fewer buses, trams and metros
According to the new traffic alderman Melanie van der Horst, the traveler gets that feeling. “That could mean that metros no longer run in the evening, fewer buses run to the edges of the city and tram lines are scrapped.”
There are also consequences for the city’s ambitious building plans. “Living and public transport are linked. In many cases, public transport is the backbone of new homes. We are trying to reduce the car, but at the same time you have to ensure a good public transport network.”
Decline in passenger numbers
It revolves around the availability fee scheme, a scheme that was instituted by corona, which was confronted with an extreme decline in passenger numbers. The compensation means that the companies can count on financial support. Under the scheme, public transport companies were reimbursed between 93 and 95 percent of their costs.
State Secretary Vivianne Heijnen said she did not want to continue with the scheme. This is leading to great unrest among public transport companies, including the Amsterdam Transport Region. According to them, time is running out: if the public transport offer has to be scaled back, this month has to be taken. All possible measures have been prepared.
Everything was for nothing
According to Van der Horst, all parties worked hard during corona to keep buses, trams and metros upright in the city. “We continued to strive, partly with the support of the government. But if the tap is turned off next year, while the number of travelers is not yet at the old level, it will all be for nothing.”
Without an availability fee from the government and the flexibility of the staff, GVB would have suffered a loss of 150 million euros last year, according to the transport company’s annual report. Due to the corona measures, the number of passenger journeys has halved. This involved 133.4 million passenger journeys, not counting the ferries. In 2019, there were still 266.8 million. passenger revenues also plummeted to 174 million euros, from 1,804 million euros in 2020 and 332 million euros in 2019.
The economy is also affected
It is not only travelers who are affected by the measures, says Van der Horst. The program also includes employers and the entire economy. Public transport is much more than transport, it is a necessity for the enormous task that we have together with the national government in the field of housing and reducing CO2emissions.”
It is not clear exactly which lines are involved, says Van der Horst. If the Transport Region expansion can be removed from public transport, it is obvious that the largest interventions will be made on the lines that are used the least.
transport poverty
There has been too much to do in Amsterdam for years about the cancellation of unprofitable lines: the subsidy to the GVB is gradually being phased out, ‘thin lines’ are introduced, with few passengers, who have regularly died in the last decade. This leads to transport poverty: people who depend on public transport for their mobility lose their only alternative.
The major cities urged the House of Representatives on Monday to provide clarity. According to the necessary organizations, it concerns a safety net of up to 500 million euros that may not even be at all. According to the parties, later recovery will ‘cost much more money’ because, among other things, the ‘benevolencewill suffer greatly from the impoverishments.