The Bavarian Transport Minister Christian Bernreiter (CSU) wants to massively strengthen local public transport in Bavaria. Bernreiter presented the corresponding plans that his ministry had developed with local politicians, transport companies and passenger associations on Thursday in Munich. The aim is therefore to double the number of passengers in buses and trains by 2030 compared to 2019. For this purpose, they want to set up public transport “climate-friendly, digital and networked”. Among other things, Bernreiter is planning a uniform fare system throughout Bavaria, which will make it easier to buy tickets via a new app. He spoke of the “one click, one ticket” principle.
According to the ministry, in order to double the number of passengers, about 12.5 percent of the approximately 129 billion kilometers that are traveled on the roads in Bavaria every year must be transferred to buses and trains. To this end, the number of buses in Bavaria is to increase significantly, from around 13,000 at present to 20,000 vehicles. In order to also achieve the goal of converting the Bavarian bus fleets to emission-free drives by 2040 at the latest, the Free State of Bavaria wants to promote a total of 400 climate-neutral buses per year with the support of the federal government. As far as regional trains, S-Bahn, U-Bahn and trams are concerned, however, Bernreiter’s strategy paper contains hardly any concrete goals. It says, quite vaguely: “The offers in rail transport are to be further expanded.” The background: The traffic route plan of the federal government, which was not involved in the development of the Bavarian public transport strategy, is decisive here.
Bernreiter emphasized that the new Bavarian public transport strategy is “an opportunity” but also “an ambitious goal”. Because of the drastically increased energy and fuel prices and because it is unclear what “still lies ahead of us” in the crisis. He will therefore “beware” of quantifying the total costs for the 80 individual measures of his public transport plans. Since no one knows “how the economic situation is developing, how the tax revenue is,” it is presumptuous “to say now what it will look like in 2030, you would be arrogant,” said Bernreiter. The decisive factor is that the federal, state and local authorities “take more money into their hands”. In Bavaria they are ready for this, but more regionalization funds from the federal government are urgently needed.
Accessibility is one of the infrastructure measures that the Free State would like to promote itself according to the “ÖPNV Strategy 2030”. You have to know about this: just a few weeks ago, Bernreiter declared the state government’s original goal of making Bavaria completely barrier-free by 2023 unrealistic. “We have to be honest, we can’t do that,” he said in November. This Thursday, the Minister of Transport set a new, more modest target. Accordingly, by 2040 at least 75 percent of all stops should be barrier-free. Appropriately, Sandra Schönherr, operations manager of the Regensburg municipal utility, did not choose the target term “barrier-free” when presenting the public transport strategy, but “barrier-poor”.
Schönherr is a member of the 23-strong public transport future team that was involved in the planning. She also emphasized the open questions about the costs on Thursday. “There are no financing models,” she said – and accordingly cautiously called the public transport strategy a “holistic collection of topics”. Ebersberg District Administrator Robert Niedergesäß (CSU) commented on the plans in the same tone. He was also involved and calls for “a significant increase in federal and state funds” in order to ultimately be able to achieve the goals. He sees “willingness on the part of the federal government”. “A common understanding has also been created with the state government in recent years.”
Markus Büchler sees “no plan and no concept” in the Minister of Transport’s plans
How Bernreiter imagines a fare system that is as uniform as possible, including simple ticket purchases, is how he describes it: “You swipe your mobile phone once to the right, get on the bus and the system even automatically recognizes where you get off again and then calculates,” says the Minister, always at the best price. Those who drive often pay a lower price per kilometer than someone who drives rarely. In principle, however, it is important to make public transport more attractive for “occasional drivers”, who, according to Bernreiter, account for half of all passengers.
It is not about doubling the number of passengers where buses and trains are already highly frequented, for example in Munich. The public transport strategy is particularly a measure for rural areas, said Bernreiter, who would like to see transport associations covering the whole of Bavaria in order to standardize the tariff structures as far as possible. Here too, however, he dampens expectations. It is already difficult at district level “to get everyone under one roof if you have 30 bus operators,” said Bernreiter, who was a district administrator himself until February 2022, in Deggendorf.
“No plan and no concept”, meanwhile Markus Büchler sees in the transport minister’s public transport plans. While the budget for road construction has been significantly increased in the draft budget, “no significant increases can be identified” for the expansion of public transport, criticized the transport policy spokesman for the Greens in the state parliament. For Büchler, this is “transport policy of the 1970s”. The FDP is also Bernreiter’s strategy “not digital and innovative enough”. This is how Sebastian Körber, spokesman for transport policy for the Liberals, put it. He called for “better integration between motorized private transport and public transport in order to encourage more people to switch”. In addition, Körber criticized the “whining about demanding more money from Berlin” and demanded that the state government take on more responsibility itself.