Coach services: Distorted competition instead of freedom of choice

Berlin. The draft legislation that will open up the market for more scheduled coaches services, which was approved by the cabinet today, will fall short of its self-defined liberalisation targets, according to the Pro-Rail Alliance. "The railways do not have to be afraid of fair competition for long-distance passenger transport. But the plans by federal transport minister Peter Ramsauser propose exempting long-distance coaches from road charges, keeping costs artificially low, whereas every train naturally has to pay track charges," said the managing director of the Pro-Rail Alliance, Dirk Flege, in Berlin. "The government is trying to sell us a systematically distorted competitive environment dressed up as the overdue liberalisation of the transport sector from its historic shackles. "The Pro-Rail Alliance also criticised the fact that passengers are being duped into believing that they have greater freedom of choice, whereas in reality, it is only intended that coaches will offer "cheap and cheerful services" without any passenger rights.

In the debate on the possible "cannibalisation effects" between the railways and scheduled coach services, which the transport ministry played down in the past but has now admitted for the first time, the Pro-Rail Alliance was critical of its lack of academic supervision. "Instead of assessing the impact upfront, the building is being set on fire to see whether it will burn quickly or not," complained Flege. He referred to a single, small but unpublished study, commissioned by the federal transport ministry, and carried out by Intraplan Consult and the consultants Verkehr + Umwelt (BVU) in autumn 2010. It concludes that 60 percent of future coach service passengers will come from the railways, with only 20 percent switching from their cars to scheduled coaches. The remaining 20 percent would not make the journey without the coach. "The legislation on coach services in its current form is quite clearly going to negatively impact the railways," said Flege.

The Pro-Rail Alliance warned on the impact that an extensive network of coach services could have on the federal government's infrastructure policies in the future. "When it comes to improvements to the rail network, for example between Berlin and Dresden, the federal government will be able to shirk its responsibility," said Flege. "Long-distance coaches will be used as a cheap bypass to avoid the need to repair the holes in an already insufficiently developed network," criticised the Pro-Rail Alliance manager. "The consequences: there will be even more congestion on the roads. This can hardly be called sustainable transport policy."