Also bad for commuters: With the end of the emergency ordinance, the mutual ticket accounting of Westbahn and ÖBB will cease
The situation remains in a mess: Because no more money is released by the state, the Westbahn and ÖBB want – as reported – to thin out their connections between Vienna and Salzburg.
“Our status is that the emergency ordinance will not be extended,” said ÖBB spokesman Bernhard Rieder on Monday. That's why ÖBB started reducing connections on the Wels – Passau branch line on Monday. “As a next step, we will cancel connections between Vienna and Salzburg from February 22nd.” After all, the western route with a current utilization of 30 percent is anything but profitable. Currently there are up to 40 connections per direction, in future there will be only 24 connections per day between Vienna and Salzburg. Almost every second train could fall victim to the savings pen – not only at the state ÖBB. Even with the mostly private Westbahn.
This currently travels back and forth on the western route up to twelve times a day, depending on the day of the week. She wants to decide by tomorrow, Wednesday, how the timetable should look in the future if the emergency ordinance is not extended.
There is second bad news for passengers: With the expiry of the emergency ordinance, the tickets of the Westbahn and ÖBB will no longer be mutually recognized. There are organizational reasons for this. Through the emergency ordinance, the two railway operators received the money from the state to maintain the schedule. In return, they had to deliver the ticket receipts on the route to the ministry. But now everyone is again dependent on their own ticket sales. Mutual crediting is therefore no longer possible.
15 million euros
Incidentally, the emergency award was last extended last November. “The volume of the emergency award is currently budgeted at around 30 million euros for the next step,” explained Transport Minister Leonore Gewessler on Monday in the ORF midday journal. The help is now announced for another two months. Since last April, ÖBB and Westbahn have received a total of almost 93 million euros.
Rumor mill
Nevertheless, the Ministry of Finance is shy. Minister Gernot Blümel is silent on the subject at all. It is rumored behind the scenes that he was “not amused” about newspaper interviews with ÖBB board member Andreas Matthä. He had announced that ÖBB would close the year 2020 economically positive across all subgroups despite Corona and sales slumps. The Ministry of Finance is asking why the company should continue to receive money for the western route, according to informed sources.
Meanwhile, Infrastructure Minister Leonore Gewessler insists on further support. The state supports other companies in the crisis with economic aid in the billions, “and we also need the same for maintaining public transport,” argues Gewessler.
simone hoepke
