The chief administrative officers of the five districts and three independent cities in the area of the Greater Braunschweig Regional Association (RGB) reject the association's proposed increase in cost sharing by local authorities to finance regional bus transport of €10 million per year from 2026. The regional association has proposed increasing the association's contribution, which the municipalities pay to the RGB, by five million euros from 2025. The municipalities are to contribute a further 5 million euros from 2026.
They will ask the respective municipal representatives on the association committee of the RGB to vote against an increase or to speak out against it as a local authority, according to the main administrative officials. In view of the tense situation in all municipalities, an increase in their own contributions to ÖPNV funding is not feasible. They are once again calling on the regional association to first develop potential savings as part of the ongoing process optimization. The state of Lower Saxony should also be involved in this process.
Against the background of rising costs (energy, inflation), the regional association has informed the local authorities that the Regiobus services can no longer be adequately financed. In future, it will no longer be possible for it to pay running costs from its reserves or from state funds as in the past. In addition to the additional services already mentioned by the local authorities, the regional association has therefore proposed saving a further €5 million from 2027 by reducing services in order to counter the gap between costs and income.
The main administrative officials reject the financing of the Delta at the expense of the municipalities. "The people in this region, with their large commuter flows, are dependent on a functioning ÖPNV system. The provision of an attractive range of regional bus and rail services is fundamentally a joint task for the state, the regional association and the local authorities."
"We districts and independent cities already make a large contribution to this important task through our contributions to the RGB. The funds provided are now no longer sufficient to cover the cost increases. We need more support from the state," said Christiana Steinbrügge (district of Wolfenbüttel), Gerhard Radeck (district of Helmstedt), Tobias Heilmann (district of Gifhorn), Henning Heiß (district of Peine), Dr. Alexander Saipa (district of Goslar), Dennis Weilmann (city of Wolfsburg), Frank Klingebiel (city of Salzgitter) and Dr. Thorsten Kornblum (city of Braunschweig).
He added: "In view of our severely strained budgets due to numerous additional burdens, we also expect the regional association to focus firstly on optimizing the route network and secondly to conclusively examine further financing options such as borrowing by the RGB itself."