Landsberg - So far, two bus routes have served companies in the Landsberger Frauenwald: routes 6 and 302. They are supposed to bring employees from Edeka or iwis, for example, to and from their workplaces car-free.
The lines of the city and district of Landsberg were only set up in December last year - and now they are already being discontinued.
Because nobody wants to drive with it.
The district committee decided to replace it with the AST shared call taxi for the time being.
Line 302 goes from Kaufering to the stops Celsiusstraße Ost and West, Fahrenheitstraße or Emmy-Noether-Straße.
Line 6 covers the same stops, but departs from St. Ulrich-Platz in the west of Landsberg.
After almost a year, the new local transport expert in the district office Florian Köhler - he succeeds Dietmar Winkler, who retired in the summer - presented the sobering balance sheet: Since December there has been a total of 334.60 euros on route 302. And on line 6, it's a whopping 0 euros - not a single passenger was transported. The costs for the two lines in the previous term are, however, 177,524 euros, i.e. around 89,000 euros each for the city and district - thus cost coverage of well below one percent. Of the job tickets issued, from which at least minimal income had been hoped for, 125 were distributed to the companies - but only four of them were passed on to employees.
The two bus routes were intended as a “feeder line to industry”, as District Administrator Thomas Eichinger said in the district committee. Its continuation with a cost coverage of less than one percent is irresponsible: "This is a burning of public money." Even if Corona has slowed down the entire public transport system, this result is clear. Mayor Doris Baumgartl also spoke of a "sobering result". Many companies had approached the city about this possibility. “But we don't have to pay for anything.” She advocates the possibility of an AST connection. You can evaluate again after a period of one year. A reintroduction as a bus line is of course possible, also stated Köhler. Then you could start with a small Sprinter bus, for example.
Voices of the companies
"We advertised the bus route to Frauenwald and the associated discounted job ticket at a staff meeting, through our staff newspaper, our notice boards and our internal company intranet," says Emilia Schmitz, management assistant at iwis Munich.
Unfortunately, it turned out that the employees mainly go to work by bike or by car.
The Landsberg employees stated in a survey that they went shopping on the way home or picked up their children and were simply more flexible by car than by bus.
But there are also employees from Munich at the Landsberg plant.
And for them the bus ticket is "unfortunately out of the question".
Christian Strauss from the Edeka Südbayern press office also emphasizes that the job ticket was "actively advertised internally".
It is believed that the lack of interest is related to the corona pandemic.
For Edeka, a public transport connection is "an important concern" - which is why they will seek a discussion with the district office.
"We are also happy to offer the opportunity to actively participate in finding a solution."
According to information from the city of Landsberg, Ilim Timber was also (and above all) one of the companies that was strongly committed to creating bus connections.
So far, however, the company has not received an answer despite repeated inquiries from the editorial team.
The district committee decided unanimously to replace the previous bus routes with AST from December 1st - its operator, the taxi company Thoma, agreed. The stops remained the same, as did the starting points at Kaufering and St. Ulrich-Platz. The timetable could even be extended to an hourly cycle, from around half past five in the morning until midnight. The taxis must be ordered at least three quarters of an hour in advance. The cost per trip is 13 euros, of which the passenger pays three euros, with five remaining for the district and the city. If ten percent of the total of 76 possible journeys that are offered daily are used, costs of around 80 euros per day are incurred for the city and district. For one year of operation, Köhler expects costs of around 25,000 euros.
After one year, the AST usage should then be evaluated in order to be able to react accordingly.
A specific time limit of one year is not necessary, according to Köhler: "Because if it is not used, it doesn't cost us anything."
