Introducing KlimaTicket Ö: a whole year’s worth of unlimited use of public transport all over Austria, available from 26 October 2021.
With all eyes firmly set on the goals of the Paris Agreement to curb climate change, Austria is now going “full green ahead”: The aim of this soon-to-be-launched annual ticket that conveniently covers all means of public transport is to make the switch to taking the bus and train easier and to reduce traffic jams and road traffic. And to do so, the KlimaTicket Ö pass provides unlimited access to all regular public transport services, i.e. all trains, buses and trams including ÖBB and Westbahn services. The only exception: a small number of rail services of a purely tourist nature.
Prices
A standard KlimaTicket Ö costs EUR 1,095. A reduced fare of EUR 821 is available to young persons, senior citizens and anyone with a disability. Family passes costs EUR 1,205 and include one adult plus a maximum of four children between the ages of 6 and 14, without the need to provide proof of kinship. Also, early-bird discounts are currently available for those pre-booking their KlimaTicket Ö.
Austrian states all on board
In addition to the KlimaTicket Ö pass that is valid across all of Austria, there are plans to also launch state-level or regional versions: Some places already have annual network tickets, among them Vorarlberg, Tyrol, Salzburg and Vienna. Now, Upper Austria and Styria will soon follow suit, with each federal state in charge of implementing and designing their own KlimaTicket version.
Transfer made easy – modelled on the Südtirol Pass system
When South Tyrol introduced the Südtirol Pass ticketing model in early 2012, its neighbours watched the launch with great interest – especially Austria. Together with his staff, Thomas Widmann, the South Tyrol Minister for Mobility at the time, tirelessly pitched the concept in countless different committees and bodies. And not without success, it may seem, as the idea appears to have set a precedent: no labyrinth of tickets, rates and fares, no complicated fiddling with ticket machines – instead, a single-source ticket that can be used anywhere a whole state at any time. And evidently, South Tyrol has put its money on the right horse, too: Following the introduction of the Südtirol Pass, passenger numbers on public transport have increased significantly, with a whopping 235,000 people now in possession of an annual public transport ticket – that’s more than half the population of South Tyrol.
Click here to find out more about KlimaTicket Ö passes