From this timetable change, there will be hourly intervals on more routes, some new vehicles and better connections.
More overhead lines mean more train traffic
Above all, however, there is more electric driving in Bavaria, says Florian Liese, who is responsible for planning at the Bavarian Railway Company (BEG). Electricity can be used on many routes where diesel locomotives have previously been on the road. So from Munich via Memmingen to Lindau, but also on the southern railway from Lindau via Friedrichshafen to Stuttgart. It is also possible to drive electrically from Pfronten / Steinach via Garmisch to Munich.
Clock compression in Franconia
In the coalition agreement, the CSU and Free Voters have agreed that they want to reduce rail traffic as much as possible to one hour in the morning and in the evening. The BEG organizes regional transport for the state government and orders the transport service, i.e. the offer on the rails in Bavaria.
The E-Netz Mainfranken, for example, will continue to be operated by DB Regio with a new contract. As a result, something has improved around Würzburg: the trains have been modernized and more trains are running on many routes, according to the BEG
- RB 53 Bamberg – Würzburg – Schlüchtern: Gaps between Schweinfurt and Haßfurt will be closed. In the Bamberg – Schweinfurt section, trains now also run every hour on weekends. In addition, there are more connections between Gemünden (Main) and Schlüchtern in Hesse (connection to the RE traffic to Fulda and Frankfurt am Main). Commuters benefit from new train connections in commuter traffic.
- RB 79 Aschaffenburg – Würzburg – Kitzingen: Monday to Friday, additional trips are offered in the early afternoon.
- RB 85 Würzburg – Lauda – Osterburken: The line also runs every hour between Würzburg and Lauda on weekends.
In addition, the BEG closes gaps every hour on numerous lines throughout Bavaria.
Along with the Nuremberg S-Bahn, the Nuremberg diesel network is the second important mainstay of local rail passenger transport in the Franconian metropolitan area. The route is not electrified. There are now hourly intervals on individual routes between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m. There are also more trains on the weekends.
Biggest change in the Allgäu
The start of electrical operation on the Munich – Memmingen – Lindau axis leads to timetable changes on almost all routes in the Allgäu.
Long-distance traffic from Munich to Lindau to Zurich switched to electrical operation last year. This is now also followed by the regional traffic Munich – Memmingen – Lindau. Go-Ahead has taken over these routes from DB and equipped them with brand-new and barrier-free electric vehicles of the Stadler FLIRT type.
The travel time between Munich and Memmingen is shortened every two hours to 1 hour 4 minutes in regional traffic, so passengers are 25 minutes faster on the road. (currently 1 hour 29 minutes). Together, the RE 96 and RB 92 lines provide a continuous daily hourly service between Memmingen and Lindau.
In fact, the numbering RE 96 is cleverly chosen, because this line leads on some sections along the Lindau A96 motorway or crosses it. This is how drivers see the trains go by.
However, with electrification, fewer diesel trains are going to Munich. According to Deutsche Bahn, this is necessary “because it is neither ecologically nor economically justifiable to have an unchanged high number of diesel-powered trains from the southern Allgäu on the newly electrified route to Munich.” But that means that passengers from Füssen or Kempten have to change trains if they want to go to Munich. Many worry that they will miss connecting trains.
Waiting for the overhead line or powerful batteries
Around half of the direct connections from Füssen, Kaufbeuren, Immenstadt or Kempten to Munich are no longer available. Because in future fewer diesel trains will be allowed to cut in from the southern, non-electric feeder routes to the Lindau-Memmingen-Munich route and drive through to the state capital, “for environmental reasons,” says BEG planning chief Liese. The BEG’s motto when creating the new timetable concept was “as few diesel vehicles as possible on electrified routes, but still direct connections to the state capital from all parts of the Allgäu.”
However, Liese did not want to make a prognosis as to when this situation would change again. That depends on the technical development in battery technology and the progress of electrification, for which the new federal government is responsible. Because so far the battery power would not be sufficient on the long stretches in the Allgäu.
Pro-Bahn warns of a buck game between the Free State and the federal government. The chairman of the passenger association in Bavaria, Lukas Iffländer, certifies that the BEG is doing business economically, because electric operation is significantly cheaper than diesel vehicles. So more traffic could be ordered for the same money.
The Free State and the federal government are both asked to advance electrification in the direction of Kempten and Füssen more quickly than in a few years. From the passenger’s point of view, it is incomprehensible that passengers from Landsberg and Lagerlechfeld have to change trains in Kaufering, which could have been avoided, said Iffländer. This also applies to Augsburg.
Express buses around Munich – but no better S-Bahn
In the greater Munich area, where almost two thirds of Bavarian local transport passengers are on the move, little is happening on the rails. According to Liese, passengers would have to wait another year for the longed-for twenty-minute intervals on the outer branches of the S-Bahn.
But there is a new Express-Bus-Ring around Munich: a total of seven lines connect important destinations in the fastest and most direct way possible, so that in future there will be no detour via Munich city center for many passengers. The city and passengers alike are happy about this – Andreas Barth from Pro Bahn Oberbayern, calculates that the journey from Garching to Dachau in the express bus would only take half the time it had previously with the U-Bahn and S-Bahn via Munich.
The conclusion of this timetable change: Lots of light, but also shade, and a great deal of effort is required to get more people to switch from cars to public transport.
All timetable changes and departure times in the network
The BEG has listed the timetable changes in Bavarian regional and local transport, which come into force on December 12, in detail and sorted by region on a separate information page: www.bahnland-bayern.de/fahrplanwechsel. Customers can find the timetable digitally in the popular apps of the railways and transport associations and also under www.bayern-fahrplan.de the whole course book is under www.bayern-kursbuch.de ready for download. The course book is no longer printed, but only in digital form. The background to this is that the vast majority of passengers now use electronic media to obtain information.
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