Besigheim/Walheim/Kirchheim. Commuters who depend on the Frankenbahn have had to prove their ability to suffer again and again in the past: sometimes there was trouble because of failures and unpunctuality, sometimes because of overcrowded and unair-conditioned trains. And now? With the timetable change on December 13th, three stops will be permanently canceled in the early morning hours. For example, if you want to travel to Stuttgart from Besigheim, you only have three travel options between 6.17 and 7.40 a.m., up to now there have been six. The trains of the operator Go-Ahead at 6.29 a.m., 6.58 a.m. and 7.35 a.m. will continue to run through Besigheim in the future, but they will no longer stop there. Nordheim, Lauffen, Kirchheim and Walheim are also affected by the cancellation of the train stops (we reported).
And in the local communities there is great displeasure – especially with a view to the pandemic: The fewer trains there are to choose from, the narrower it will be in the wagons. Besigheim’s mayor Steffen Bühler formulated it similarly in his letter to Transport Minister Winfried Hermann, whose house is responsible for the timetable changes: The decision to cancel three stops does not in any way fit into the corona-related special circumstances of our time, “because then people in the trains will be even more crowded and there will be more infections than ever since ”. However, the Ministry of Transport sees it differently. “On the basis of actual passenger numbers, it was checked to what extent the restructuring of the regional trains could lead to an overload. It was undetectable. Apart from day-specific peaks in demand, ”said Edgar Neumann, head of the ministry’s press office, when our newspaper asked. The utilization of the Frankenbahn trains is around 80 percent during rush hour – “the restructuring will only lead to relocations”.
The spokesman for the authorities explains why the timetable changes in the first place: “During the day, express connections run between Heilbronn and Stuttgart (Würzburg – Heilbronn – Stuttgart), which only stop in Bietigheim and Ludwigsburg and offer an attractive travel time. During the morning rush hour, this was not the case in recent years; so far, only trains stopping at all stations between Heilbronn and Bietigheim have run before 8 a.m. That is often criticized. ”That means: Usually the regional express trains (RE) only make a few intermediate stops, but this is currently different in the morning between Heilbronn and Stuttgart. The travel time for the commuters is longer. Therefore, the connection from Heilbronn to Stuttgart should become more attractive again in the morning rush hour and the intermediate stops should be eliminated – “the attractive half-hourly service remains for those on the move”. This is the standard intended for such connections; A train stops around every 30 minutes in Kirchheim, Walheim and Besigheim. There are no changes in the evening commuter traffic, there is already a mixture of half-hour trains with all stops from Bietigheim and express trains without stops between Bietigheim and Heilbronn.
However, it is precisely the argument of saving time for commuters from Würzburg / Heilbronn that critics view with skepticism and disagree. The time saved by eliminating the five stops on the route from Lauda or Neckarsulm to Stuttgart is zero minutes in two cases and one minute in one case. The CDU parliamentary group leader Achim Schober said on Tuesday evening in the administrative committee of the Besigheim municipal council. He presented a resolution with which the local council advocates that the responsible ministry of transport and the local transport company present solutions in the short and medium term to improve the situation that will apply from mid-December.
Specifically, the ministry and the transport company are asked to make improvements. “For reasons of health protection during the current corona pandemic, the local council is calling for compensation for the new timetable on the Frankenbahn between 6 and 8 a.m. at short notice by means of extended trains or special trains stopping in Besigheim in order to increase capacity and thus a greater distance between the To enable train passengers “, is in the resolution, which was passed unanimously. The lack of understanding about the deletion is great. Helmut Fischer (BMU) had contacted the ministry and the local transport company in the past few days to find out “how something like this could happen”. However, he has not yet received an answer. The transport committee of the state parliament is not involved in such decisions – “our state parliament members were also very surprised”.
The Besigheim City Council also demands that the canceled stops be included in the timetable again in the medium term. Mayor Bühler also asked in his letter to the Minister of Transport that the planned deletions should not be implemented or that they should be reversed as soon as possible. However, that should hardly be possible. “The decision is final and no more changes are planned,” the Ministry of Transport informed our newspaper when asked, referring to the greater operational stability and the existing trains, which depart only a few minutes apart.
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