Have you noticed the new pricing for Länder-Tickets?

I think these tickets should be abolished. They are partially subsidized and in times of fiscal restraint, leisure trips for groups are not, or should be not, the priority of government as for commute transportation or capital expenses that mean investments in faster trains.

Thanks, Lee.

I think it is great that these tickets are partially subsidized by the government, if it keeps vacations affordable for families, especially for short trips and rather than driving. Would Andre rather see our tax euro going for better roads or better trains? I think we all know the answer to that, as Andre' has bashed the train systems in Europe and using trains over and over again, mostly with untrue statements. It is sort of odd that someone who lives in the Netherlands is complaining about German trains and how Germany spends its' tax money. Compare riding a train to sitting in a stau, wasting multiple liters of fuel, family of 5 squished in together for hours at a time, and contributing to an ever growing problem of oil dependecy and CO2 emissions. For many families, riding the train with a Länder ticket or a Happy Weekend ticket offers them the chance to take a day trip together that they otherwise not have been able to afford. What a wonderful idea! So, Merry Christmas to EVERYONE, wealthy or not.

As I am aware trains everywhere (even in US) are subsidized by government (that means by us). Without it they would go belly up. But isn't our car travel subsidized by government, too? Who builds the roads, bridges, tunnels, put traffic signs up, enforce traffic rules, etc?

In theory, roads in this country are paid for by gasoline tax and user fees, but that is far from the truth. The Federal government subsidizes highway construction in the country to the tune of billions or dollars a year. I guess they claim it's necessary for national defense, but ...... In my county, we are taxed 1% on sales for the building of residential roads. I know many German families who have only one car. They can do that because of good, subsidized public transportation. According to a report I found, the cost of European rail subsidies per resident is less than $200/yr. OTOH, most American families need two cars. According to AAA, the average cost of having an extra car is $8500/yr. This is what I call "the high cost of low taxes".

I'm not "bashing railways". On the contrary, I'm just a helpliner who gives driving/car rental advice when someone asks for it instead or acting as an environmental extremists trying to instill guilty on peoples' vacations if they drive. Just for the point: I don't have a problem with governments setting up mass transit that caters mainly to commute traffic (residences-workplaces). I also don't oppose government building infrastructure in general (though I don't bite the "wars in Middle East are caused because I drive or fly instead of taking the rail to work). So it is all cool for me if gov't builds infrastructure - as long as vehicles using them are private and schedules are set by competing agents, not collaborating quasi-state bureaucratic agencies
like DB, NS, SNCF, Renfe etc. But subsidized leisure rail tickets make as sense as a government-owned hotel or EU-subsidized ice cream parlors. Travel for leisure is a luxury (in terms of money and time), not an human right or a basic necessity like getting from home to work. Anyway, this is way off topic and I'm stopping here. As I wrote, I'll just keep informing people who ask on Helpline about driving between places with directions, instructions and tips for driving, instead of fear-mongering and green washing.

"Travel for leisure is a luxury (in terms of money and time), not an human right or a basic necessity like getting from home to work." So Germans shouldn't subsidize leisure travel infrastructure - only work travel? Leisure travel has been a core concern of government-subsidized road infrastructure all along. If the government excluded the needs of the tourism industry and tourists, many of today's commuters would have no job to commute to, whether by car or by train. Tourism means business. I would have to guess that Germany's economy today has been stimulated in a significant way by the efficiency and advantageous pricing of its public transport system, courtesy of German taxes. The more Germans and foreign visitors find it inexpensive to travel in Germany, the more they travel there, and the more they support the hospitality and other industries. Even foreign discussion boards are abuzz with chat about German deals for train travel :) so there could be some method to this madness. That said... Lee, you can't be serious that you want US taxpayers to fund more public transport here. The $100 billion Cali bullet train boondoggle should give you a taste of what our bureaucrats would do with the $.

"...you can't be serious that you want US taxpayers to fund more public transport here. The $100 billion Cali bullet train boondoggle should give you a taste of what our bureaucrats would do with the $...." How is it a boondoggle? $100 billion is a bargain compared to the alternative: new/expanded airports/highways. Be it car/rail/plane something has to be built to keep up with population growth. The highway/airports will cost far more than to build and maintain. Compared to other industrialized nations the US spends very little on public transport. I read an article a while back that the US government spent more money building one fighter jet, than it gave to Amtrak in one year. That's where our priorities are...one of these days that "peace dividend" that was promised after the collapse of Iron Curtain will kick-in;)

How is it a boondoggle? Read up. Ridership and cost estimates have been lies. Cali is laying off teachers, emptying prisons, and defunding universities; it doesn't have 2 nickels to rub together, much less the $ it will take to support this project going forward. The bullet will serve mostly high-end business people and politicians who must travel between L.A. and S.F., people who don't need a subsidy. As far as I can tell, people have no trouble getting between SF and LA now. And if I'm headed to Riverside or Palm Springs, I'm not going to get on the bullet train so I can then rent a car and fight traffic. LA has no decent public transport once you get off at the station. In Germany's big cities, you step off the high-speed train and within minutes you're on a connecting local train to wherever you're headed. We simply don't have the kind of geography or city design that countries like Japan and Germany have to make passenger rail service feasible or desirable.