VOR, the public transport authority for the region
of Vienna-Eastern Austria (2.6m inhab. on
8,400 km2) will celebrate in June its 20th birthday.
The first steps towards fare integration took place
in 1961 with an agreement between Austrian national
railways ÖBB and Wiener Linien, the public
operator of urban transport systems in Vienna.
This
was followed by an agreement between the
Austrian federal government and the three Länder
(regions) of Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland
in 1973 to share the cost of this fare integration.
And in 1984, the public authorities decided to formalise
their co-operation by setting up a dedicated
organisation, the Verkehrsverbund Ost Region
(VOR).
Since then, VOR has been successful in integrating
all public transport systems of the territory,
consisting in 19 transport companies operating 5
metro lines, 36 regional and suburban railway lines,
32 tramway routes and 254 bus routes.
Fares are
organised on 9 centric belts and segments around
the core zone of Vienna. This period has seen
major improvements to the provision of public
transport systems, with many extensions to the
regional railway network and the metro system,
and a modernisation of the rolling stock.
A major reform occurred in 2002 with the
withdrawal of the federal government from VOR’s
board of directors, where it used to have a 50%
stake.
VOR now comprises the Länder of Vienna
(44%), Lower Austria (44%) and Burgenland (12%).
Public transport systems of Vienna-Eastern Austria
carried 843 million passengers in 2002 (84.5% on
urban routes in Vienna operated by Wiener Linien),
that is to say +20% vs 1990.
The modal split of
public transport increased by 5% between 1993
and 2001, and reached 34% of all trips (motorised
and non-motorised) in the region, a level similar to
that of private car (35%).
A survey showed that only
36% of public transport users had no alternative
to public transport in 2001, vs 48% in 1993,
illustrating the growing attractiveness of public
transport systems.