Yes. The Deutschland-Ticket is valid throughout Germany and must be accepted by transport operators (on local transport services). This is based on statutory requirements and regulations issued by the federal states.

No. The Deutschland-Ticket is issued as a digital ticket, which can take various forms: for example, a digital ticket can be issued on a chip card, on a smartphone via a barcode, or on other devices such as a smartwatch. 

Currently, around 13.5 million people in Germany use the Deutschland-Ticket. Around 57 per cent of these tickets are stored as barcodes on smartphones. Furthermore, two out of three Deutschland-Tickets are purchased online via websites or apps – in other words, entirely digitally, without any paper or face-to-face advice.

By far the most commonly used Deutschland-Ticket is the regular standard version. The discounted Jobticket accounts for around 20 per cent of sales. Since the 2024 summer term, the D-Ticket has also been available as a discounted term ticket. The price for this is 60 per cent of the standard ticket price. 

Anyone aged 6 or over can take out a Deutschland-Ticket subscription – including people living outside Germany. The only requirements are a bank account in the EU and a valid identity document.

For season tickets, direct debit is usually the simplest and most popular payment method. However, direct debit carries a risk of non-payment for transport operators. As payment is not made immediately with direct debit, it is possible that the payment may fail after the ticket has been purchased because there are insufficient funds in the account. Transport operators use credit checks to protect themselves against payment defaults. Whether they choose to do so is a decision for the individual companies. Public transport operators can also offer payment methods that carry no risk of non-payment and therefore do not require a credit check. This applies, for example, to instant bank transfers, rechargeable prepaid credit cards, or where the ticket is only activated once payment has been received.

Available only as part of a season ticket – not from ticket machines or from drivers. Tickets can be ordered via:

• transport operators’ apps
• Websites
• Customer service centres

No, the ticket is always personalised and non-transferable.

If the Deutschlandticket is stored on a chip card, the passenger must contact their service provider, who will add the ticket to the nationwide blacklist, so that it will be flagged as invalid during a ticket inspection if used by anyone else. The passenger will usually receive a replacement card from the transport operator for a fee. If the Deutschlandticket was issued via an app, passengers can log in using their login details on a replacement device and display the Deutschlandticket on their smartphone again.

The Deutschland-Ticket can only be cancelled with the transport operator from whom it was purchased. You will usually find the contact details for cancelling the ticket on the FAQ page of the relevant transport operator.

However, passengers can also put their subscription on hold, for example, because they are going on holiday for an extended period or prefer to cycle rather than use public transport in the summer. In this case, the passenger also cancels or puts their D-Ticket on hold with the customer service partner, but keeps the chip card. As with a lost ticket, the ticket is placed on the block list and unblocked as soon as the passenger wishes to use it again.

Transport operators must be members of (((eTicket Deutschland and adhere to the common standards and security rules. This ensures that the ticket is recognised everywhere and can be checked securely.
Important: The focus is now less on sales solutions and more on secure ticket checking and protection against fraud.

To get started, the following materials are available on our cooperation platform (((efi:

Guidelines on issuing and validating
tickets Technical requirements
Getting started guides and FAQs

Depending on the ticket format, travel authorisation is verified either by reading the chip card or by scanning the barcode. In addition, an identity document is checked to verify that the passenger is indeed the holder of the personalised ticket.

Through measures such as account authentication, AI-powered fraud detection, a central blacklist for invalid tickets and copy protection solutions such as Motics, transport operators can detect and prevent attempts at fraud. In addition, joint security monitoring across the sector helps to identify suspicious activity more quickly and limit the damage. 

The Joint Security Monitoring System, or Central PV System (ZPVS), monitors the issuance and control of Deutschland-Tickets and ensures that all authorisations are correct. It supports functions such as multi-authorisation, static authorisation and action management. The system was introduced in April 2023. It provides reporting functions for received transactions. 

If the Deutschland-Ticket is issued on a mobile phone – which is the case for two out of three tickets – it takes the form of a barcode ticket. This is either a VDV barcode or, in some cases, a UIC barcode. Barcodes of all kinds can be copied and shared, for example via screenshots. To prevent this, we have developed the Mobile Ticketing Crypto Service (Motics for short). This system links the ticket to the passenger’s smartphone.

In the first phase of Motics’ development, the VDV barcode is given a dynamic security feature that updates, for example, every 30 seconds – even without an internet connection. If the ticket is copied and sent on, it can be immediately identified as invalid during a ticket inspection.

Soon, Germany-wide tickets secured with Motics will also be issued via NFC. Initial field tests are already underway. This utilises the same security procedure as that used for chip cards and enables contactless ticket verification without the need for scanning. This significantly speeds up the ticket inspection process.