It's a humorous three-line story, on the German Environmental Ministry. They got all hyped up this week to talk about how flights ought to cost more than railway travel, and you would re-enforce this practice by making up a tax on flights to increase the cost.
Well....someone opened up the book between January and July, and it just so happens that the Bonn-based Ministry....had to fly 1,740 times (round-trip) between Berlin and Koln....to reach Bonn.
Normal cost for a round-trip ticket? Well....forty-two Euro for the ultra-cheap ticket and maybe up to eighty-nine Euro for the normal regular ticket.
Bahn (railway prices)? This gets interesting? If you were willing to leave at 4:30 AM or 11 PM at night....you could still get a round-trip ticket (2nd class) for roughly 40 Euro. Mid-day? You'd be talking about 85 to 120 Euro (RT).
Why make this trip to Bonn? I kinda wondered about that. The actual headquarters of the Environmental Ministry? It's in Bonn....not Berlin. They were among those organizations that choose not to move, and just stayed there in Bonn. So roughly 67 folks a week, have some type of presence necessary in Berlin, and make the trip over there....via flights, not the Bahn.
If they were successful in getting a tax on flights to bring air travel up to Bahn prices (say the 120 level)? Well....it'd double or triple their flight cost. But you need not worry....it's the German tax-payer that would pay the higher tax rate.....not the government guy.
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