BERLIN (AP) — The cost of a popular ticket introduced last year that allows people to use all local and regional trains, buses and subway systems across Germany is set to increase by about 18% next year, a senior official said Monday.
Transport ministers from Germany's 16 states agreed that the price of the Germany Ticket, which has cost 49 euros ($54.70) per month since it became available in May 2023, should rise to 58 euros at the beginning of 2025.
“With this price, we will manage to keep the ticket attractive and put the financing on a more solid footing,” Oliver Krischer, the transport minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, told German news agency dpa. He said the decision shows that German regional authorities “want to stick to the successful model of the Germany Ticket and further develop it.”
The Germany Ticket was intended to encourage people to ditch their cars in favor of more environmentally friendly forms of transportation. It followed a successful experimental ticket offering unlimited travel for 9 euros per month that was offered for three months in the summer of 2022, as part of a government program to help combat high inflation and fuel prices.
Officials said that ultra-low price wasn't financially viable. But it and the Germany Ticket had the added merit of simplifying for ticket holders a fractured public transit system in which individual regions offered myriad different fare options that baffled many travelers.
Around 13 million people in the country of some 83 million people use the Germany Ticket.
Bavaria's transport minister, Christian Bernreiter, said a price rise was “unavoidable” because sales were short of expectations, raising the prospect of a large financing shortfall next year.
Travellers wait on a platform as a train leaves the main train station in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, June 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
Here are the AP’s latest coverage plans, top stories and promotable content. All times EDT. Find the AP’s top photos of the day in Today’s Photo Collection. For up-to-the-minute information on AP’s coverage, visit Coverage Plan in AP Newsroom.
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TOP STORIES
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MIDEAST-TENSIONS — Israel’s air force carried out dozens of airstrikes in southern Lebanon, killing at least 50 people, as the Israeli military called on residents to immediately evacuate places where it claimed the Hezbollah militant group stores weapons. Separately, Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip killed eight Palestinians, including five children, according to Palestinian medical officials. SENT: 1,480 words, photos. With MIDEAST-TENSIONS-THE-LATEST; and ISRAEL-LEBANON-WHAT-TO-KNOW — SENT.
LEBANON-EXPLODING DEVICES-SAVING EYES — For almost a week, ophthalmologist Elias Jaradeh has worked around the clock, trying to keep up with the flood of patients whose eyes were injured when pagers and walkie-talkies exploded en masse across Lebanon. He has lost track of how many eye operations he has performed in multiple hospitals, surviving on two hours of sleep before starting on the next operation. He has managed to save some patients’ sight, but many will never see again. By Bassem Mroue. SENT: 510 words, photos, video.
ELECTION 2024-HARRIS-TRUMP — One presidential candidate is talking up gun ownership and promising tough border security measures. The other vows to cap credit card interest rates and force insurance companies to cover in vitro fertilization. Which one is the Democrat and the Republican? The lines that have long defined each party’s policy priorities are blurring as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump seek to expand their coalition in the final weeks of a fiercely competitive election. By Steve Peoples. SENT: 1,200 words, photos, video. With ELECTION-2024-HARRIS — Harris raises $27 million in New York fundraiser, promises economic speech this week; ELECTION-2024-TRUMP — Trump says, if he loses, 2024 run will be his last; and ELECTION 2024-TRUMP-DEPORTATIONS — Trump’s goal of mass deportations fell short. But he has new plans for a second term — SENT.
SRI-LANKA-ELECTION — Marxist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake was sworn in as Sri Lanka’s president after an election that saw voters reject an old guard accused of leading the country into economic crisis. Dissanayake, 55, who ran as head of the Marxist-leaning National People’s Power coalition, defeated opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and 36 other candidates in Saturday’s election. SENT: 260 words, photo.
FATAL-SHOOTING-BIRMINGHAM — A search is underway for the shooters who killed four people and injured 17 others in a weekend shooting at a popular nightspot in Birmingham, Alabama. Police say victims were caught in the crossfire during the shooting. Authorities say they believe the shooting was a paid hit on one of the victims. By Kim Chandler. SENT: 580 words, photos, video, audio.
UN-GENERAL-ASSEMBLY-PACT-FOR-THE-FUTURE — The U.N. General Assembly adopted a “Pact for the Future” to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Now comes the hard part: uniting the world’s divided nations to move quickly to implement its 56 actions. The 42-page pact was adopted at Sunday’s opening of a two-day “Summit of the Future.” Among leaders slated to address the summit are Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin. By Edith M. Lederer. SENT: 860 words, photos, video. With UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY-TROUBLED WORLD — World leaders are gathering for the UN General Assembly. The outlook is gloomy — SENT.
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SPOTLIGHTING VOICES
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HAITI-US-DELAYED ADOPTIONS — Esai Reed, at only 6 years old, has endured three emergency evacuations from orphanages across Haiti as gangs pillage and plunder their way through once peaceful communities. He is one of 70 children that dozens of families in the U.S. from Tennessee to California are trying to bring home as Haiti crumbles under gang violence. By Dánica Coto. SENT: 1,330 words, photo. With HAITI-UN-SOLUTION-HOPELESS — As UN meets, Haitians express hopelessness at finding an international solution to gang crisis — SENT.
DC-GRAFFITI — This eye-of-the-beholder dynamic between vandalism and urban art form has been a reality since the earliest days of urban graffiti. One person’s artistic expression is another person’s problematic eyesore. In the U.S. capital, both sides of that perspective are on full display. By Ashraf Khalil. SENT: 990 words, photos.
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RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
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UNITED-STATES-UKRAINE-ZELENSKY — Under tight security, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited a Pennsylvania ammunition factory to thank the workers who are producing one of the most critically needed munitions for his country’s fight to fend off Russian ground forces. SENT: 850 words, photos, videos. With RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR — Twenty-one wounded in Russian strikes that hit apartment buildings in Ukrainian city of Kharkiv — SENT.
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MORE NEWS
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VATICAN-POPE — Vatican confirms plans for Belgium, Luxembourg trip after pope cancels audiences due to illness. SENT: 450 words, photos.
IRAN-YOURS-TRULY-JOHNNY-DOLLAR — In Iran, the old-time U.S. radio detective “Johnny Dollar” returns to the airwaves. SENT: 920 words, photos.
GERMANY-OKTOBERFEST-ALCOHOL-FREE — Alcohol-free beer is gaining popularity, even at Oktoberfest. SENT: 490 words, photos.
WHITE-SOX-PADRES — White Sox lose 120th game to tie a post-1900 record by the 1962 expansion New York Mets. SENT: 770 words, photos.
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WASHINGTON/POLITICS
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CONGRESS-BUDGET — Congressional leaders announced an agreement on a short-term spending bill that will fund federal agencies for about three months, averting a possible partial government shutdown when the new budget year begins Oct. 1 and pushing final decisions until after the November election. SENT: 450 words, photo.
ELECTION-2024-TRUMP-NEBRASKA — A top Donald Trump ally is pressuring Nebraska Republicans to award all of their state’s Electoral College votes to the statewide winner, a late-stage rule change that could potentially help return Trump to the White House. SENT: 700 words, photos.
ELECTION 2024-GOVERNOR-NORTH CAROLINA — Several top staffers in North Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s campaign for governor have quit their posts, marking more fallout from a CNN report outlining evidence that he made disturbing posts on a pornography website’s message board more than a decade ago. SENT: 650 words, photo.
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NATIONAL
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TITANIC-TOURIST-SUB — The co-founder of the company that owned the experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreckage of the Titanic is scheduled to testify before the U.S. Coast Guard as part of its investigation of the maritime disaster. SENT: 480 words, photos, videos.
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INTERNATIONAL
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SUDAN-CHOLERA — Cholera is spreading in war-torn Sudan, killing at least 388 people and sickening about 13,000 others over the past two months, health authorities said, as more than 17 months of fighting between the military and a notorious paramilitary group shows no sign of abating. SENT: 500 words, photos.
TROPICAL-WEATHER — Tropical Storm John has formed in the eastern Pacific Ocean and may bring flooding to southern Mexico later in the week. The Mexican government issued a hurricane watch and a tropical storm warning for Mexico’s coast from Punta Maldonado to Bahias de Huatulco. SENT: 180 words.
MARTINIQUE-PROTESTS — France has sent a group of special anti-riot police that’s been banned for 65 years to the French Caribbean island of Martinique, where protesters have gathered despite the government barring demonstrations in parts of the island. SENT: 390 words, video.
MEXICO-MISSING-STUDENTS-EXPLAINER — All countries have crimes that resonate. In Mexico, one of the modern day ones is the disappearance of 43 students from a rural teacher’s college in 2014. Ten years later, it’s still not clear where the students from the Rural Normal School at Ayotzinapa are. SENT: 750 words, photos.
BRITAIN-LABOUR — British Treasury chief Rachel Reeves will pledge not to return to an era of public spending cuts despite the dire state of the U.K.’s national finances. SENT: 710 words, photos.
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BUSINESS/ TECH
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FEDERAL-RESERVE-INFLATION-VS.-PRICES — With its larger-than-usual half-point cut to its key interest rate last week, the Federal Reserve underscored its belief that it’s all but conquered inflation after three long years. The public at large? Not so much. SENT: 1,130 words, photos.
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ENTERTAINMENT
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CHALLENGED-BOOKS — Two new reports provide a mixed but compelling outlook on the wave of book removals and challenges as the annual Banned Books Week begins for schools, stores and libraries nationwide. SENT: 880 words, photos.
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SPORTS
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FALCONS-MISCUES — On a night when the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs struggled offensively, the Atlanta Falcons had ample opportunity to hand Kansas City its first loss. Injuries to the offensive line hurt at the end as the Falcons failed to convert on fourth-and-1, allowing the Chiefs to escape with a 22-17 win. SENT: 370 words, photos.
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HOW TO REACH US
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Mourners transport the bodies of their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip during their funeral in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Atlanta Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts (8) misses the catch against Kansas City Chiefs safety Bryan Cook (6) during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Japan's Miyu Matsunaga falls while fighting for the ball with North Korea's Jon Ryong Jong during the U-20 Women's World Cup final soccer match at El Campin stadium in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)
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A Guarani Indigenous leader performs a religious ritual during a climate protest in Sao Paulo, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
A supporter of former President Evo Morales slings a rock at supporters of current President Luis Arce in El Alto, Bolivia, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
A Hezbollah supporter carries a Palestinian flag near a picture of Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Akil, during Akil's funeral procession in Beirut's southern suburb, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
