The mountain railways were closed for months, and can start operating again on Whit Saturday. In the interview, Jörgetchisen, operations manager of the Herzogstandbahn, talks about the changes that passengers have to adjust to.
What are your feelings about the reopening of the Herzogstandbahn?
We are well positioned with regard to the hygiene concept. We received sufficient information in advance from the cable car association and from other sources. We have solved the question of directing visitors, the entrances and exits are separate. The usual distance markings in the buildings were placed. Masks must be worn when entering the stations, even while driving. We keep all the windows wide open while driving so that there is good ventilation and the aerosols are distributed to the outside. Everyone knows things by now, and I think our customers respond well to them.
Jörg Locateisen, operations manager of the Herzogstandbahn
What are the most serious changes for passengers?
The most serious point is the change in capacity from 30 to ten people per cabin. That means clear and simple: in this situation we can no longer transport the crowds that were possible before. All tickets are only sold at the valley station. And we have to issue season tickets. This enables us to state exactly how many people we have to drive down from the mountain in the evening? Every customer who buys a ticket with a descent receives a slip of paper with the time printed on it. At the time, he must be back at the mountain station.
What happens if a hiker doesn't come back in time?
Then all other guests are preferred. He has to queue up again at the back. Otherwise we cannot maintain this system as a whole. If you don't come at the right time, you have to see what's left. That is bitter. And for me, after more than 20 years here, this is a situation that I would never have expected. As Prime Minister Söder said so nicely: We will come to a different normal.
One may stay on the mountain for a few hours, the other may last a few minutes. Can you wish for a time for the descent?
We won't have a lot of choice. When people say that they just want to go up to take pictures quickly - which happens very often - and they go down straight away, we will re-issue their place cards. Every passenger more improves our economic situation.
How does the transport capacity change?
You just have to do the math: we can take ten people per cabin. We have to disinfect the surfaces in the cabins in between, so we only manage ten trips per hour. In addition, there are necessary additional trips, such as for mountain rescue operations. At the moment, we can bring together about 1,000 promotions in one day. We used to do 4,000 promotions in one day. We hope that our passengers will respond to this situation with understanding. No matter whether at the hairdresser, in the restaurant or in beer gardens: We have these capacity limits everywhere.
What are the biggest problems at the moment?
We are fighting in-house with our new POS system. We have a little problem with our EC card devices. The systems are complex, there are still a few technical details to be solved. This makes the existing gray hair a little grayer. We have more or less a dedicated line to the provider. We are very confident that we will be able to do that in the remaining time.
Is the change to the POS system corona-related?
No, that had been planned for a long time. This has to do with the fact that we want to meet the requirements of the tax authorities. We started this in summer 2019, and we wanted to set it up this year.
Is a pre-purchase of tickets planned to shorten the waiting time?
We will not pre-sell tickets. People have to stand in line and buy, there is no other way. We cannot issue season tickets in advance, otherwise we will lose track. However, we are working on building a sales platform on the Internet. We had to postpone this due to time constraints, it would bind staff. We are only a small team.
What about economy if you can only carry a quarter of the usual number of passengers?
We will sit down with the shareholders in June and make an evaluation. Based on this, we will decide how to proceed. Our calculations assume that we will come out with a black zero - if the weather cooperates. Exciting. We have heard from everywhere: resume driving, the hygiene concept that the cable car association has developed together with the ministries and professional association is coherent and understandable.
Was it in the room that there was no driving?
Naturally. You go through all the options, we also had to consider this option. Only a week ago we received the news that the cable cars can be opened again. A closure would be the very last option: if we see that we don't get any green branch economically at all and that so much money is burned that we have to consider short-time work. But we are service providers. There are two words behind it: Serve and perform. We in the cable car industry are used to getting things moving that normally don't work. It's a tough industry. There is racking up and rocking, 24 hours a day. My colleagues from the Brauneck and Blomberg railways have the same mentality.
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