News item | 08-07-2022 | 7:00 pm
The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management offers public transport a transition arrangement for 2023. The public transport sector had requested a guarantee because passenger numbers are still lower than before the start of the corona pandemic. The proposed scheme gives public transport security if passenger numbers are still disappointing next year.
State Secretary Vivianne Heijnen (Infrastructure and Water Management): “With this transition arrangement, the trains, buses, trams and metros can continue to run next year. Significant cut in the timetables is not an option for me. We see that traveler patterns are changing and that people are working from home more often, for example. The 2023 transition scheme is intended to help the public transport sector to better match supply and demand. It gives carriers security for the coming year. Parties wishing to make use of the scheme can register for it.”
Safety net
The proposed transition arrangement offers public transport companies certainty for the most gloomy forecast for passenger numbers in 2023. The forecasts for 2023 differ. For example, the Knowledge Institute for Mobility (KiM) predicts that passenger numbers will return to almost the 2019 level next year, while regional carriers and NS expect that significantly fewer travelers will still travel by public transport than before the pandemic. Because all forecasts contain a large uncertainty factor, the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment has elaborated the transition arrangement. With the scheme, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management guarantees a maximum of 150 million euros. This covers two-thirds of possible shortfalls in the worst-case scenario in 2023.
Shared responsibility
Now that all corona measures have been lifted, IenW explicitly sees a safety net scheme as a shared responsibility of all public transport parties. However, it has not been possible to reach collective agreements with the provinces and transport regions:
State Secretary Vivianne Heijnen: “I find it remarkable that the local authorities do not want to participate in the transition scheme proposed by IenW for 2023. The scheme now provides the transport companies with the requested security for 2023 and travelers can count on sufficient, safe and secure accommodation next year as well. reliable public transport.”
Requirements
A number of conditions are attached to the scheme. For example, transport companies are being asked to make the public transport offer future-proof after 2023: in balance with the demand for public transport. In addition, carriers are asked to make every effort to get passengers back on public transport. The aim is to guarantee the availability, safety and reliability of the public transport offer by 2023. The scheme does not reimburse returns from carriers.
No availability fee
The new transition arrangement is different from the availability fee for public transport that has guaranteed public transport supply during the corona crisis in recent years. The availability fee was introduced in 2020 to ensure that public transport continued to run during the corona pandemic, while there were far fewer travelers due to the corona measures. Public transport thus played an important role in keeping the economy and society going.
Now that the corona restrictions have been lifted, but travelers have not yet all returned to public transport, there is still a risk of scaling down because the transport companies may have less income next year. However, scaling down now and scaling up later is very annoying for travelers and is more expensive and less efficient than the carriers now provide a guarantee. In the longer term, it is important that supply is geared to changing demand. Traveler patterns have changed due to corona, but the total number of public transport users is expected to increase in the coming years. For example, the number of students is growing and more students will therefore also use public transport. It is also already visible that during the weekends public transport is popular for a day trip.
Should there be a new corona wave in the future, with many measures to apply, the cabinet will again look at targeted, sectoral support such as the availability fee for public transport. The transition safety net that is now being set up is separate from this.