow-up ticket for the prize is unrealistic. I would pay 30 or 40 euros. I take the bus and train through the city almost every day, sometimes to the Schlachtensee. I didn’t do longer journeys, the trains were too full for me.” Photo: Ralf Gunther
The government presses on the tube: On Thursday, Franziska Giffey (44, SPD) held initial talks with Brandenburg so that a cheap ticket can be introduced from October.
A video conference was used to discuss what the successor to the 9-ticket euro in the region could look like. Giffey still has some convincing to do, though. So far Brandenburg has been reluctant and no results were announced yesterday.
Traffic Senator Bettina Jarasch (53, Greens), representatives of VBB, S-Bahn and BVG were present at the video switch. In Brandenburg, the priorities obviously lie elsewhere – the state government was only represented by two state secretaries at the conference…