21.11.2021
The relatively affordable Klimaticket should encourage Austrians to ditch their cars – and help save the planet.
You wake up in Salzburg and after breakfast you hop on a tram to the city’s main railway station and climb aboard an Austrian Railways ÖBB Railjet bound for Vienna. After two hours crossing some of the prettiest scenery in central Europe, you arrive at Wien Hauptbahnhof, from where you head down into the tunnels of Südtiroler Platz metro station and take the U1 line to reach Karlsplatz, not far from the Vienna State Opera and other highlights. From there, you climb aboard bus 57A for the final leg, until it's time to finally disembark beside the Schönbrunn Palace in the Hollergasse.
Give or take the casual stops for sightseeing and refreshments, you've been traveling, on public transport, for more than four hours, adding up hundreds of miles across bus, rail, and metro services.
The Austrian government's 2030 Mobility Master Plan aims to reduce private car use from 70% of total annual kilometers traveled to 54% by 2040, at the same time increasing public transport's share from 27% to 40% and doubling active travel (walking and cycling) from 3% to 6% of the total.
A passenger on an electric train requires just 55% of the energy used by a battery electric car for the same journey, according to the master plan, meaning big carbon emission cuts can be made with a relatively small percentage shift to more sustainable modes of travel.
In Germany, the go-anywhere equivalent of the Klimaticket is the Bahncard 100, which is nearly four times as expensive at €4,000 per year. While part of this price disparity can be accounted for in terms of Germany’s significantly larger geography, the additional factor of its extremely strong automotive industry has tended to historically dampen political enthusiasm for public transit.
According to a study (https://www.handelsblatt.com), only 27 million people in Germany have access to very good local public transport (ÖPNV). These people live in large cities or metropolitan regions. For the approximately 55 million people who live in rural areas, the offer is often insufficient. If we want more people to leave their combustion engine cars behind and use environmentally friendly alternatives, something has to change in the framework conditions. The country needs a cultural change.
If public transport wants to be a real alternative to the car, it must renew itself massively. Before looking at ways to lock people into using public transport, we need to make it super simple to use, widely available and cheap. Digital services such as a real-time display for buses, capacity utilisation displays, improved infrastructure, reduced bureaucracy and, above all, a modern, simple and nationwide ticketing system are a prerequisite for this.
In the coming months, the parties that will be involved in the next federal government will certainly be the main ones to talk about this. As things stand, these are the SPD, the Greens and the FDP. Strengthening the railways is something that all three parties have taken up, sometimes to a greater extent, sometimes to a lesser extent.
How far they will ultimately go remains to be seen.
Why is this relevant for the Generation Z?
Climate change has lead us to a shift in thinking about the role of mobility in our society. We need to find ways to develop sustainable solutions that are more environmentally friendly, affordable and accessible.
What does this mean for the automotive industry?
Concrete this means for the automotive industry that they have to adapt their strategy towards mobility services for a new, dynamic and changing customer demographic: Vehicles should become part of the solution in areas of climate protection and environmental conservation. This will ensure that automobiles will continue to be a cornerstone of modern, individual, and affordable mobility ~ VW “Mobility for tomorrow”
Written by: Lorenzo Federici