I STARTED my little rail adventure on a sunny Friday at 7:30am. I sipped a coffee, as I waited for the first of five trains taking me on an eight hour and 500km trip across Germany from near Frankfurt am Main to Berlin. The platform across from me was full of people waiting.

I made the decision to travel only a couple weeks before. To be honest, it felt like it was meant to be. A school friend of mine now lives in Berlin. While once inseparable, moves to different cities and countries, pandemics, several lockdowns, and busy lifestyles meant we haven’t seen each other in eight, long years.

But, shortly after I booked my trip to visit my hometown in south-west Germany, I discovered that Germany’s new Deuschlandticket would be made available from May 1. The new subscription-based ticket, costing 49€ a month, permits travel on buses, regional trains, and local services such as the underground and the tram – all included under one banner. Excluded are only long-distance or high-speed services such as Germany’s InterCity Express trains.

It was introduced after the success of a similar scheme launched last year, the 9€ ticket, which allowed travellers to do the same, albeit at a fraction of the current price. For the German Government, the aim was two-fold: to “incentivise commuters to use climate friendly public transport” and help citizens with the rising cost of living.

Publications by the German Government and the German Federal Statistical Office say that the pilot, run for three months in summer 2022, reduced congestion on some roads and that, on average, the number of rail journeys recorded each day was 44% higher than in the same period in 2019.

Germany’s rail system is publicly owned but also privatised in ways. Deutsche Bahn, a private company but under the control of the German government, is the main provider of railway services, but has to bid for contracts to operate services from government bodies. At the local level, transport contracts are awarded to the lowest bid by means of a tender procedure by each of the German states.

The ticket is part of the government's new goal to “eliminate the tariff jungle and to make the public transport offer as simple and attractive as possible for the citizens”. Both the government and states will subsidise the scheme. Outside experts hope that it will ramp up pressure with those at the top to regularly review and improve transport networks to deal with the demand.

As I sit, I can’t help but compare what I have come to know and feel the sting. The cost for the full month of travel was less than I recently paid for my commute by train in Scotland – per week.

The second service I was on, was already busier. It didn’t surprise me. According to the Associated Press, more than three million people purchased the ticket on the first day of its launch alone.

I found myself wedged in a small corner on the floor hugging my backpack. Two men budged up to offer me a seat on the bench they were on. One was a commuter between Berlin and Frankfurt for work. “I left the car there [in Berlin],” he said: “This is surprisingly more pleasant.”

As the train took me through the back roads and yellow rapeseed fields in the middle of Germany, I daydreamed not just about the weekend ahead. Instead, I couldn’t help but dream about a different future for Scotland’s public transport system.

Scotland’s disjointed nature when it comes to public transport is something many of us know well. Longingly, I have often looked towards Edinburgh when seeing the more expensive cost of bus travel in Glasgow, compared to Lothian Buses in the capital. Train fares, while sometimes cheap when booked in advance, overall are inconsistent and high when travel is booked on the day or when travelling during peak hours.

However, we live in a time where change is possible. After years of privatisation, public ownership has brought a potential new era for ScotRail, one that is much needed. Last year, the BBC said that ScotRail had “the lowest level of passenger recovery of any of the major British franchises” and that, while train travel for leisure has increased, the number of commuters on the services has not.

Data has shown that, while motoring costs have risen by around 88% since 1999 and 2022, bus and coach fares more than tripled and rail fares more than doubled.

In 2021, Poverty Alliance said that those on low incomes are facing isolation and exclusion because of the already high fares. Recently, concerns were raised over the end of the Network Support Grant and the impact it will have towards cuts to the number of buses, service cuts and fare rises in Scotland – services which have apparently already decreased substantially over the last decade.

Moreover, to achieve the target of cutting car miles by 20% by 2030 as part of the Scottish Government's climate change commitments, multiple experts – including a Holyrood cross-party group on sustainable transport – have said that action must be taken to “ensure that alternatives to car travel are available and affordable”.

There have been recent changes to achieve exactly that. Last month, the six-month scrapping of peak fares was announced to commence in October, while the fare freeze introduced in December last year, is said to continue until then, too.

Still questions remain what will continue after the pilot ends. For me, I can’t help but feel a look towards Europe may hold some answers.

Of course, no system, including this new German initiative, comes without shortfalls. In fact, Germany has faced many similar issues: strikes happened frequently last year and are due to continue. Trains are late or cancelled regularly. The many people I saw on the platform when I first left were all waiting for a train more than 10 minutes late; another service was cancelled altogether.

Critics of the Deutschlandticket too have said it will not help those in rural areas who may not have transport links nearby to make use of the offer. Others have talked about the overcrowding on services; that a ticket does not increase the number of trains – only more funding to improve the infrastructure would. The impact on commuters is yet to be proven – much of the uptake in travel during the 9€ pilot, due to its temporary nature, is said to have been for leisure.

Overall, offering a ticket eliminating “the tariff jungle” and cheaper transport as a public good may, therefore, not hold all the answers or solve all the dilemmas we face when it comes to the future of eco-friendly, affordable and economically-sustainable transport. Still, it seems a step in the right direction – one that Scotland’s ministers ought to consider.