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OfAnnette Schlegl
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shut down
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The “Citizens for Dreieich” parliamentary group considers the Ruf-Bus Hopper to be too expensive and fears that when it is introduced in the city of Dreieich, the public transport offer will be thinned out.
Luxury taxi – this is how the “Citizens for Dreieich” faction describes the small “Hopper” bus, which has been on the road for two years in Hainburg, Mainhausen and Seligenstadt as far as Hanau, and whose area of operation is now to be extended to the entire Offenbach district. Too expensive – both for the citizens and for the municipalities, judges the parliamentary group.
Andreas Maatz, managing director of the Offenbach roundabout company (KVG), is annoyed by the term. The hopper costs the user: inside, namely only one euro comfort surcharge more than the regular bus. You will be picked up or brought there directly at the front door.
The KVG is planning to expand the area of application of the Ruf bus and is currently inquiring about the general willingness of the municipalities to introduce it. The majority of the parliamentarians in Rödermark and Egelsbach have already approved, in Dreieich the decision of the city council is due on Tuesday, in Langen on Thursday.
In Dreieich they basically say “yes” to the hopper, but demand that the concept for implementation and financing be specified more precisely. In its most recent meeting, the main committee unanimously agreed to the appropriately formulated municipal submission. The “Citizens for Dreieich”, on the other hand, see disaster: “It is already becoming apparent that the cities will use the opportunity to replace functioning public transport offers with the hopper”, it says in their press release. Mühlheim, for example, is considering whether the city bus could not be completely abolished, while in Dreieich there is talk of abolishing the call collective taxi (AST). The parliamentary group is of the opinion that the hopper could at best be a supplementary offer – “but only with a functioning and excellently developed bus and train network”. As a purely additional offer, the small Ruf bus with an annual cost of 250,000 euros is too expensive for Dreieich.
Planned from summer 2022
“It is clear to everyone that public transport is generally becoming more expensive,” says KVG managing director Maatz, and gives an example from Langen: The cost of the city bus there would have doubled within ten years. He sees the public transport system of the future in the Hopper. “Public transport is becoming more expensive – with or without a hopper,” he explains.
The Ruf buses in Dreieich could be fully electric on the road in summer 2022 at the earliest. As part of the “Clean Air” program, the KVG has submitted funding applications to the federal government for municipalities with local borders with Frankfurt or Offenbach – i.e. for Mühlheim, Obertshausen, Heusenstamm, Neu-Isenburg and Dreieich. This funding was approved until 2024. The grants totaling 5.65 million euros would help finance hopper traffic in the entire district.
“As long as these five cities don’t participate, we won’t get any subsidies,” says Maatz. Then it will be more expensive for the KVG, which will have a deficit in the higher single-digit million range from 2022 to 2024. Since, according to the latest district council resolution, public transport will be financed exclusively from the district budget from 2022, all district municipalities will then pay more surcharges for buses, trains and hoppers. “The hopper will initially be advertised until 2024,” says Maatz and will take a close look at the development until then.
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