It got brought up today as a discussion topic on social media.....roughly 7-billion Euro is 'missing' from the money-bucket for public transportation across Germany (trains, light-rail, buses, etc). All because of Covid-19.
So, the curious thing is that the federal guys and state governments are talking to the public industry, and talks are mostly stalled.
In a lot of cases, the public transportation operations went to banks and took short-term loans because they 'thought'....that money would eventually flow.
So this topic is opening up in the public view....is there any guarantee that the traffic of 2019 will ever return?
I can stand and view the bus stops in my village and say that in the last couple of months....traffic has improved over the December situation, but it's still about half the number of riders.
I live in a village about 3 km outside of Wiesbaden, and we had two buses that ran a route through the village. We'd typically have eight buses in the 'rush-hour' of 7 AM, and the same for the return period in the afternoon. The retirees use? I would suggest that only 10-percent of that traffic is returning to normal.
As for the stall? If we arrive at mid-summer without the ridership, and another billion added to the bill....I would suggest that the ticket prices will be adjusted up 30 to 40 percent, with the state governments in a state of shock over the new cost for public transportation.
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