The planned long-distance bus terminal for Vienna has once again stalled. This time there are significant disagreements between Wien Holding and the DBR investor group around Ariel Muzicant and Markus Teufel. The municipal company has now announced that the contract has been terminated.

For many years now, politicians have agreed that Vienna needs a central long-distance bus station again. However, there are significant differences in where this should be built. Some are in favor of the so-called Waldmann Grounds near the main train station, where Österreichische Postbus AG already operates a bus terminal. Others want a new building at the distribution circle, but the city of Vienna decided in 2021 that this would be the case Stadium Center will be built. The Geschwindl company already has a small bus terminal there for long-distance transport.

The former central bus station is now a shopping center

The only thing that is more or less certain is that Postbus AG no longer wants to operate the existing property at the main station, because the owner ÖBB smells the money because they suspect that they can profitably market the railway's own property and use it to develop it. Blaguss Reisen, operator of the bus station under the motorway bridge in Erdberg, would abandon the existing building after the opening of the new building.

Erdberg is currently the bus station used by most providers. Flixbus is increasingly discovering the Waldmann Grounds, because the ambience there is always more appealing than under the A23 bridge. The Stadium Center location has a niche existence, because since Flixbus took over Mein Fernbus, only a few buses leave here, mainly towards the Balkan region.

What complicates the current situation is that Vienna had a real central bus station in the past. This was located in front of the Wien Mitte-Landstrasse train station and was at times referred to as the “Federal Bus Terminal”. Almost all regional and long-distance bus lines converged here. Changing to the express train, including towards the airport, was possible without any problems. However, in the early 2000s, politicians were of the opinion that a central bus station was no longer needed.

The result: The federal bus terminal was closed and the resulting space was used. Not surprisingly: a shopping center was built. Since then, the regional and long-distance buses have been arriving at various points, including the three bus stations mentioned, in a kind of permanent temporary arrangement. That should change with the new terminal next to the Stadium Center. You can put it another way: The city of Vienna wants to undo mistakes from the past.

Complicated construction

There is agreement on the operator side. Blaguss, Dr. Richard and Geschwindl have founded a joint GmbH and this has already been awarded the contract for future operations. But the “object” doesn’t even exist yet, because it is to be built using a complicated construction under the leadership of Wien Holding.

The “plan” was as follows: WH Fernbus-Terminal Projektentwicklung GmbH (part of Wien Holding) had the new bus station built using a building rights concession from DBR – Donau Busterminal Realisierung GmbH. A statement states: “The DBR had the task of implementing and financing the project under the conditions agreed in the tender and within an agreed period with construction starting in 2024 and completion at the end of 2027. The project consists of the long-distance bus terminal and a 105 meter building above it for hotel or office use”.

Nothing will come of this because the said WH Fernbus-Terminal GmbH has withdrawn the building rights license from the company DBR. The investor wanted to get out of the contract in May 2023 and had already terminated. For unspecified reasons, they changed their minds in July 2023 and informed Wien Holding that the termination would be considered “invalid”. Now the city's society is pulling the plug.

The City of Vienna is expecting delays in the start of construction

“The construction of the central long-distance bus terminal in Vienna remains the highest priority for the city of Vienna and Wien Holding. In the future, it will be the third strong pillar of long-distance passenger transport alongside the airport and Vienna Central Station. It is therefore clear that the long-distance bus terminal project will definitely be implemented – even in difficult times in terms of real estate. At the WH long-distance bus terminal, concrete plans are currently underway to implement the long-distance bus terminal without the DBR. The manner in which the project will be implemented will be decided by the turn of the year and will then be started as quickly as possible. The start of construction, originally planned for the middle of next year, will be delayed accordingly,” said Wien Holding in a press release.

In the further course of the media release, the municipal company makes pages of allegations against the terminated investor DBR. In summary, the central point seems to be that those responsible for DBR are of the opinion that the project cannot be built at the originally agreed price, as the costs for building materials etc. have increased significantly compared to the contract date in 2022, especially in 2023 and 2021 . However, Wien Holding does not want to accept this and refuses to renegotiate or pay more for the construction.

What the municipal company doesn't write about: Why would you choose a construction with at least three publicly known GmbHs in order to build a bus terminal that already exists and simply needs to be expanded? It's not like the Geschwindl company doesn't already operate on site at the Stadium Center on its own account or that Postbus doesn't operate a functioning bus station at the main train station. In any case, it can be assumed that the “central bus station for Vienna” project will be significantly delayed and alternative locations could possibly come into play again. The temporary arrangements will continue until the new terminal opens. As a reminder: The Vienna-Mitte bus station (“federal bus terminal”) was closed at the beginning of the 2000s and replaced by a shopping center…

For comparison: In Bratislava, the new central bus station, which replaced a real eyesore, was not only built much faster, but also cheaper. The result is a terminal with a lounge for passengers that gives the Slovakian capital a bit of a cosmopolitan city feeling. Find out more under this link at Aviation.Direct.