The recently discussed "Deutschlandticket light" will not happen for the time being. The state transport ministers have postponed the proposal by North Rhine-Westphalia and Hamburg for a nationwide digital pay-as-you-go fare. The idea is not off the table, however: other states support it, and the federal transport minister is also open to it. For employers, the debate is relevant because it concerns a gap in the job ticket: employees who only commute to the office on certain days.
The official name of the proposal is "nationwide electronic occasional-use fare" (Bundesweiter elektronischer Gelegenheitstarif). It was put forward by the transport ministers of North Rhine-Westphalia and Hamburg. The principle behind the "Deutschlandticket light" is simple: passengers check in with their smartphone when they board and check out at their destination, and the app then automatically calculates the cheapest price for each journey. No monthly subscription is needed. It would still never cost more than the Deutschlandticket, because anyone who travels a lot in a month would pay no more than its price.
The model is the eezy.nrw system, which already works on this principle in North Rhine-Westphalia and caps monthly costs at the price of the Deutschlandticket. According to the NRW Ministry of Transport, more than 1.4 million journeys were billed through it in September 2026 alone.
The proposal did not envisage a finished product in any case. A working group was first to develop a concept, with a decision due in autumn 2027. Because the proposal has now been postponed, the working group has not been approved for the time being either.
At the conference on 21 and 22 October in Hohenschwangau, Bavaria, a majority of the states decided to take the proposal off the agenda on the grounds that it had been submitted at too short notice. According to North Rhine-Westphalia's transport minister Oliver Krischer (Greens), the proposal had been submitted on time. He called the decision a missed opportunity for digitalisation, lower costs, and convenience.
On substance, positions still differ. While Brandenburg and, in principle, Lower Saxony now support the new fare model alongside NRW and Hamburg, the strongest opposition comes from Bavaria. Bavarian transport minister Christian Bernreiter (CSU), who currently chairs the conference, sees no room for additional services given the billions missing in local public transport funding. The Association of German Transport Companies (VDV) also rejects the proposal, arguing that it would create costs and weaken the logic of the Deutschlandticket as a flat rate that can be cancelled monthly.
The passenger association Pro Bahn and social welfare organisations, on the other hand, support the idea, as it would also benefit people for whom a monthly subscription doesn't pay off. Federal transport minister Steffen Bilger (CDU) called the concept "an exciting idea" and stressed that the topic had only been postponed until the next conference. However, the financial impact and the specific implementation are still open questions.
NRW and Hamburg intend to resubmit the proposal at the next Conference of Transport Ministers. Whether it will find a majority there, and who would fund such a fare, remains open. The price of the regular Deutschlandticket, on the other hand, is set: from 1 January 2027, it will cost €66.80 a month instead of the current €63.
For companies that offer their employees the Deutschlandticket as a job ticket, nothing changes for now. The debate does, however, show where the model reaches its limits. For employees who commute regularly, the monthly flat rate pays off. Those who often work from home, work part-time, or only occasionally use buses and trains rarely make full use of it. A pay-as-you-go fare would be designed for exactly this group.
Whether and when the Deutschlandticket light will arrive remains open. Employers who also want to support occasional public transport users can already rely on a mobility budget today, which employees can use to pay for single journeys, a Deutschlandticket, or other mobility services as needed.
