• 4 out of 10 Germans opt for digital chip card
• Only 5 per cent want paper version of Deutschlandticket

Whether on a smartphone or by chip card: one month after its launch, the new Deutschlandticket is used almost exclusively in digital form. Half of Germans (51 per cent) who have bought or plan to buy the ticket known as the “49-Euro-Ticket” prefer an app. 41 per cent prefer to use a chip card on which the ticket is stored digitally. Only 5 per cent rely on a ticket in paper form – among 16 to 49-year-olds, practically no one does (0 per cent). These are the results of a representative survey of 1,002 people in Germany aged 16 and over commissioned by the digital association Bitkom, including 384 people who have already bought the Deutschlandticket or still want to buy it. “The paper ticket is a discontinued model. The majority of Germans want to use bus and rail “digitally only”. The Deutschlandticket now offers the opportunity to accelerate the digital transformation of transport. We fundamentally need to move away from paper and towards digital tickets that can be used across all transport routes and modes,” says Bitkom President Achim Berg.

When it comes to purchasing, the vast majority also prefers a digital solution. The apps of the regional transport associations are the most popular (32 percent), followed by the websites of Deutsche Bahn or the transport associations (29 percent), the Deutsche Bahn app (9 percent) or the apps “Dein Deutschlandticket” or “Deutschlandticket App” (8 percent). Fewer than one in five (16 per cent) buy their tickets at traditional ticket counters, for example in the travel centres of the railways. Berg: “Paper tickets at ticket machines or counters are no longer in keeping with the times. Passengers want to be flexible when buying tickets and therefore prefer to use digital sales channels. The smartphone is becoming a mobility centre that can also be used to network public transport with on-demand and sharing services. For the few travellers without a smartphone, there is an alternative in the form of the chip card.”

Note on methodology: The data is based on a survey conducted by Bitkom Research on behalf of the digital association Bitkom. In the process, 1,002 people aged 16 and over in Germany were interviewed by telephone, including 384 people who have already bought the Deutschlandticket or will definitely or probably buy it. The overall survey is representative. The questions were: “Have you already bought the Deutschlandticket or are you planning to buy it?”, “How will you use the Deutschlandticket or how would you prefer to use it?”, “Where have you bought the Deutschlandticket or where will you buy it?