VCD in Hessen: Don’t save on local transport

• fromFlorian Leclerc

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The VCD calls on the Hessian state government to continue promoting local transport even after the pandemic. Otherwise municipalities would have to cut the offer.

The regional group of the Verkehrsclub Deutschland (VCD) warns against reducing funding for local public transport after the pandemic. This emerges from an open letter to the Hessian Prime Minister Volker Bouffier (CDU) and the Hessian Transport Minister Tarek Al-Wazir (Greens). “Trust in the local public transport system, which has been weakened by the pandemic, can only be built up through recognizable and continuous performance improvements, technical expansion and route reactivation,” said Mathias Biemann, spokesman for the VCD regional group Rhine-Main.

The federal and state governments strongly promoted public transport during the pandemic in order to compensate for the losses in income. Now some municipalities would have to turn to the savings screw due to tax shortfalls. Biemann named Offenbach as an example. When the timetable changes in December, the buses there are expected to travel around 83,000 kilometers less than planned. Between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. the buses only run every hour instead of every half hour. Biemann recalled the financial crisis in 2008, when a number of municipalities had to cut their public transport services on the instructions of the municipal financial supervisory authority. “For years, this led to a loss of confidence in the reliability of the offer among users and to people churning,” he said. Biemann demanded a 365-euro ticket for all Hessians, as planned “long-term” in the coalition agreement. fle

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