Even without a nine-euro ticket: Austria is overwhelmed by the rail boom
What good persuasion could not do is now happening thanks to high fuel prices: Austria is switching to the train. However, the federal railways are only partially prepared
Sabine Stock, member of the board of the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), spoke to the country a few days ago: “We’re getting better at forecasting.” A calendar will probably even be purchased. Traditionally, long-suffering customers of ÖBB always had the same topic in the hopelessly overcrowded trains before the holidays: Was ÖBB caught cold again this year by Christmas or was it surprised by Pentecost?
Basically, it should be easy to predict when a lot of people will set off on vacation or short breaks, and there should be a corresponding increase in capacity on these days. There was little sign of that. It was part of the holiday folklore of train travel to stand in the aisle before holidays.
With the Ukraine war and the rapid improvement in price and fuel costs in particular, long-distance rail travel became more attractive than ever. Before the busy long weekend on Ascension Day, the situation had worsened than ever. Security employees at the Vienna train stations only allowed people with reservations to board the train.
Particularly overcrowded trains had to be evacuated for safety reasons because the train conductors were no longer able to walk through the aisles and the employees could no longer make announcements in an emergency.
The ÖBB tried to forestall the looming PR disaster. Of course, no one would simply have been thrown off the train, there was a mobility offer for all rail customers and all travelers were brought to their destination – via detours and with frustrating delays.
A reservation requirement was briefly discussed, but the company assures that this will only apply to night trains. They also want to be there for spontaneous travelers. Having to register first in order to travel by train doesn’t seem very helpful and could ultimately slow down the new enthusiasm for rail travel.
Where are the difficulties coming from?
The problems in long-distance traffic are similar in local traffic. Here the Green Transport Minister Leonore Gewessler introduced the so-called “climate ticket”. An important ecological lighthouse project implemented. An annual pass that allows the use of all public transport for 1,095 euros. More than 160,000 people have already purchased the ticket in Austria, and 5,000 are added every month. Of course, THEN they also want to drive.
There was a lot of criticism of the minister, especially from the car-friendly, conservative half of Austria, who had obviously not created enough to meet the onslaught. There were even calls for his resignation. The accusation is a bit nonsensical, after all, the Minister would have liked to have been able to expand the railway, but she was not allowed to.
The state-owned stock company ÖBB is only a limited ally of its own minister. On the one hand, the board of directors of ÖBB-Personenverkehr AG and Klaus Garstenauer, who is responsible for the use of the train fleet, point out the problems that are everywhere today. The “absolute record numbers” cannot be countered so easily because the high energy and raw material prices and the difficult search for personnel make a rapid change in mobility difficult.
Board member Sabine Stock also gives another reason that gives a very deep insight into the inner orientation of ÖBB. If everyone got a seat on busy days, then the trains would stand around uselessly on other days and this was “unrepresentable” to the taxpayer.
A flawless neoliberal argument that has led the Austrian Federal Railways to exactly where they are today. For a long time now, the purpose of the Federal Railways has not been to transport many people comfortably and safely, but to save as much tax money as possible. It is politically praised and rewarded.
However, passenger transport is hardly profitable. It is something that society must afford. They can then also decide whether they die ecologically and, for example, allow their members to die in a way that is easy on their nerves or not. Theologian and sociologist Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy believes that “heaven on earth” is easy to reach, while everyone has health insurance and there is a rail network that makes it easy to get anywhere. And that costs something.
ÖBB has long discarded lofty goals of this kind – if they ever had any. Basically, the Austrian Federal Railways have been converted into a real estate company that no longer believed in a mobility turnaround towards rail. Railway land was sold, routes were discontinued and freight obligations were diverted from rail to truck, because otherwise it was simply no longer profitable.