Breakthrough to competition in regional bus transport
Due to a ruling of the higher administrative court, published in spring 2013, regional bus transport now has to be tendered in Austria.
published in: Der Nahverkehr 03/2014
Like many other member states of the European Union Austria has liberalised its legal framework for public transport services by bus by the end of the nineties. Competition has been rare up to 2013, despite a slight increase within the last five years. Due to a ruling of the higher administrative court, published in spring 2013, former commercial services, in large part publicly co-funded for tariff reductions for e.g. pupils via revenue surrogates, now have to be categorised as non-commercial services. In effect, all regional bus transport services now have to be tendered out in Austria.