The Weilheim city bus will soon be going to Marnbach and the Trifthof - and it won't cost the city anything

Created: 06/24/2022, 10:00 am

By: Magnus Reitinger

From October there will be something new on the display boards and in the timetables of the Weilheim city bus: An additional line 5 will then also run to Deutenhausen, Marnbach, Trifthof and Achalaich on a trial basis.

© gronau

From October, Weilheim's city bus will also be serving Deutenhausen and Marnbach as well as the Trifthof and Achalaich commercial areas – for a six-month trial.

The test run for this additional line 5 does not cost the city a cent.

Weilheim

– more bus without more costs: This constellation made the decision easy for the main committee of the Weilheim city council.

The committee unanimously decided on Wednesday to try out an additional city bus line for six months.

Stadtwerke Weilheim, as the operator, bears the costs for this themselves. They use money from greenhouse gas quota trading for this: the municipal company earns 12,600 euros a year for each electric bus, for example from mineral oil companies.

That's a total of 63,000 euros a year for five buses that have not yet been planned elsewhere because this regulation has only been in effect since the beginning of 2022.

Stadtwerke board: surveys not very meaningful

The planned trial operation has thus already been financed.

The new line 5 connects both the districts of Marnbach and Deutenhausen in the east of Weilheim and the commercial areas of Trifthof and Achalaich in the south.

The fact that no city buses have been running here so far has often been criticized.

Stadtwerke board member Peter Müller wants to remedy this with the additional offer and at the same time "determine the actual need".

Because surveys are not very meaningful in this regard, said Müller in the main committee, referring to a current example: more than 100 signatures were submitted in February for the "Unterhausen-Kindergarten" stop.

In fact, in a survey period of 14 days, only ten entries and eleven exits were counted at this stop.

Trying is better than asking questions, says the Stadtwerke boss.

In this sense, there is a six-month trial run for the additional line 5 from October 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023. The fifth e-bus required for this is already available;

A diesel-powered vehicle then acts as a replacement bus for all lines.

Polling could also be connected

Line 5 is to run from the station via Achalaich to the Trifthof and back, on the one hand, and via Deutenhausen to Marnbach and back again on the other.

Seven such circulations would be possible on weekdays and six on weekends and public holidays.

"If the circulation starts at the station, the bus could also fill a time gap that still exists on the connection between the station and the Unterer Graben," says Müller.

It is currently being coordinated how, in particular, the journeys to and from Marnbach can be integrated into the existing, but non-clocked RVO offer on this route.

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Polling could also be connected to line 5 of the Weilheim city bus (also with a stop in Achalaich);

the community has yet to make a decision on this.

Polling's town hall has until June 30th, otherwise the monastery - which would have to contribute financially - will not be there for the time being during the trial operation, explains the Stadtwerke boss when asked by the "Tagblatt".

Combined with this, a train station-vocational school-station loop would also be conceivable;

However, Müller does not anticipate any demand for this.

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Now it depends on the city bus users

Whether the connection of Marnbach/Deutenhausen and Trifthof/Achalaich is permanently possible, according to the committee, now depends on how the test run is accepted.

Petra Arneth-Mangano (SPD) recalled that a trial operation to Marnbach had been discontinued a few years ago.

"But the city bus itself was also abolished and later reinstated - and has now proven itself." It is now all the more important to "actively approach the people on site", concluded Arneth-Mangano, and to convey to them that that it depends on the concrete use in the trial phase.

Towards the middle of the trial period, i.e. in January 2023, the city and municipal utilities want to decide “whether the line will be discontinued or changed, whether the trial operation will be extended or continuous operation will take place”.