These days, the Fuchstalbahn is going in quick succession.
On Monday, July 26th, traffic engineer Andreas Holzhey puts all the facts about the possible reactivation of passenger-rail traffic on the Schongau-Landsberg route on a "round table".
Two days before that, the Greens in the Landtag will go on an information trip on the route.
Schongau - After the corona pandemic had slowed down all efforts, the activities of the supporters of reactivation are picking up speed again.
The start will be made on Saturday, July 24th, by the Greens in the Landtag, who will catch up on the information trip they had planned for last year on the route.
With invited guests, it goes on the almost 29 kilometers between Schongau and Landsberg and even beyond.
First ride with passengers in two years
It will be the first journey with passengers on the Fuchstalbahn since the historic rail bus commuted between Landsberg and Schongau for the last time in autumn 2019.
The special trips with the VT 98 organized by Bahnpark Augsburg were a magnet for visitors and booked out in no time at all.
In Schongau people were already toying with regular historical trips between the Lech cities, which could have been excellently combined with the city tours.
The dreams were not only thwarted by the corona virus.
Since the barrier-free expansion of the Schongau train station, there has simply been no exit option for passengers in Schongau.
The middle platform required for the rail bus was demolished and no longer renewed.
The train must now stop on the open track.
Because of Corona, only invited guests are allowed to ride
“The lack of a platform will be an issue,” says Anais Schuster Brandis, looking ahead to the Bavarian Greens' special trip. The employee of the parliamentary group organizes the event by rail, in which only invited guests will take part. "Because of the Corona precautionary measures that are still necessary," the Greens regret. Your state parliament spokesman for mobility, Markus Büchler, wants to inform you about the rigid reactivation criteria in the Free State and explain what his party intends to do politically against it. As is well known, the state government is not moving away from the so-called "1000 criterion": 1000 people who would be traveling per day and kilometer must therefore be calculated for a disused railway line so that it becomes a reactivation candidate at all.
Fuchstalbahn working group welcomes special trip by the Greens
The local Fuchstalbahn working group of the Pfaffenwinkel environmental initiative has also struggled with this criterion in the past.
Spokesman Harald Baumann laments "a prevention system of the state government".
Baumann and his colleagues will also be part of the special trip on Saturday, "which we of course welcome".
The Greens have chosen a LINT41 for the trip;
a locomotive of the Bavarian Regiobahn (BRB).
“We are showing an example of a modern rail vehicle that is common in local rail passenger transport in Bavaria and how we would like it to be in regular operation on the Fuchstalbahn in the future,” explains employee Anais Schuster Brandis.
The BRB is then also responsible for the organization and responsibility of the trip.
The start and finish is not in Landsberg but in Kaufering
Surprisingly, the start and finish is not in Landsberg, but in Kaufering.
"This is due to the possibilities of organizing the boarding for a special trip or the routes that the DB makes available," says the Greens.
"That was not possible from Landsberg."
Some passengers meet again two days later
Some of the passengers will meet again two days later in the Schongau town hall.
As reported, Mayor Falk Sluyterman invites you to the round table that has been announced for a long time and has been postponed again and again on July 26th.
Traffic engineer Andreas Holzhey will then also only present his eagerly awaited key issues paper to invited guests.
The paper is intended to give an approximate cost framework for reactivating the Fuchstalbahn and indicate subsidy options.
And it should shed more light on the amendments to the railway laws that have been made in the meantime.
A traffic engineer has to persuade neighboring communities
Especially with representatives of the neighboring communities, Holzhey, who owns the station buildings in Schongau and Landsberg, will have to do a lot of persuasion at the round table.
In Denklingen and Hohenfurch in particular, skepticism has prevailed recently.
In Landsberg, too, enthusiasm was limited due to the expected costs.
In Schongau, the mayor had already warned of an early end to the reactivation efforts if the city were to be forced to finance a necessary new electronic signal box in the city.
According to the Bavarian Railway Company (BEG), the renewal of the control and safety technology in Schongau station and on the adjacent sections of the route, which is necessary for reactivation, will cost 20 million euros alone.
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