N-TV (German commercial TV) brought this up.....a page-three type story which most Germans won't hear about.
The EU made a decision, and this June, 15,000 one-month rail passes are going to be freely given away within the EU. With the pass, you could walk into your local station....hope aboard the train and tour Europe.
Normal cost? For second-class, it's in the $600 to $650 range. If you went first-class....nearer to $1,000.
The rules on this? So far, you have to be an adult....but they haven't exactly said the precise age. Oddly, this is not the normal full-up pass....in this case, you only get four countries.
Why only 15,000 passes? The budget to run this is set to only 12-million Euro, and it'll grow year by year.
How to get a pass? All that is said so far is that you would submit some type of electronic application....go into a bucket, and just get drawn. There is some type of allocation per country, based on population.
Free? Well...someone is paying a tax...into some pot in a country.....which gets shifted over for the EU to distribute and get appreciated. My humble guess is that in twenty years....it'll be near 15,000 of these passes distributed every single month across the EU. Everyone will see it as something 'free'.
The basic idea? I think in the 1960s and 1970s....traveling across Europe was a great idea for a young traveler. You were completely safe and it was still a Disneyland-like place. Europe in 2018? I can list off a dozen train stations just in Germany where you need to walk straight in....get into your train, and leave the station (avoiding a hour-long wait within the station itself). It's not quiet as safe as it used to be.
I was one of those people who bought a 72-hour rail pass back in 1984 (for roughly $50) and traveled over the northern half of Germany for a weekend. For me....it made sense and in that period....economically....it was the best way to see the landscape.
But this 'gift' idea? I'd rather see them just offer a discount situation with 25-percent off, and make the young folks pay some part of the deal.
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