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Overcoming obstacles in border regions - Affordable tickets for local travel across the border

Overcoming obstacles in border regions - Affordable tickets for local travel across the border

Factsheets

Date: 20 sep 2017

Theme: Transport, Cooperation between regions and countries

Languages:   de | en | fr

What if you were charged high international fares for travelling a couple of kilometres? European citizens who live in border regions face this issue daily. Preferring not to pay high prices to travel to work, many drive instead. However, this leads to increased traffic on the roads, meaning more congestion and pollution for crossborder areas.

Strasbourg, France and Kehl, Germany are separated by the Rhine River. The two cities form the crossborder agglomeration of ‘Strasbourg-Kehl’. About 36 000 vehicles cross the bridge linking the two cities every day. To provide an affordable solution for crossborder commuters and other travellers, the two cities cooperated in building a tramline linking the two cities.

Ticket rates were a key concern – how should tramway fares fit into the public transport pricing schemes already available in both cities? By creating a common tariff zone for cross-border transit only, Strasbourg and Kehl found a solution to the problem of ticket pricing. The tramline began operating in early 2017 across a new bridge.