Why is public transport in trouble?
The government has kept public transport going during corona time because passenger numbers fell dramatically, while costs continued. This was done with a special arrangement. The joint public transport companies have pleaded with the cabinet to allow this compensation to continue for the time being, because the passenger numbers are still far from the old level. The contempt is that it may be 2025 before the pre-corona level is back.
But State Secretary Heijnen has decided to convert the scheme into another scheme after this year. That means considerably less money for the entire public transport: not 500 million but 150 million euros. In addition, the minister wants the provinces and transport regions to help pay for this new scheme. The provinces don’t want that.
The public transport agency therefore has a gap of almost 33 million euros for the coming years. The extremely high energy prices and possible wage increases for bus personnel will soon be added to this. More than 11 million will be taken from our own reserve in the coming years, the rest must come from the cancellation of the timetable.
For 2023, almost 4 million will be cut on the timetable. In the following years, more than 21 million must be cut until 2026. The more travelers come back, the less there is to cut costs. Because half of the Drenthe-Groningen public transport was paid for corona from the passenger revenues.
What is already clear: in 2026 the public transport agency can no longer get anything from its own reserves and the provinces of Drenthe and Groningen will have to make a significant contribution.