According to the passenger association Pro Bahn NRW, the 9-euro monthly tickets for local transport probably only gained a small number of additional new customers who will permanently switch to bus and train. The strong demand was mainly in leisure traffic, said the spokesman for Pro Bahn NRW, Lothar Ebbers, the dpa. However, everyday traffic is crucial for a traffic turnaround.
Local rail passenger transport – i.e. S-Bahn and regional trains – is still not an alternative for many in rush-hour traffic, as it suffers from severe quality defects such as delays, roadworks and train cancellations. “In some cases, it can hardly be calculated for the passenger,” criticizes Ebbers. On the other hand, however, the high fuel prices were a reason for many drivers to try out driving by bus and train.
Pro Bahn NRW assumes that the demand for local transport will decrease significantly after the end of the 9-euro tickets. “As in previous years, there will be the NRW subscription campaign on weekends and during the autumn holidays, but it is much less noticeable,” says Ebbers. In some cases there were also chaotic situations on platforms during the campaign period, especially when trains were canceled or capacities were restricted, for example due to construction sites.
According to the transport companies, the millions of tickets used in NRW over the past three months show how well the campaign has been received. “We have managed to raise awareness of public transport and its fundamental attractiveness – both from a social and environmental point of view – among large parts of the population,” said Joachim Künzel, Managing Director of Nahverkehr Westfalen-Lippe, a few days ago. who is also program manager of the industry initiative Focus Bahn NRW.
The ticket has encouraged many people to use public transport who otherwise would not, according to initial market research results. It is important to build on that. In order to achieve the climate goals and to keep the necessary mobility turnaround going, further financial aid from politicians is needed quickly. Due to the additional burden of energy and personnel costs, even relevant parts of the current stock are at risk, let alone the goals for expansion and quality improvement.
The industry initiative pointed to great efforts to cope with the increased passenger volume: “We gave everything, but in the rail system in North Rhine-Westphalia we clearly reached the limits of our capacity,” said the managing director of National Express, Marcel Winter, according to the announcement. The fact that the 9-euro ticket campaign was a success despite all the adversities is not only due to the tolerance of the passengers, but also to the remarkable commitment of the approximately 7,000 employees in local rail passenger transport in NRW.
Many absences due to illness, for example among train drivers or in the control centers, as well as vacation-related absences have exacerbated the staff shortages at some of the companies in the past few weeks. In addition, there would be numerous construction sites, caused among other things by long-planned and necessary construction measures in the rail network, which also caused delays in train traffic.
According to the passenger association, the railway companies were by no means prepared for the additional rush. According to Ebbers, they were also unable to do this in such a short time due to a lack of vehicle and staff resources. Problems that have been dragged along for a long time, such as understaffing, have now become fully visible, he said. The municipal companies with buses, trams and light rail vehicles coped with the great demand quite well, even if they had few staff and sick leave was high.
The local transport companies sounded the alarm a few weeks ago with a view to rising energy costs, inflation and the traffic turnaround. For the coming year, the four transport associations in North Rhine-Westphalia are already anticipating a deficit totaling a good half a billion euros. They appeal to the federal and state governments to invest more money in maintaining and expanding the transport service.
