As the demand for tickets is always very high, tickets were first distributed only to local groups, hackerspaces and people who helped out the last years with a viral system. You could only buy a ticket with a voucher, which then granted you another voucher to give to a friend. The presale for everyone was in October/November at some fixed times, but the tickets were sold out within minutes.
Wow, that has gotten expensive. I still remember when the similar "Wochenendticket" cost like 20€ and would even allow to bring along some extra people, tho that was like 20 years ago.
I grew up in a historic EU city which is slowly selling out as well. I do not think there is a way to stop it. However, if handled correctly, the tickets could bring cash needed for public projects in the city.
However, contrary to what is said multiple times in this thread, it is NOT transferable. You have to put your name on it and have some form of ID with you.
Spain in the 19th century tried to avoid that by massively increasing the ticket price (even now, it's still 200€ per full ticket). It didn't work, people just pooled their money and bought "shares" of a ticket.
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