The province of Drenthe calls on the House of Representatives to maintain the budget for public transport. All provincial governments together make it clear that they are very concerned about the plans.
The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) plans to reduce the reimbursement for student transport by 25 percent, which amounts to an amount of 200 to 260 million euros. On Thursday evening, the House of Representatives will vote on a motion to postpone this decision.
That was a shock to the provincial authorities. Two weeks ago they cheered when the outgoing cabinet decided to allocate 300 million euros to support regional public transport, but that joy quickly gave way to great concern.
On behalf of the joint provincial administrators, South Holland deputy Frederik Zevenbergen calls it “an emotional rollercoaster”.
“Not so long ago, we were all very happy that 300 million euros was structurally made available for public transport, to dampen the increase in operating costs and improve public transport. Unfortunately, that joy was short-lived and we are in fact back to square one. If the reimbursement from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science for the student travel product is indeed reduced by 200 million euros, this will cause a huge breach in the finances for public transport and we will not be able to avoid price increases. The House must do something about this.”
The provinces, including Drenthe, have now sent an urgent letter to the party leaders in the House of Representatives. They call for supporting the motion and keeping the contribution for 2024 the same as this year (more than 1 billion euros).