Price Hike for Local Transport

The prices of local transport across the nation is about to suffer another hike, according to a report in Germany's Handelsblatt newspaper. Most transport operators want to put the prices of buses and trains up by an average of 5.5 percent this summer. They blamed the increase on massive cuts in state subsidies. There are fears that slashing transport subsidies will have a particularly hard knock-on effect in more rural areas. Public services in Munich claim that if the subsidies for school transportation in the districts around the city are cut, it will threaten the continued well-being of the public transport network in the area. DB Stadtverkehr, the branch of German railway company Deutsche Bahn which deals with inner-city transportation, predicts that the increased ticket prices will constitute two thirds of the organization's overall income by 2015.