At Walchensee: More buses in summer

Created: 05/04/2022, 09:00

By: Susanne Weiss

The Walchensee is extremely popular with day trippers.

Now the bus connections are to be improved.

© Eberl/A

More buses between Kochel am See and Walchensee: That could soon come true.

The RVO would like to implement the clock compression at the beginning of June.

Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen

– A bus connection between Kochel am See and Walchensee every half hour in the summer months: This measure has priority 1 in the local transport plan.

The district infrastructure committee spoke out in favor of this at its meeting on Monday.

Line 9608 runs between Kochel am See and Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

However, since the neighboring district “is not available for the first time”, as Matthias Schmid, who is responsible for public transport at the Tölz district office, reported, the additional buses would turn around in Einsiedl and drive back to Kochel am See.

"The turning option was built with the alternative parking lot on the southern shore of Lake Walchen," says Schmid.

Passenger potential on nice days is there

Georg Riesch (Free Voters) drew attention to a shortcoming with his question as to how the buses were getting through so far.

"When there is a traffic jam, the buses are also stuck in traffic," admitted Schmid.

But: "We want to create the offer so that the day-trippers don't come by car." Ideally, they would travel by train.

In order for people to change, there must also be the appropriate parking spaces and a traffic control system in Kochel, demanded Michael Häsch (CSU).

He also inquired about the previous utilization of the line.

According to Schmid, there is still capacity in bad weather.

In good weather, on the other hand, the RVO has already used amplifier buses at its own expense in the past.

"The potential for passengers on nice days is there," emphasized the department head.

However, being able to react flexibly is a fundamental problem of public transport.

For the increase in frequency between Kochel am See and Einsiedl this summer, the RVO estimates 65,000 euros in additional costs for the district.

That could be covered thanks to an unexpected income: the district received 750,000 euros for the down payments in 2020 from the Corona rescue package from the federal government, which was not planned in the budget, reported Schmid.

However, in view of the high fuel prices, further additional costs for public transport could come to the district.

These uncertain times worried Anton Ortlieb (Freie Wahler).

Even if the measure "is to be welcomed from the point of view of the Loisach Valley", said the Benediktbeurer.

"Only if the bus drives attractively do you leave the car at home"

Franz Schöttl (CSU) also kept an eye on the costs.

"All in all, I would like to say that we will do that, but in the current situation I do not see myself in a position to agree to that," he said and advocated pushing the frequency increase to next year.

Jakob Koch (Greens) was a passionate advocate of the compression of the clock.

"Of course we are in uncertain times, but they will not become safer." The climate crisis will not wait because fuel prices are high.

"Only if the bus drives attractively do you leave the car behind," says Koch.

Group colleague Wolfgang Goymann also thought it appropriate to take up the RVO's offer.

"We'll get the nine-euro ticket very soon.

I can imagine that this is particularly interesting for this line,” he said.

The benefit finally falls into the main excursion time.

In the end, nine committee members voted in favor of the planned measure.

Franz Schöttl, Anton Ortlieb and Lydia Hofherr (CSU) were against it.

You can find even more current news from the region around at Merkur.de/Bad Tölz.