In the Austrian states of Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland, local public transport has been in a transformation phase for many years. The private transport of entrepreneurs is increasingly being replaced by transport ordered by the public sector.

For many years there were even two transport organizations: the Eastern Region Transport Association, which mainly organized Vienna and railway transport, and the competing Lower Austria-Burgenland Transport Association, which mainly housed bus routes. There was a lot of overlap and for years, tickets were only recognized under certain conditions. Different fares were confusing for passengers. The VVNB was integrated into the VOR in July 2016 and thus triggered. Since then there has only been the Eastern Region Transport Association, whose shareholders are the federal states of Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland.

Self-economic operation versus customer principle

But there were very big differences: While the VVNB was an entrepreneurial association, the buyer principle has always applied to the VOR. In concrete terms, this means that in the no longer existing association, the bus operators operated their own route concessions on their own account. Subsidies were available upon application from the respective federal states and transfers to buses from other network members were possible because the tickets issued were recognized by each other. In the Eastern Region Transport Association, the operation of the lines is put out to public tender and the best bidder is awarded the contract.

The integration of the VVNB and the VOR had significant consequences for bus operators. The motor vehicle line licenses were no longer extended when the approval expired. Rather, the Eastern Region Transport Association has put the operation out to tender again. In some regions, the previous entrepreneur was no longer allowed to drive. A certainly blatant example: in the Wiener Neustadt district, the Partsch transport company lost its line concessions after almost 100 years, because its competitors, for example, Dr. Richard or Oberger through.

Postbus has shrunk significantly

The Postbus suffered a lot. It should be noted that there were once two state-owned bus companies: the Postbus, which was a part of Post & Telekom Austria AG until 2000, was then handed over to the then ÖIAG as Österreichische Postbus AG and was moved to the ÖBB in 2005 as well as the rail bus, the federal railways. After the merger, the company was initially called ÖBB-Postbus GmbH and, after restructuring, reverted to Österreichische Postbus AG. The merger, which took place in 2005, was also called the “new federal bus” because between 1988 and 1997 the federal bus office was placed over the Postauto and Bahnbus companies and was intended to regulate the interaction between the two companies with very modest success. It was a big flop, but the merger under the name Postbus, but as an ÖBB subsidiary, succeeded in 2005 - the second attempt.

In any case, it was originally regulated so that the post office was responsible for intercity bus traffic and the federal railways were reserved the routes parallel to the railway lines or as direct feeders from the country to train stations. It is obvious that there were overlaps and that little attention was paid to them. In addition, private entrepreneurs were able to apply for so-called motor vehicle line concessions from the responsible state government. If they saw the corresponding need, the corresponding permit was usually issued. The operation was then carried out on the company's own account, although subsidies could be applied for if necessary.

“On your own account” became “at the expense of the taxpayer”

In the Eastern Region Transport Association there are only a few lines left that are operated on behalf of the bus companies due to “old concessions”. For example, it is about the Postbus route 1155 and route 7941 from Blaguss Reisen. But these also have an “expiry date” and will in future be operated or advertised by the state of Burgenland or its Verkehrsbetriebe Burgenland GmbH. In Vienna, the so-called B-bus lines were once those that were operated by private bus companies on their own account. That too is long gone, as all concessions were no longer extended and were transferred to the Wiener Linien. In return, they have to tender out some routes and hand them over to subcontractors for operation. This is also the ordering principle.

Although the federal states of Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland jointly own the Eastern Region Transport Association, more and more solo efforts are being made outside the jurisdiction of the VOR. Although the lines are then integrated into the VOR for formal reasons, this has no influence on which company operates. Burgenland already has routes on a large scale that were previously quite successfully run by private providers such as Dr. Richard, were moved to the responsibility of Verkehrsbetriebe Burgenland GmbH. A prominent example of this is the line G1, which is now listed as B01. Dr. Richard worked here for decades on his own account, and is now a subcontractor of Verkehrsbetriebe Burgenland GmbH.

Burgenland is leading the way, Lower Austria is following suit

What is also noteworthy is the fact that in Burgenland, motor vehicle line concessions are being allowed to expire and then either the state-owned Verkehrsbetriebe Burgenland GmbH is allowed to operate on the lines themselves or the previous operators are hired as subcontractors. The influence of the Eastern Region Transport Association is pretty much non-existent, as the Burgenland state government wants to cook its own soup. This has a certain role model effect, because in Lower Austria we have now seen that there are definitely advantages if you use the state's competencies and take over line management yourself, bypassing the VOR.

This is made no secret in a media statement: “The state of Lower Austria intends to locate the Lower Austrian regional bus services as well as the Lower Austrian on-demand services based on the Burgenland model in the state's own transport organization company NÖVOG. According to the state of Lower Austria, the reason for this is the increasing demands on public mobility services, which require new solutions. To this end, the organization should come closer to the citizen and converge in a simplified process. These transports, which are important for Lower Austria and largely financed by the state itself, have been planned, tendered and commissioned by the Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region (VOR) GmbH since 2009.

In a way, this is a “roll backwards”, because until 2009 the state of Lower Austria largely organized the bus services that were ordered itself. In addition to those routes that were offered by entrepreneurs on their own account, these were integrated into either the VVNB and/or the VOR, depending on the region. An example of this is the Wiesel buses to St. Pölten. Only a few years ago, responsibility for this was handed over from NÖVOG to the VOR.

Everyone wants to make their own soup

Apparently, the federal states of Lower Austria and Burgenland seem to be very bothered by the fact that Vienna has a much greater self-interest due to the fact that it owns two large transport companies, the Wiener Linien and the Vienna Local Railways. What is obscure, however, is that Burgenland has transferred routes that were self-supporting to the care of Verkehrsbetriebe Burgenland GmbH. It wasn't that long ago that Governor Doskozil (SPÖ) emphasized how successful and important the G1 route by Dr. Richard is. This has now been “nationalized” because the concession was no longer extended and was awarded to the VBB. Due to a lack of fines, Dr. Richard hired as a subcontractor.

The operation of the lines, which were taken over by the state of Burgenland and its Burgenland transport company in a real cloak and dagger operation, has been “tendered”. A direct “emergency award” was made to the existing operators and the reason for this was that only they would be able to take over the operation at short notice. Of course, there is also a distinction between VBB's own operation and sub-operation by Postbus, Dr. Richard, Blaguss and some smaller companies divided. You probably want to avoid a situation like that on a few Lower Austrian VOR lines: there, based on the best bid, the contract was awarded to SAD from South Tyrol.

The fact that Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland are increasingly cooking their own soup is definitely problematic for the future of the VOR. There is a risk that chaos, familiar from the old days of rail, post and federal buses, will emerge: a lack of coordination of traffic and thus sometimes parallel traffic and overlapping responsibilities. If this gets completely out of hand, the network-wide recognition of tickets could even be shaken. Since the VOR is owned by the three federal states, they should probably plan and act together rather than individually. Unfortunately, the opposite is currently the case.

Tenders will also be announced soon in rail transport

While bus transport has been almost completely “nationalised”, things are a little different in rail transport. It is often overlooked that many ÖBB local transport routes are also ordered VOR lines that actually have to be advertised across Europe. Apart from the Raaberbahn, which runs at least partially on its own infrastructure, all routes without exception have been awarded directly to the ÖBB, Wiener Lokalbahnen and Raaberbahn. The Vida union demands that this principle be maintained. However, under European law, some routes were allowed to be awarded directly for the last time and must be advertised across Europe when the concession expires.

This means that other providers can also come into play. The Vida union is really afraid of this, because using Germany as an example you can see that private providers often made better offers than the state railway. The increasing self-indulgence of Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland could then take the issue of rail transport into a chaotic dimension, if it is not coordinated within the VOR, but rather advertises itself as it sees fit. Lower Austria has already put itself in a good position with the state-owned railway company NÖVOG and Burgenland is said to have great interest in putting some lines that have been closed for many years back into operation at the state's expense. But it's much more about existing routes. Even the Vienna Opera-Baden Josefsplatz route, which has been operated by the Vienna Local Railways for over 100 years, will have to be put out to tender at some point. It is unimaginable what conflict could arise between Vienna and Lower Austria if the state of Lower Austria did not award the contract to the Vienna Local Railways, which belong to the state of Vienna.

Finally, it should be noted in general: Many politicians are trying to make a name for themselves in the area of ​​public transport by making cosmetic changes at the expense of the taxpayer. This is presented as particularly “climate-friendly”. There is a need for some routes, others could do with more frequencies and then there are routes where the question can be asked who should actually sit on the buses and possibly trains for travel times that are completely useless for working people, students and even pensioners ? There are some buses that are very lightly occupied or even completely empty because the timetable was created by someone without thinking about the needs. In the past, this was actually better, because private individuals usually traveled on their own account when there was a real need. Ultimately, the public sector also realizes that the route has been destroyed and that much more expensive “on-demand transport” should be set up as a replacement...