In the Austrian federal states of Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland, local public transport has been in a phase of transformation for many years. Commercial transport by companies is increasingly being replaced by transport commissioned by the public sector. For many years there were even two transport organizations: the Eastern Region Transport Association, which mainly organized Vienna and rail transport, and the competing Lower Austria-Burgenland Transport Association, which mainly operated bus routes. There was a lot of overlap and for years tickets were only accepted by each other under certain conditions. Different tariffs were confusing for passengers. The VVNB was integrated into the VOR in July 2016 and thus dissolved. Since then there has only been the Eastern Region Transport Association, whose shareholders are the federal states of Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland. Commercial operation versus the ordering principle There were very big differences, however: While the VVNB was an association of companies, the ordering principle has always applied in the VOR. In concrete terms, this means that in the no longer existing association, the bus operators operated their own line concessions on their own account. Subsidies were available upon application from the respective federal states and transfers to buses from other association members were possible because the tickets issued were recognized by each other. In the Eastern Region Transport Association, the operation of the lines is put out to public tender and the best bidder is awarded the contract. The integration of the VVNB and the VOR had significant consequences for the bus operators. The motor vehicle line concessions were no longer renewed when the respective permits expired. Instead, the Eastern Region Transport Association put the operation out to tender again. In some regions, this meant that the previous operator