2023-04-26 13:47:00
In 2022, the state-owned motorway holding company Asfinag and its 3,000 employees generated a surplus of 851 million euros – the second-best result in its history, a year earlier it was 755 million euros. Liabilities were reduced by 293 million euros to 10.46 billion euros, 1.1 billion euros were invested in the high-level road network. The dividend for the state is 235 million euros. In 2024, the tolls will increase by 8.6 percent, in line with annual inflation.
Cars are back on the freeways
After the severe restrictions caused by the Covid pandemic, cars returned to the motorways and expressways in 2022. Car traffic increased by more than ten percent compared to 2021, but still remained well below the mileage of the pre-crisis level. Truck traffic stagnated compared to the previous year. Across all vehicles, there was an increase of 9.2 percent compared to 2021, according to the two Asfinag board members Josef Fiala and Hartwig Hufnagl. For this year, Fiala is expecting a record number of car vignettes, with 70 percent of them already being digitally “sticked on”.
A full plus on holiday routes
The higher traffic volume was also reflected in the 2022 revenues. At almost 2.4 billion euros, these are almost six percent higher than the result for 2021. With a revenue increase of more than 30 percent on the route toll sections, the car comeback is particularly evident on the well-known holiday routes such as Brenner, Tauern or Pyhrn . Asfinag calculated today that revenue for cars as a whole increased by around 18 percent, while for trucks they increased by 1.3 percent. Heavy traffic paid 1.677 billion euros in tolls in 2022, and 766 million euros for cars.
Asfinag invests 1.4 billion euros
This year, the Asfinag board members said: “We are assuming that 2023 will be an economically difficult year – primarily due to the dampened economic forecasts, the downturn in truck growth and the increases in the costs of services and materials. This volatile economic situation is therefore a big challenge – but that’s exactly why our investment program for 2023 of more than 1.4 billion euros is important.” The Autobahn Holding expects heavy traffic to fall by two percent this year.
Asfinag board member Hufnagl, who once worked in the cabinet of FPÖ transport ministers Hubert Gorbach and Norbert Hofer, was very cautious regarding the Waldviertelautobahn, which the FPÖ Lower Austria was aiming for. There is no order for it and none is foreseeable in the near future.
Noise protection and e-charging stations
The focus of this year’s construction program would be on maintaining an infrastructure that is as durable as possible. In addition, there will be massive investments in the area of noise protection in the coming years, so there will be a protective wall made of reeds for the first time along the S33 near Herzogenburg. A total of 100 million euros flow into the noise protection walls every year. Also on the agenda is the expansion of e-charging stations, a new rest area concept and the use of alternative energies. Asfinag uses 130 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity a year, 47 percent of which is for the tunnels alone.
Of the 1.437 billion euros for the 2023 construction program, 784 million euros will go into refurbishment, the three largest chunks being the Arlberg tunnel, the general refurbishment of several tunnels on the Tauernautobahn and the refurbishment of the Aurachbrücke, which is part of the western autobahn.
ÖAMTC calls for a freeze on dividend payments
According to the ÖAMTC, there would be more for drivers if the state did not deduct the dividend. “If the federal government would refrain from withdrawing capital from Asfinag, which is actually intended for financing the motorways and expressways, Asfinag would have been able to pay back twice the amount of debt since 2011. The mobility club is therefore demanding that dividend payments and income be stopped to actually use Asfinag for the infrastructure and debt reduction, as promised on the back of each vignette,” said the club.
105 million euros from traffic fines
By the way, of the 2.666 billion euros in Asfinag income, 105 million euros come from penalties under the Road Traffic Act. 80 percent of this income goes to the autobahn holding company, which is also the case with the municipalities.
While many companies are complaining regarding a lack of employees, people at Asfinag are still rather relaxed, although it is becoming difficult to find staff in the construction sector. Employees are being sought for around 1.8 percent of the jobs.
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