When the bamberger city council on 6. When he cast his long-delayed vote in favor of an above-ground railroad through bamberg on march of this year, he was able to point to a key pledge. The rail expansion is intended to make it possible to upgrade the local transport link to the south of the city. This is exacerbated by the s-bahn-halt-sud project, a multi-million euro project first promised by the then minister of transport joachim herrmann in june 2017.
Of course, the commitment to the south station does not mean that the station will be busy, that more commuter trains will stop in bamberg than before, as some may think. Six weeks after the memorable decision, it has become clear that local transport is not benefiting from the expansion. For example, the S-bahn S 1. The train coming from nurnberg currently reaches the cathedral city once an hour – too seldom, as critics have complained for years. That's why they are calling for a 20-minute service beyond forchheim to bamberg.
The contradiction is all the clearer now that the bavarian railroad company (BEG), which is responsible for local traffic, admits that the four-track expansion will eliminate the most important hurdles that have hampered the frequency of trains. By doubling the number of tracks in bamberg, fast ICE and express trains could be separated from the slower commuter and regional train services, allowing for a much less conflict-prone operation, the BEG announced upon request.
But as the company, which is wholly owned by the state of bavaria, also says, after the billion-euro expansion, not a single additional commuter train will run between bamberg and forchheim: "there are currently no plans to increase the number of commuter trains to and from bamberg." The BEG cites as reasons not only the high costs associated with additional suburban trains as well as additional infrastructure at the railroad stations. North of erlangen, the current regional express and suburban train service is "designed to meet demand".
BEG saves money in a city that will be heavily burdened by years of expansion? In march, bamberg's mayor andreas stark (SPD) and mayor christian lange (CSU) joined forces to demand that the extension through bamberg be linked to an improvement in local transport – in addition to the S-bahn stop with, in their view, a compelling link to the east and west. An expectation based on increasing population, hopes for the south of the city and growing local traffic. In fact, demand for local rail transport between nurnberg and bamberg has climbed by 25 percent since 2011.
The VGN (verkehrsverbund grobraum nurnberg) is also asking itself whether local rail transport in bamberg is fit for the future. The nurnberg-bamberg axis is already the strongest local transport link in the network of 16 counties and eight independent cities, says dirk domhardt of the VGN. However: if bamberg wants to achieve that more than one train per hour stops at the new S-bahn stations, there will be no getting around a new potential analysis. The traffic planner weib: whoever wants to convince the bavarian railroad company needs good arguments.And the necessary emphasis.
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