The Greens Saar are calling on Prime Minister Rehlinger to proactively and early on at the Saarland level begin preparing a follow-up offer to the 9-Euro Ticket, instead of, as so often, relying on a solution from Berlin.
The 9-euro ticket is a success story with almost 30 million tickets sold in just 2 months. According to a survey, around 80% of respondents nationwide are in favor of a continuation. Most recently, Minister President Rehlinger also advocated for finding a follow-up arrangement.
Despite all the enthusiasm about the success of the measure, the Saar Greens point out that the demand in Saarland was significantly lower than in the rest of the country. They suspect that this is also related to the still improvable public transport services in Saarland, with long travel times, stops that are not served at off-peak times, or the still insufficient capacities during rush hours.
Even before the start of the campaign period, the Greens in Saarland had called on the state government to conduct a passenger survey in order to identify weaknesses in the public transport service. We are now reinforcing this demand by launching a postcard campaign, which we will briefly explain below.
The postcards, widely distributed throughout Saarland, are addressed to the Minister-President with the following text: "…I am enthusiastic about the 9-euro ticket offer! I hope there will be a follow-up offer from the state government. The 9-euro ticket gives you, dear Ms. Rehlinger, the opportunity to learn which connections should be expanded." The senders have the option on the card to request additional connections, point out critical connections, and provide further suggestions for public transport.
The cards are distributed on the one hand at numerous Green party action booths and are displayed on the other hand in the gastronomy sector in the well-known postcard holders. Anyone who wants to participate in the campaign can fill out the cards, either send them by post with postage or hand them in at the party's booths, which then pass the collected cards on to the Minister-President.
The aim of the campaign is, on the one hand, to convey to the Prime Minister that the 9 euro ticket was a great success even in Saarland, and on the other hand, that a follow-up solution beyond the 99 euro Saarland ticket is desired by our citizens for Saarland. At the same time, the campaign is intended to gather information that will lead to an improvement of the existing public transport offerings, in order to make the 9 euro ticket even more successful in our federal state.
