Mathias Merz needs 300,000 liters of diesel every year to operate his bus fleet. He has 20 vehicles in his depot, mostly regular-service buses, only a few coaches. Its home is the Schwarzwald-Baar district, in the very south of Baden-Württemberg, where the family business has been running some routes for over 50 years and its employees take children to school every day. But he doesn’t know how much longer he can pay for it.
Within a few weeks, prices at the pumps have exploded. On Tuesday, a liter of diesel cost 2.17 euros. For every kilometer that one of his buses is currently on the road, says Merz, he pays an extra 25 to 35 cents out of his own pocket. Calculated over the whole year, the additional costs are 150,000 euros, which nobody reimburses him. “For as long as I can remember,” he says, “there has never been a situation like this.”
“I have to order diesel every two weeks,” he says. “But soon my account will be exhausted. And if I can’t order diesel, then the buses will run for a few more days and then the tank will be empty.” And who then takes the children to school?
Sure, he and his colleagues could raise ticket prices. But the politicians don’t want that. He could reduce the trips. Then the customers run away. Despite the minus on the account, he could continue to order diesel. That would be punishable. And now? “If no help comes, it will end very quickly,” says Merz. “Then no more buses will drive from the farm.”
The industry is sounding the alarm – so loud that a crisis summit was convened in the Ministry of Transport in Baden-Württemberg last week. “The situation is very serious,” says Transport Minister Winfried Hermann of the SZ. Without quick help, numerous insolvencies threatened, because the companies are in a tight spot.
Public transport is a market that is heavily regulated. Many bus companies are integrated into transport associations or are commissioned by the municipalities. You can’t just raise prices when diesel gets more expensive. And even if compensation is agreed in the contracts, the money often only flows in the following year. The clauses are not designed for inflation, as is currently being experienced throughout Europe.
Local transport could collapse in rural areas
According to the industry associations, companies are groaning. The state must step in, otherwise many companies would have only one option: terminate contracts or, as it is called in technical jargon, be released from the transport obligation. The consequences would be canceled bus routes, reduced frequency, villages that are no longer served and children who no longer come to school.
That should be prevented. The state of Baden-Württemberg wants to pay out 180 million euros in subsidies that are planned for this year ahead of schedule. Bavaria looses 55 million euros, Saxony-Anhalt 16.8 million. This helps to bridge the acute bottleneck. However, it does not replace the costs.
In rural areas, buses often only run every hour anyway. In many places, they could soon come even less frequently or not at all.
(Photo: Florian Gaertner/imago/photothek)
The Baden-Württemberg Transport Minister Hermann has therefore promised a rescue package until Easter. However, many details are still unclear, starting with the sum. “We cannot relieve companies of all risks,” he says. The Green politician is demanding more money from the federal government – and is not alone.
On Friday, the transport ministers of the federal states want to connect to a special conference. Among other things, it should be about increasing the public transport rescue package that the federal and state governments will jointly finance after the outbreak of the corona pandemic. At least 500 million euros are under discussion. “Compared to the cost of Lindner’s tank discount, that’s a bargain,” says Hermann of the SZ, but he still expects a “scramble” for money.
In particular, he hands out against FDP Transport Minister Volker Wissing, who thinks more of drivers than of buses and trains. “It’s an opportunity to advance the mobility revolution,” emphasizes Hermann. Raising ticket prices now or, as the FDP demands, distributing fuel vouchers worth billions would be a “roll backwards”. What it needs: a better public transport offer, cheap tariffs, more passengers – and thus more income.
The federal states are proceeding very differently in the current situation. Some are pushing ahead, while elsewhere, including in Brandenburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony and Thuringia, aid is still being examined, as it is said when asked. Hamburg calculates additional costs of 300,000 euros for every cent by which the diesel price increases for the subway and city buses. In Berlin, the traffic light coalition has long been bitterly negotiating a relief package for consumers. “This must also include help for the transport companies,” is now demanded by the deputy prime minister of the Saarland, Anke Rehlinger (SPD).
Holiday travel prices could also increase
Holidays and other long-distance trips could also become more expensive. At Flixbus, you watch exactly what is happening at the pumps. The burdens are “enormous”, the customers are offered “fair market” prices, the company reports. Now, as with the train, the VAT for long-distance bus travel must be reduced.
The transport company Flixbus also complains about the high diesel prices and calls for a reduction in VAT for long-distance bus travel.
(Photo: Fabian Sommer/dpa)
Is there now a diesel surcharge when buying a ticket? Possible, says Witgar Weber, Managing Director of the Association of Baden-Württemberg Bus Companies. The worries started with the pandemic. “Travel has been a flat business in recent years,” says Weber. Now the diesel drama follows, although the price fell slightly again last week.
Frank Wiest, bus operator and boss of 250 employees, now knows how sleepless nights feel. A company that lives more than 90 percent from public transport. Actually, he had hoped that the turnaround in traffic and the announced billions in investments would allow him to expand, maybe open up new routes. Now he sometimes sits at his desk early in the morning and draws up emergency plans: “We haven’t made that public yet,” he says. Still, the plans exist. On Saturday, for example, the bus could only come every second hour, and maybe not at all in the evening. In marginal locations, as he calls it, he switches to a dial-a-bus system if necessary. It’s a dilemma. “I don’t want to scare off any passengers,” says Wiest. But to cover his costs, he would have to raise prices by more than ten percent. Who pays this?
He knocked on the door of the district a long time ago, with limited success. The districts and municipalities, according to several participants in the SZ, would let the companies fidget and wait and see how much money the state government will make available. Nobody wants to open the box first and too far. “It’s like the Mikado,” says Wiest. “Whoever moves first loses.”
But the clock is ticking. Over the year, Frank Wiest needs around 1.8 million liters of diesel. “It’s not about a set of screws that is suddenly more expensive,” he says. “We’re feeling every cent right now.”