The regional public transport association has recently implemented major projects such as the renovation of the Breisgau S-Bahn. He has now paid in advance and is still waiting for the funding.
. “The government bureau held out a red stop sign for us,” declared Hanno Hurth on Wednesday at the meeting of the Freiburg Regional Transport Association (ZRF) in the Freiburg City Hall. Hurth is not only the district administrator of the district of Emmendingen, but also currently chairman of the ZRF. The association, in which the city of Freiburg and the districts of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald and Emmendingen are united, takes care of the coordination and expansion of local public transport (PNV) in the Freiburg area.
The ZRF’s problem: The current major projects to improve the Breisgau S-Bahn system have cost a lot of money. The association finances these expenses in advance by taking out so-called cash loans itself – in the expectation that the expected funding from the federal government and the state will flow in the near future. However, there were major delays here. That is why the Freiburg government council as the supervisory authority says: For now, put an end to further debts! First of all, the cash loans would have to be substantially reduced.
Loans of 180 million euros
The most recent major projects of the ZRF were the modernization and renovation of the Hllentalbahn including the electrification of the eastern branch to Donaueschingen as well as the modernization and electrification of the Breisacher Bahn. The Elztalbahn is also currently being electrified and modernized.
“At the end of 2019 we had cash advances totaling around 180 million euros for the purpose of pre-financing,” said Thomas Wisser, managing director of Regio-Verbund GmbH, the ZRF subsidiary that deals with the operational processing of the association’s resolutions. At the end of this year, according to Wisser, the cash loans will grow to around 250 million euros and in the coming year, when the work on the Elztalbahn has to be paid for, they will probably rise to well over 300 million euros.
“It is understandable that the government board should intervene here,” said Hanno Hurth. The main reason for the high credit volume are late grants from the federal and state governments, which is due in particular to the lengthy application checks at the Federal Railway Authority in Bonn. “As far as we know, a single employee is responsible for all applications from Baden-Wrttemberg, Bavaria and Hesse,” continues Hurth. The Federal Office did not confirm this at the request of the BZ. Rather, the reason for the delay are open questions about securing the overall financing, which Deutsche Bahn, the state and ZRF would have to clarify with each other.
The reference to the “red stop sign” from the supervisory authority caused grumbling at the gathering. However, Thomas Wisser pointed out that the Elztalbahn construction project could in any case be carried out with the blessing of the government board; beyond that, there are currently no further concrete construction works. “There will be no postponement of projects that have already been scheduled,” said Wisser to the BZ.
“For us there is no ban on thinking and planning,” declared Freiburg Mayor Martin Horn at the meeting. Nobody could want a standstill caused by bureaucratic bottlenecks. Horn called for the planning of the tram extensions in Littenweiler and Gundelfingen to be pursued despite the current tense financial situation.
A curiosity arises from the zero and minus interest rate policy enforced by the European Central Bank: The high credit debts are currently generating additional income for the ZRF. In 2019, the association received 100,000 euros in negative interest from the cash loans, and next year it will even be 300,000 euros.
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