Just to clarify : In Switzerland, one can buy a CA Travelcard (for CHF3860 a year, approximately $3850). With this card, one can travel on (nearly) all public transports in Switzerland (trains, coaches, subways, trams, etc.) free of charge. Since the public transportation system is very good, it's a good way to travel.
Ok, so the Austrian version costs less than a third of that for a considerably larger country. And the public transportation system is pretty good in Austria too...
Oh that's actually a much better deal, then. A Berlin monthly ticket is 86 a month (ok... or 63 with a 1 year commitment), which is already 1/4 (or 1/5) of the 4k...
Given, I have a "car dude" that repairs and sells me used cars in good condition (I don't drive much at all), but even if you would spend a bit more, it isn't as competitive as it needs to be.
But other than that, cars are almost essential today. Have family you need to take care of? Good luck doing that with public transport. Doable perhaps if you quit your job...
I mean, when I was in the area in 2005-2007 pretzels cost USD 2.50 in Germany and USD 7 in Switzerland ...
There were also steep discounts for students and youth for almost everything -- I got a public transit pass for 50% off because I was under 23 at the time.
I love the Brezel example. A freshly baked Brezel at the Trainstation Bern is like 3$. However if you need a human to cut it open and spread butter on it it costs $8.
Products ain't that much more expensive here, human time is.
The rail network appears to be only 20% larger in Austria than Switzerland (5000 vs 6000 km Google tells me). Then the salaries of the people operating those transports are also higher in Switzerland. The GA is a pretty good deal already.
As Austrian living in Switzerland there definitely is a x3 value given here. It's unfair to directly compare given the price difference, but Austrian public transport is simply not on the same level in terms of: quality, speed, timing, connections, reliability (dozens of backup tracks), ..
Is there a bus to every tiny village the way there is in Switzerland? The long distance stuff is all well and good, but I suspect the expensive part is the rural last-mile which is heavily subsidized by the denser (heavier used, cheaper to run) city transit.
