A maximum of ten cents per kilometer should be charged for connections between capital cities, demands the Green top candidate for the EU elections, Lena Schilling.
In the EU election campaign, Austria’s Greens are in favor of a low-cost rail tariff for connections between the Union’s capitals. A maximum of ten cents per kilometer should be charged, according to a paper. A train journey at the “Europe tariff” between Vienna and Berlin (680 kilometers) would then cost 68 euros. “The train has to be the cheaper alternative,” explained top candidate Lena Schilling.
Train journeys should become cheaper and more predictable than flights with supposedly low-cost airlines with opaque additional fees. The latter are particularly bad for the climate on short journeys. According to the Greens’ ideas, the difference between the “European tariff” and market prices should be reimbursed to railway companies using EU funds so that they can further expand international connections.
“The task of politics is to ensure that you get from A to B in a climate-friendly way”
From the Greens’ perspective, the new tariff should become a reliable standard price that should be accessible at all times. This is intended to distinguish it from ÖBB’s savings rail offers, which are very cheap but strictly limited.
When it comes to emissions of climate-damaging CO2, the transport sector still has the greatest need to catch up in the EU, said Schilling. While emissions are falling in all other areas (industry, agriculture, buildings, etc.), they increased by 33.5 percent in the transport sector between 1990 and 2019, she explained, citing data from the EU Parliament. “It is the job of politicians to ensure that we get from A to B in a climate-friendly way,” she said. In addition to cheap tickets, this also requires the further expansion of national and international train connections and investments in modern trains. (APA)
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