New economising measures:
no funds for public transport
Though all efforts were directed, via the use of technical innovations, to getting the traffic situation in the regional capital under control, the company faced huge problems. The sustained economic boom and the associated high level of employment meant that the Rheinbahn encountered critical personnel shortages.
The optimism during the fifties and the early sixties gradually waned. The problems that transport companies faced due to the increasing pressure of costs and the growing number of private automobiles on the roads distorted the previously extremely positive future outlook. Although the company had operated at a profit until the end of the fifties, it was now shouldering the burden of losses from one year to the next. However, it was unrelenting in its efforts – including its efforts to ensure the social welfare of its employees. In 1965, more than a hundred new homes were built in Kaiserswerth and rented out to company employees. In the mid-sixties, the number of house hunters was still very high.
Although the 1967 recession did somewhat dampen the population’s progressive way of thinking, it barely influenced traffic trends. Bus and train journeys were still becoming less popular, despite the efforts of the transport operators to boost their public image. Anyone who could afford it bought a car as a means of documenting their advancement up the social ladder.