Fahrgeldausfälle Erstattung im Nahverkehr

As a public transport company, do you transport people with disabilities free of charge? Then you can have the corresponding fare losses reimbursed.

Severely disabled people who are significantly impaired in their ability to move around on the road, or who are helpless or deaf, are transported free of charge on local public transport.

As a transport company, you can apply for reimbursement of the fare losses resulting from the free transportation of severely disabled persons. Reimbursement of fare losses is regularly made on a flat-rate basis according to a percentage of the proven fare revenue set by the federal state.

If you can prove by means of traffic counts that the ratio between passengers transported free of charge and other passengers exceeds the flat-rate percentage by at least one third, you will be reimbursed, on application, not only the reimbursement amount calculated on the basis of the flat-rate percentage, but also the proven proportion exceeding one third.

The required traffic count is to be recognized as proof if it is in the form of an

• an unrestricted full survey,
• a limited full survey or
• a random sample survey

is carried out. The requirements of the administrative regulation of the Ministry of Social Affairs "Reimbursement of fare losses in local transport" must be complied with. In principle, the operator must decide on the type of survey before the start of the first survey period.

The application must be accompanied by the following documents

• all evidence justifying the percentage rate on which the application is based
• Certificate from a sworn auditor, an engineering firm or a comparable institute with demonstrably relevant expertise confirming that both the planning of the traffic count and the calculation of the percentage rate were carried out in correct application of the administrative regulation "Reimbursement of fare losses in local transport"
• Certificate from a sworn auditor on the fare revenue

The prerequisite for reimbursement is that during the reimbursement period (one calendar year in each case), the entrepreneur has provided free transportation of severely disabled persons on public transport, including their accompanying persons, their hand luggage, their accompanying medical wheelchairs, their other orthopaedic aids and their guide dogs.

The application must be submitted within three years of the end of the accounting year (cut-off period).

People whose mobility in road traffic is significantly impaired as a result of their disability, or who are helpless or deaf, are transported free of charge on local public transport. The transport company can apply for reimbursement of the lost fare.

Please contact the Mainz-Bingen district administration.

Note : The reimbursement of fare losses for free local transport for companies that are predominantly owned by the federal government or a company in which the federal government has a majority shareholding (including transport associations) must be applied for from the Federal Office of Administration.

Applications can be obtained from the Mainz-Bingen district administration. The application for reimbursement of fare losses on local public transport must be submitted in triplicate.