It probably helps tourism too. Foreigners in Japan can get a rail pass at a huge discount. I might not have left Tokyo if not for it. It would be fun to pop around the country, from Munich to Stuttgart (for Oktoberfest and Volksfest?), then onto Frankfurt and Nuremburg. It looks like it pays for itself after 2 trips.
Mine's even paid for by the company, and on top of that we get a great discounted bike program: <a href="https://www.jobrad.org/" rel="nofollow">https://www.jobrad.org/</a><p>Over 40 years old, lived in basically all the countries, never had a driver's licence!
Pre-pandemic some cities/kantons here in Switzerland wanted to make public transportation free (we’re still recovering from running trains and transport essentially empty for a couple of years).<p>However the Swiss constitution says that people have to be charged a “reasonable” fee for public transportation. It was probably meant to make it so they can’t be overcharged. But it’s been also interpreted that there has to be a minimum charge - thus no free transport.
Some previous discussion:<p><i>Germany's 49-euro ticket resulted in significant shift from road to rail</i><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41819481">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41819481</a>
> but some are saying it should be cheaper.<p>That made me chuckle<p>I know it's not the same thing but many in the south of England are paying £3,000-8,000/yr just to commute into London LOL
"A study funded by the German government ..." bla bla bla<p>I mean, the Deutschlandticket is finance by taxes, so it is no surprise, that a study financed by the government, that is responsible for the taxes, reveals only good things.