Linke on transport

The Left wants equal living conditions in urban and rural areas. Every village and town is to be served regularly by public transport. The state is to give municipalities enough money for this and for administration, health care and education.

The Left wants towns and the countryside to be served equally well. Buses and trains should run regularly to every village. Offices, doctors and schools should also work well in rural areas. The state should give local governments enough money for this.

According to the platform, trips to doctors, hospitals and public offices have become longer because local transport was thinned out. The Left wants to reconnect all places to regular bus and rail service. Administration, health care and education are to work everywhere in rural areas as well. To that end, the state government is to provide municipalities with the necessary funds. Elsewhere the platform calls for municipalities to decide more for themselves how money is spent.

The Left wants to expand local public transit and introduce minimum service standards to make smaller towns and villages more attractive. The Deutschlandticket (nationwide transit pass) should cost no more than 29 euros in the medium term, and transit should be free for certain groups.

Buses and trains should run more often, also in the countryside. The nationwide transit pass should cost 29 euros at most. People with little money pay half. Schoolchildren, students and trainees should ride for free.

Minimum service standards would set how often places must be served at the least. The Deutschlandticket should be offered across Saxony as a half-price social ticket. Schoolchildren, university students, apprentices and people doing voluntary service should ride for free.

The Left wants to expand buses and trains in Saxony and create a state-backed mobility guarantee. Municipalities would get fixed minimum service intervals depending on their size, and closed rail lines would reopen. People without a car should be able to get around everywhere.

The Left wants more buses and trains in Saxony. In every larger village a bus should run regularly. Old rail lines should be used again. All buses and trains should be barrier-free. That means people with disabilities can use them too.

From 500 residents, a bus should run at least every two hours, from 5,000 hourly and from 10,000 every half hour, each to the nearest train station and the town center. Service is to apply in the evenings, on weekends and during school vacations as well. Transit, including the routes to stops, is to become fully barrier-free, and trains would get free Wi-Fi. On-demand buses would move into regular service with job guarantees. Long-distance rail is to grow, especially for Chemnitz, southwest Saxony and Lusatia, with lines electrified for this purpose; more freight should move by rail.

The Left wants to freeze the price of the Deutschlandticket (nationwide transit pass) for five years and offer it in Saxony as a half-price social ticket. Transit would be free for several groups. The long-term goal is free public transit for everyone.

The Left wants to keep the price of the Deutschlandticket the same for five years. People with little money should pay only half. Students, pupils and apprentices should ride for free. Later, everyone should ride buses and trains for free.

For seniors, the party calls for a nationwide ticket at 29 euros a month. Pupils, university students, apprentices and people doing voluntary service would ride for free or at least get a discounted Deutschlandticket. The Left wants to reach free transit for everyone as quickly as possible.

The Left wants to make public transit a mandatory task of municipalities and give them the money for it. Saxony's transit associations are to be merged. First class on regional trains would be abolished.

The Left wants to require towns to offer good public transit. They should get money for this. The transit associations in Saxony should become one. Then prices are the same and timetables fit together. First class on regional trains should go.

Municipalities would be allowed to use new funding models, such as contributions from companies or people who benefit from transit without using it. As a first step, a Saxon mobility company would be founded to buy vehicles jointly and align fares and timetables. Later, a joint association with Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia is to follow. Instead of first class, free quiet or work compartments are possible.

The Left wants a statewide network of bike paths, bike highways and more space for walking and cycling. The state road construction office would become an office for sustainable mobility. Everyone in Saxony should be able to do without a car.

The Left wants bike paths everywhere, including in the countryside. Train stations should have bike parking. Families should get 250 euros per child for a bicycle. People on foot and on bikes should get more space. Nobody should die in traffic.

Plans include bike stations and covered parking at all train stations, measures against theft and for better bike paths, and a grant of 250 euros per child modeled on Graz. Bike sharing and private purchases of cargo bikes would be subsidized. The new state office would maintain roads, organize transit centrally and build bike paths and sidewalks faster. More crosswalks and car-free neighborhoods are planned, and the goal is "Vision Zero," meaning no traffic deaths. For people who need a car, car sharing and public charging stations would be expanded.

The Left rejects any further expansion of Leipzig/Halle Airport, pointing to the burden on residents, the climate and the environment. Freight companies would pay considerably higher fees. Saxon airports should serve neither military transports nor deportations.

The Left does not want Leipzig/Halle Airport to grow further. The airport is a burden on neighbors and the climate. Freight companies should pay more to use it. At night, only urgent flights should be allowed. There should be no military flights and no deportation flights.

Higher usage fees are meant to allow better pay for the airport company's employees and keep costs from falling on the public purse. The party backs residents' demand for more noise protection. The existing night flight ban, which allows only strictly necessary express freight at night, is to be enforced consistently.

The Left wants minimum standards for how often buses and trains run, plus supplementary services such as on-demand buses. Children, young people and people with low incomes would get a right to ride for free. The 49-euro ticket should not become more expensive.

The Left wants more buses and trains in rural areas. There should be fixed rules on how often they run. Children and young people should ride for free. So should people with little money. The 49-euro ticket should not cost more.

Binding minimum service standards are meant to make daily life easier for commuters, students and trainees. In small towns, flexible on-demand buses and car sharing could supplement the service. According to the platform, a pilot municipality could also test autonomous vehicles. The party considers the 49-euro ticket already too expensive and rejects further price increases.