Railway transport: Vida calls for direct awards to be retained

Private railway companies repeatedly criticize the fact that many countries, including Austria, practice so-called direct awarding of subsidized routes or commissioned traffic. In the Alpine republic, the ÖBB usually gets the chance or regionally active providers. Contracts awarded to new providers are practically non-existent. 

If the Vida union has its way, it should stay that way. This is because they fear that when the PSO directive is implemented, the cheapest bidder concept will come into play and, as a further consequence, there could possibly be “wage squeezing”. Reference is made to allegedly chaotic conditions in Germany and the United Kingdom, where the routes have long been tendered.