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Comment by dietr1ch | Hacker News Reader

Which would help tourism if tourists could buy it, but the app asked for some Id and double-checking the web asks for an European address (UK is also listed)

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Yeah, as in "you can just go and buy one." It looks like they made it intentionally hard to acquire the ticket: government issued identification required, no way to purchase it ad hoc, subscription only; it's German bureaucratic hell. It's as if they want it to fail.

The political reasoning was that it's for commuters only. Tourism is not a big thing on federal level, so they don't want to subsidize tickets for tourists. Tourist areas sometimes have special tourist tickets for their guests.

As a tourist though you want the least burden without getting ripped off. Just ask for my payment details and charge me whatever is fair for my trips.

I don't want to become an expert on buying the optimal set of tickets from multiple regions.

That's your perspective. The federal government is not interested. Tourist regions are interested, but of course they usually do not cooperate with others, so every one invents their own thing. So you end up what Germans call a ticket jungle.

They made me spend more money, which I wouldn't mind since I don't contribute to any of the subsidies public transport may have, but you can simply charge more, or consider it an investment since tourists bring new money in daily.

Having the ticket would help a lot navigating around without fear of having the wrong ticket or making dealing with delays or cancellation even more frustrating.

You only need some official document (ID card, passport, whatever) that matches the name and birthday. If you are a tourist, you must have a passport or ID card close by anyhow.

Right, that's a requirement at ticket inspections. At least in theory, in practice in 99% it's not going to be checked.

For buying it, ID might be required at some sellers, but typically it's not.

There is no "the app". There are 100s of sellers, and each of them has different processes. Some sell smart cards at the ticket windows, most have apps, and some have both. Only the price and the basic rules of validity are nationwide. Some offer extra regional perks.

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