German efficiency

Germany has a very efficient local public transport network, carrying around 27 million passengers every day. In purely mathematical terms, this is the equivalent of 19 million passenger car journeys. In some large towns and cities, buses, trams and trains account for over 50% of all passengers travelling to school and work. 86% of all households are within ten minutes’ walk of a local public transport stop, which means that we have impressive network coverage.

Efficient local public transport is a crucial component of a sustainable transport policy. It ensures that all sections of the population enjoy environmentally friendly mobility, and is thus indispensable.

Against this background, I am delighted by the decision taken by the Council of Transport Ministers of the European Union on 9 June 2006 on public passenger transport services by rail and road. This decision means that it will be possible to continue with the extraordinarily successful system of local public transport in Germany in its current structures, and as such it is a positive signal. In contrast to many other European countries, local public transport services in Germany are provided by local authority owned operators, integrated transport associations and small and medium-sized companies. In an integrated transport association, different transport operators and the bus and rail modes are interlinked in such a way as to provide customers with a ‘one stop shop’ for timetables and tickets. Although the Council of Transport Ministers has reached a political agreement, the legislative procedure has not yet been concluded. Amendments to the draft regulation following its second reading in the European Parliament cannot be ruled out.

This year, the Federal Government is providing over seven billion euros to promote a local public transport system that is attractive, fast, affordable and environmentally friendly. In addition to these funds, a sum of around one billion euros is available under the Local Authority Transport Infrastructure Financing Act, from which local public transport will benefit directly. In addition, the federal states and local authorities support local public transport by providing funds from their own budgets.

Making local public transport more attractive on the basis of this funding is a major task of providers and planners. This includes not only customer friendliness, reliability and accessibility, but also fast services, good value for money and the ability to purchase tickets or get timetable information quickly and easily.

For this reason, the Federal Government is promoting innovative developments in local public transport such as DELFI, the door-to-door electronic timetable information system. In addition, the Federal Government is also providing financial support to activities by integrated transport associations, transport operators and the Association of German Transport Operators to introduce an interoperable electronic fare management (EFM) system covering the whole of Germany.

DELFI is a communications interface between information systems of different local public transport providers. The system makes the centralised capture of data unnecessary. The data will continued to be captured on a decentralised basis by the individual service providers, and is available nationwide via DELFI. In this way, customers can obtain, from a single source, nationwide and multi-modal information from all transport operators on services, times, means of transport and journeys involving one or more changes for local, regional and long-distance services.

Starting in 2007, it is intended to use DELFI to inform travellers whether the installations and vehicles that they will use on their journeys provide barrier-free access. The necessary groundwork is currently being laid in a project sponsored by the Federal Government.

This is also necessary against the background of demographic trends. Studies have shown that more and more elderly people are switching from their cars and using public transport. Demographic change and budgetary constraints mean that Germany faces major challenges. Maintaining an economically efficient range of local public transport services calls for new approaches to mobility, which must be tailored directly to the needs of the individual regions. This is especially true of regions where the population is in steep decline because young people are moving away or where the number of schoolchildren is falling. The Federal Government is providing active support to such approaches by means of research and development projects.

I have no doubt that local public transport in Germany will remain efficient and attractive to customers, and that one of the reasons for this will be the projects outlined above.