French rail pass: €49 ticket to launch after German success

And the German government in charge of the ticket already voiced their interest in making both tickets compatible so that people can use the traffic in either country with the ticket of the other one

Could lead to a pseudo-standard that could result in an eu-wide ticket of such type in the long run

That would be amazing and would up the value of the EU as a connected zone.
- Now if we could have more than one single high speed rail coming out of Italy into Europe, that'd be great. I'm freaking sick of airports.
BTW: This is already possible with Germany and Luxemburg. There are mutliple connections between G and Lux that you can use with the 49 € ticket. And busses and trains in Luxemburg are pretty much all free anyway.
Interrail or eurail has been around for decades
- Interrail allows you to train everywhere in Europe EXCEPT your home country.
  
  It's clearly meant to be used for traveling and not regularly.
  
  On the other hand, a pass like that is meant for people that use train regularly in their home country.
  
  It's two very different products.
- Having public transport available without having to worry about buying a ticket just because of the subscription you already have anyway is far better than interrail
  
  This ticket is not for long distance travel but for shorter distances - it will be an extension to interrail and not a replacement
- So what? It's for young people only. The kind that find your username "funny". Just a meme bro!
  
  Well, thankfully for other young people too. Leaves out the other part of the population. So this is welcome.
  
  EDIT: I stand corrected, adults can also buy. Starting at 194€ for the right to travel four days a month in more than a single country.
This is what I always hoped would happen. Once one country does it and it works, there's no excuse for other countries to not follow suit

But did you know that the German minister in charge of the railways, a liberal*, has already questioned the costs of the ticket and announced he'd not participate in any additional funding?

God I hate this so much. If they take the ticket away again or make it like 5 times more expensive I will fucking riot (that is, rant on the internet)
- I will fucking riot (that is, rant on the internet)
  
  Spoke like a true German
- It's not riot, it's roti
Meanwhile, they have plenty money to subsidize people buying new cars. Corrupt asshats.
- It makes sense tbh, it's Germany's largest and most profitable industry, subsidies keep it competitive on an international scale
Slight correction, he is a liberal, not a libertarian.
- Just for all non germans, not the american definition of liberal. He is FDP, so a right winger, anti poor people liberal.
Maybe they are now trying to make it an EU project and have them shoulder the cost.

Excellent. I hope the next announcement is that the French and German tickets are interchangable, so I can take the Thalys to Paris and use my Deutschlandticket there for the metro. Maybe in ten years we can finally use such tickets all over Europe and make rail travel soooo much simpler. I'm sure buying the correct train ticket without getting shafted by the DB is one of the most complicated endeavours for tourists in Germany.

Cries in american. I wish we could have public transportation.

Don't worry, it's still pretty sucky in europe

Very good start, but as a French I fear that it may not be complete until it starts to include the high speed lines (TGV) that are the most expensive but also the most competitive when trying to divert traffic from cars or planes

To be frank, I'm amazed by this announcement. I take TER every weekend and a two-way trip is 108€, 54€ (-50%) if you get the yearly pass which costs 30€. This would save me so much money.

Yes it doesn't encompass TGV but with this 49€ ticket you can potentially get rid of many car commuters which is already a good thing :)
- Yes of course, and I'm all for it, I just hope it's a first step and not the end

Really wish the US has functional public transportation. I guess that's "CoMmuNiSm."

We prefer to call it commutism.

The German pass looks really cool as it includes all rail transport in and between cities. The French pass seems really underwhelming compared to the German one. It only includes TER and inter cities but you still have to pay additional fees to travel locally and it can be very expensive in Paris.

The German pass looks really cool as it includes all rail transport in and between cities

Not quite, you can only use regional trains, not the high speed intercity trains.

So for example, if you want to go from Frankfurt to Berlin, that usually takes 4.5 to 5 hours with either one or zero times you have to switch trains.

With the 49€ ticket that journey would take you between 8 and 10 hours on up to 6 different trains.
- I recently travelled to cologne by train using only the €49 ticket. Should've taken 15h but due to delays it took 17h. Had to change teains like 6 or 7 times... maybe not the best way to travel through germany. The same route takes about 6h using a direct ICE connection.
- Yep, can confirm this but hopefully that changes soon…would be the dream for sure.
From the article:

The pass will also cover local bus, metro, and tram travel, “if possible,” Beaune said. The full details have not yet been finalised.

Of course, I'm not particularly confident that they will actually cover this but at least they are thinking about it.
Yes. The price of a subscription for unlimited public transport in Paris and the surrounding areas is more than 80€/month. So if such a pass were to actually offer all public transport it would be a huge net loss since all Parisian would switch to it and start paying much less.

On the other hand public transportation subscriptions in smaller cities is much much less expensive, so for non Parisians this may not be worth that much.

Not sure how that would play out regarding redistribution of wealth.
- I mean, that's exactly what happened in Germany. Instead of 110€ for local and regional trains in Stuttgart, I pay 49€ for local and regional trains in all of Germany.
  
  The ticket is immensely subsidized by the government. The transport agencies are basically compensated for these losses.
That's not even including French strikes /s ( well not even really...)

Finally, SNCF is bothering to compete with Ryanair.

Oh it's Intercity and not a TGV/ICE fare? Fuck that noise.

Maybe I missed it in the article but what is the duration of the ticket? Is it a one time ticket, monthly or something else?

I think it's monthly, otherwise it's just a regular ticket, no?
- monthly
You order the ticket as a subscription service with monthly cancellation - the ticket runs month after month until you cancel the contract.
- that's crazy! that's like 1.5 weeks of my train costs just to get to and from.work here. what a deal

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The new €49 pass will offer passengers unlimited travel on TER regional services and intercity trains.

French people – irrespective of their age – can buy this pass and have unlimited travel on an intercity or TER for a flat, inexpensive price,” he told France 2.

TER trains connect local destinations within French regions and serve around 1.1 million passengers per day.

The French ticket aims to wean commuters off carbon-intensive forms of transport, President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday.

With more than 52 million tickets sold, the pass has helped reduce carbon emissions from traffic.

German transport association VDV claims that it saved around 1.8 million tonnes of carbon emissions during June, July, and August this year.

The original article contains 509 words, the summary contains 118 words. Saved 77%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Have I read that correctly that only French people shall benefit from this offer? That would really suck to see this discrimination between European nationalities

It's for anyone living in France.

Dang. They still have to be dicks and end the price in 9 to fool people into thinking they're paying $40 instead of $50.

Scumbags.

Lool Dude. Who tf cares, it's for TER only. During my 20 years in France, i think I used TER like, 3 times. compared to a hundred trips in TGV.

That's a cheap knock - off for publicity lol I would be surprised if they manage to sell 1000 tickets

I know people who have used the TER everyday for commute. There are also people using it every weekend to see family.

I would certainly enjoy it to be able to go bicycling on weekends too.
The benefit at least in Germany is for commuters. My monthly pass went from costing over 150€ to 49€ as I had to pass through two transit agencies to get from my home to work. The fact that every transit company sets their own fares and doesn’t cooperate with neighbouring companies is fully irrelevant now to the joys of many.

I don’t know if France is structured the same way, or if the plan of this is also to include local transport, but the Deutschlandticket is saving me a lot of money and headache.
There is already an unlimited subscription for TGV, which costs more than 800€ per month.
The German pass does not include ICE (InterCity Express, the TGV equivalent). It would make no sense economically.
- Ok didn't know that

PuBlIIC TrANSpoTaION is the FutuRe!!!!

Cars are so lame, they get you where you want to go quicker and cheaper. Hur-dur.

I don't think cars are cheaper.
- Depends what value you place on your time.