Since last week, the new offer can also be purchased from the Bonn public utility company - for example online in the SWB easy.Go app. In addition, passengers have the option of buying the 9-euro ticket at ticket machines directly on the platform or in the train, SWB reports. It can also be purchased from bus drivers.

According to the Stadtwerke Bonn, around 25,000 nine-euro tickets have been sold since the start of advance sales.

SWB customers who already have a subscription do not have to take action to benefit from the relief package. They are currently being informed by post about how to proceed. SWB Bus und Bahn is handling the billing internally, it continues.

By the way, the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg (VRS) is proceeding in the same way: there, too, customers do not have to cancel or change an existing subscription and can still travel for nine euros.

We clarify the most important questions about the nine-euro tickets.

Validity: The monthly tickets always run until the end of the month. So if you buy a ticket on 15 June, you could still only travel until the end of that month. For each month in the promotional period (June, July and August), a new ticket must be purchased for nine euros each. So for the complete three months, the cost is 27 euros. The tickets cannot be used on long-distance trains (ICE/IC).

The Stadtwerke Bonn explicitly point out not to laminate the nine-euro ticket. "The tickets are made of thermal paper - the heat of the laminator triggers an undesirable effect: The ticket discolours and becomes invalid."

Subscribers: All users of subscriptions already running with VRR or VRS only have to pay the nine euros per month for the three months. The adjustment will be made automatically. If the subscription includes any extras such as bicycle transport or transport for other people, for example at weekends or in the evenings, this privilege will continue within the respective transport association or area of validity. These extras cannot be taken along outside the transport association.

New permanent customers: VRR and VRS hope that many customers will book a permanent subscription after the three months in order to be less dependent on the car and/or more mobile. To this end, customers can of course book a subscription that they find permanently interesting, but in the first three months they will still only pay nine euros.

The VRR's "Bären-Ticket", for example, is interesting for citizens aged 60 and over: it allows unlimited use of 1st class in the VRR as an immediate part of the subscription, bicycle transport and the transport of one person from 7 p.m. and at weekends. The price of 92.90 euros per month is high; much cheaper are tickets for pupils under 25 ("Schokoticket") or tickets for a small radius such as only one city. VRR board member Josè Luis Castrillo told our editorial team: "A Ticket 2000 usually costs much less per month than that of a tank of petrol.“

High rush: A survey by VRR showed that more than two million new customers can be expected, while, however, many commuters will temporarily not use the trains and buses because of holidays. Especially on routes that are interesting for excursions and short holidays, such as to Münster, Koblenz, Cologne, Bremen or the Eifel, it could get crowded. Castrillo advises against taking two-wheelers on such routes: "It will be wiser to rent bikes at the destination instead of taking them with you.“

Controversy: The Federal Council had approved the package in mid-May. Especially the states led by the CDU/CSU had previously threatened a failure because the subsidies for organising the nine-euro ticket have been too low so far. Nevertheless, in the end even the critics voted in favour of the federal government's proposal. The federal government finances the project by transferring 2.5 billion euros to the states to compensate for the loss of revenue from season tickets.

Original text: Reinhard Kowalewsky and Michael Wrobel

Translation: Mareike Graepel