AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

'Leave the car, Hans.

10th July 1982, Page 25
10th July 1982
Page 25
Page 25, 10th July 1982 — 'Leave the car, Hans.
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Keywords : Taxicab

Let's dial our bus

IN A REMOTE rural district of West Germany children carrying their instruments to music lessons, housewives with heaped supermarket trolleys and nocturnal revellers, wisely leaving their cars at home, can now use a personalised bus service at lower cost than taxi fares.

In the experimental scheme, which has no support from public funds, Volkswagen is helping the Eschershausen community to introduce a "dial a bus" scheme, but without the expensive and sophisticated control and communication equipment which has been used in the larger projects of this kind on the Continent.

Eschershausen is a recent administrative amalgamation of a number of small towns and villages north of Gottingen, in a region where the population of around 8,000 has had only limited bus services to link with trains at Stadtoldendorf. The introduction of the new T(ele)-Bus a few weeks ago represented the culmination of almost four years of planning by the local community director, Fritz Lenke, who has been able to obtain some financial guarantees from the rural district administration.

A local taxi operator, Wilhelm Samsen, agreed to operate the scheme on a contractual basis, using two VW Caravelle sixpassenger minibuses, and his wife, Sigrid, has made her kitchen the control room for the T-Bus facility.

The two Caravelles are radiofitted and travel requests are immediately relayed to the driver of the vehicle nearest to the new picking-up point. Regular orders, such as to and from the railway station, are also accepted and the buses will stop anywhere on the road when signalled. For an experimental period of 12 months the vehicles are being provided on free loan by VW so that only operating, tax, insurance, service and wage costs have to be covered.

The area covered by the T-Bus scheme covers almost 20 square miles and has been divided into fare zones which make the charge for the longest possible journey, of about 11 miles, DM5 (£1.15). The fare across two zones is DM4 (£0.94) while any local journey costs DM3 (£0.70) per person. The bus will even come into the forecourt of the supermarket and allow passengers to load their purchases in comfort.

The diesel-engined VW Caravelles have been specially modified to carry the full passenger complement or a smaller number with, say, a pram, large trunks, or even a handicapped person in a wheelchair.

At the outset it was estimated that around 100 passengers would have to be carried daily to ensure the financial viability of the project. Experience to date indicates that this figure may well be exceeded as the service time from 6 am to midnight gives traffic spread ranging from regular commuters to elderly persons visiting friends, and from tourists to people attending social functions and places of entertainment.

Since the scheme started with a brief introductory "offer" of a flat fare of DIV11, user response has been enthusiastic.

The organisational simplicity has already caught the attention of many other German communities in which public transport needs are not adequately covered by regular bus services or where such services do not exist.

The experiment has provided a mode for similar services in Germany, and elsewhere; what other potential operators now hope for is the removal of legislative obstacles from which the pilot scheme has been exempted.

Tags

Locations: Stadtoldendorf

comments powered by Disqus