Local transport: Bad testimony for the district - transfer at risk

After years of intensive work, the local transport concept has now been presented.

The content is explosive: In order to establish at least the actually prescribed minimum offer, the district will have to spend millions.

District

– Felix Kühnel from the company plan:mobil in Kassel, which created the local transport concept on behalf of the district, was very diplomatic when he presented the draft of the concept to the district’s environmental committee on Monday.

He didn't say a word about the situation of local public transport in the Weilheim-Schongau district.

But the data he presented are very clear.

You only have to scroll through your presentation to the overview that lists all the bus lines that the district would have to introduce in order to at least meet the minimum offer according to the Bavarian guideline for local transport planning.

The list is long.

And at the end of the day, what it would cost to implement them each year: around 3.8 million euros.

If you subtract the expected fare income and the currently available subsidies from this number, the bottom line is that there is an annual need for subsidies of around 2.2 million euros for minimal public transport in the district.

Alpenbus as a fast connection between the districts in the Oberland

In addition to the "Alpenbus", which would create a fast, national connection from Murnau via Penzberg, Tölz to Miesbach (and possibly Rosenheim, but people are still shy there), the list also includes numerous lines in the district.

For example, the connection from Peißenberg via Huglfing to Penzberg, the line from Schongau via Peiting to Hohenpeißenberg, from Weilheim via Polling to Eberfing, from Eglfing via Obersöchering to Habach, from Prem to Steingaden, and from Steingaden via Wildsteig to Rottenbuch.

Mind you: These are only the lines that have the highest priority according to local transport planners.

There are ten more - including the connections from Schongau to Füssen, to Landsberg and to Marktoberdorf or the line from Weilheim via Iffeldorf to Penzberg, which have a lower priority but are still necessary to meet the minimum standards.

The debates preferred to be about the omissions of others

This was bad news for the members of the Environment Committee.

And they chose to largely ignore them in the debate.

Instead much has been done to blame others.

There was a lot of criticism of the district's participation in the "Alpenbus" project, which had actually already been decided.

Tenor: If the Free State wants this line, as announced by the CSU in the election campaign, it should also bear the costs for it.

There was also a lot of talk about rail transport in the district.

Although almost every request to speak began with the statement "I realize that the district is not responsible for local rail transport", the two-track expansion of the Pfaffenwinkelbahn was repeatedly demanded.

Until district administrator Andrea Jochner-Weiss lost patience: "What do you think we do in the district office?" she asked.

For decades people have been fighting for the expansion of the route.

"But it is difficult."

Millions of expensive train stop at a hospital that is to be closed?

In the debate raised again by Hans Schütz (Greens/Peiting) about an extension of the railway line from the train station to the hospital in Schongau, Jochner-Weiss then at some point laid down his arms.

District Treasurer Norbert Merk had previously stated that it had already been investigated.

The 600 meter long route would cost a “double-digit million amount”, quite apart from the fact that the required 1000 passengers per day cannot be reached at this stop.

Schütz stuck to his request and the district administrator finally agreed to include the additional stop in the local transport plan.

Knowing full well that this is like a wish list and that every single project, every line listed in it has to be discussed and decided on again individually in the district council.

IHK calls for MVV network tariff and public transport as a real alternative to driving your own car

By then at the latest, one will also have to deal with the content of the state of public transport in the district, which so far has not had much to offer apart from school bus traffic.

Because the need is there, as the statements made by the 79 communities, associations and institutions that were heard in the course of drawing up the plan make it clear.

The Chamber of Industry and Commerce, for example, leaves no doubt as to what its member companies expect from the district: an increase in the attractiveness of public transport by joining the MVV collective tariff, the expansion of the rail infrastructure, ensuring that the bus is a real alternative to travel with your own car.

This is to be achieved by connecting the existing rail network with buses in such a way that people can get to and from work reliably every day.

According to the IHK, demand-driven, cost-efficient forms of service such as on-demand buses should also be used.

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