{"id":104150,"date":"2024-12-13T11:16:54","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T11:16:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/the-petrol-car-will-remain-germany-has-got-millions-out-on-the-rails-with-cheaper-train-tickets\/"},"modified":"2024-12-13T11:16:56","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T11:16:56","slug":"the-petrol-car-will-remain-germany-has-got-millions-out-on-the-rails-with-cheaper-train-tickets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/the-petrol-car-will-remain-germany-has-got-millions-out-on-the-rails-with-cheaper-train-tickets\/","title":{"rendered":"The petrol car will remain: Germany has got millions out on the rails with cheaper train tickets"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n
The climate wins if the car loses Road transport accounts for a fifth of the EU’s total CO2 emissions, with more than half coming from passenger cars. It is therefore extremely important that more diesel and petrol cars disappear from the roads – and if it is not possible to walk or cycle instead, then the train is a climate-friendly alternative. But before you can reap the climate benefits of train transport, there is only one thing that counts. – You can only reduce emissions if you get people away from cars on the roads and onto public transport, explains Maximilian Amberg. More train passengers thus only benefit the climate if they would otherwise have driven a car. Put simply, it helps nothing if you get pedestrians or cyclists onto the train. But if you replace the petrol car with the train, it reduces VO2 emissions by 80 per cent. So the climate only wins if the cars get off the roads. But it is unfortunately not an easy matter to get more people to ditch their cars. – This can partly be explained by the fact that our choice of form of transport is influenced by various behavioral effects that cause people to stick to their habits, explains Maximilian Amberg. It’s about, for example, that we often choose what feels easiest, and that we stick to what we know and preferably avoid major changes. A two-part picture Germany is not alone in making trains cheaper. Both Luxemburg and Estonia have made all public transport free and Austria, Spain, Ireland and Portugal all have something resembling the cheap German ticket. But are cheap or free train tickets a magic cocktail, which with a pinch can make more people ditch the diesel and petrol cars and take the train instead? The answer is not that simple. – Deutschlandticket does not solve all problems, says Maximilian Amberg. Although more Germans have ditched the diesel cars and instead got into the train carriages, cheap or free tickets have not worked as well elsewhere. For example, a study shows that the cheap train ticket in Austria did not lead to more train passengers. In the capital of Estonia, this has meant that more people have taken the train, but when the number of car journeys was measured, they had not fallen. So there are indications that cheap train journeys in some cases do not make motorists become train passengers, but that, on the other hand, they get more cyclists and pedestrians on the train, and that does not give points on the climate account – quite the contrary. If the cars are really to stay, it must not only be cheap to drive a train, but it must also be expensive and cumbersome to drive a car. For example, by removing car parks and roadways, introducing environmental zones, rush hour zones or increasing prices. So if, for example, you know that you have to spend half an hour finding a parking space – and that it is also huge – then you may come to the conclusion that it may be worthwhile to ditch the car. In return, another study – which has not yet been peer-reviewed – estimates that Luxemburg’s free public transport has led to a six percent drop in emissions from road transport. Which, according to the study, indicates that more people have left the car parked. The effect of cheap and free trains is thus twofold. More trains and fewer delays Cheap train tickets are not just a trick for the wallet either. Although the Deutschlandticket is cheaper for some, the financing of the tickets is an expensive pleasure for society, explains Maximiliand Amberg. Each tonne of saved CO2 costs 450 euros, if you look exclusively at the climate effect. – The costs and CO2 savings ultimately tell us that it is a policy that really helps to reduce emissions. But it is probably not the most cost-effective policy, he explains. But he explains that there are other benefits as well. – It is less difficult to only have to have one ticket, instead of having to decide every day whether to buy another single ticket or a weekly ticket. Furthermore, the price reduction is important for several people. We have a lot of people who can now afford public transport and can now participate in society in a better way, he emphasises. Maximilian Amberg also mentions that fewer cars on the roads can also mean less congestion, noise and air pollution. Something that in total costs society dearly. However, it is primarily city dwellers who have replaced the car with the train, because the public transport in the cities is better. – And it shows that we have to do more in areas where the quality of public transport is low. To create change, we need more buses and trains that come regularly, he says. In addition, he also points out that the rail network must become more reliable, so there are fewer delays. And this is where Deutsche Bahn, which is Germany’s national train company, comes into play. In July, a new plan was launched, which ensures that 40 train sections will be renewed. – Once they are finished, I think the situation will improve, but it will take some time, he asserts.
\n

\n
ttn-70 <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The climate wins if the car loses Road transport accounts for a fifth of the EU’s total CO2 emissions, with more than half coming from passenger cars. It is therefore extremely important that more diesel and petrol cars disappear from the roads – and if it is not possible to walk or cycle instead, then […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":104151,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[475,1491,997,2264,557,18478,1085,1826,1812],"class_list":["post-104150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-car","tag-cheaper","tag-germany","tag-millions","tag-petrol","tag-rails","tag-remain","tag-tickets","tag-train"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}