How much do taxis, long-distance buses or e-scooters charge?

Use or rent bicycles

If you own your own bike, you can cover the distance on foot. The bike station opposite the main train station, the fine wheels retailer at Heierstraße 24, 2-Rad Schwede at Frankfurter Weg 32 and the leisure and residential park at Lippesee in Hermann-Löns-Str. 165 offer bicycles, some of which also include e-bikes and cargo bikes, where children can also be taken along.

E-Scooter by Tier or Lime

An alternative to the bicycle are the so-called e-scooters, which are offered by the companies Tier and Lime. Big advantage: With a few exceptions, the vehicles can be parked anywhere in the core city area and returned there. So the cost clock is only ticking while you are actually driving.

Tier requires 23 cents per minute and a one-time fee of 1.20 euros per activation. Anyone who travels more often can drive for just under 6 euros for a month without an activation fee. For just under 29 euros, there are also 150 free minutes. That should be enough to get through the day of the strike. Competitor Lime charges 1 euro as an entry fee and 20 cents per minute. There are also minute packages with 60 (just under 7 euros) to 240 minutes (just under 26 euros). Lime’s territory is slightly smaller than Tier’s.

For medium and long distances, the taxi is by far the most reliable solution. The prices are specified by the state at least within a radius of 50 kilometers. The basic fee is 4.10 euros (at night: 4.30 euros). In addition, there is 2.70 euros per kilometer (at night 2.80 euros).

So-called rental cars are completely free in terms of price. The difference to taxis: they have to be called explicitly and are not allowed to wait for passengers at the side of the road. While a certificate of competence is required from taxi drivers, rental cars can also drive unskilled drivers. A loophole that companies like Uber exploit. Paderborn taxi companies also usually offer rental cars.

Car sharing and car rental

Many well-known car rental companies operate in Paderborn. If you only need a car for a short time, car sharing is an option: there are a total of three Ford Carsharing vehicles in the Paderborn city area, spread over the stations at Autohaus Kleine on Rathenaustrasse 79-83, at the tax office on Bahnhofstrasse 28 and at the City administration at Abdinghof. The system can also be booked via Deutsche Bahn’s car-sharing system (Flinkster), where frequent train drivers can use free minutes. The prices range from 3.50 to 9 euros per hour, depending on the vehicle size. Big disadvantage: the car has to be returned where it was borrowed.

Long-distance bus or rail replacement service

Public transport is still an option for other routes: the Nordwestbahn, which was affected by the strike and which runs between Bielefeld and Paderborn and in the direction of Göttingen via Höxter-Ottbergen, has announced a rail replacement service, but no details are yet known.

Another alternative, especially for longer distances, is the long-distance bus. Flixbus runs from Paderborn to Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Düsseldorf. Many connections are “almost full” and the price has skyrocketed accordingly. Eurolines runs from the Autohof Mönkeloh in Paderborn via Kassel and Göttingen to Poland, although domestic German routes are officially not bookable. The ticket to the first Polish station Okmiany costs 49 euros.