It’s an ambitious plan: in ten years, buses and trains should transport twice as many people as they do now. Now the country is looking for model municipalities. Among other things, Freiberg wants to participate.
This should be the first step towards the planned “mobility guarantee” in local public transport in Baden-Ritemberg: a total of 15 regions have applied to become a model municipality for the introduction of the so-called mobility pass as the Ministry of Transport. Announced in Stuttgart on Friday. In other words, they want to vastly expand the frequency of buses and trains with the help of a local transport tax.
According to the ministry, Biberach district, Calv district, Freiburg city, district and Karlsruhe city, Ortenaukreis, Offenburg city, Ostalbkreis, Reutlingen city, Rhein-Neckar-Kreis as well as Traffic and Tariff Association Stuttgart advertised. The latter is for the districts of Büblingen, Esslingen, Göppingen, Ludwigsburg, Reims-Murr and the state capital Stuttgart. Who will come in the train should be decided soon.
The green-black state government aims to make all places in the Southwest accessible by public transport from 5 a.m. to midnight by 2030 – a big challenge, especially in rural areas. In rural areas, “excessive fixation on the car” tends to move away, said Minister Winfried Hermann (Green) in an online forum on traffic turnaround.
By 2030, twice as many people should be using public transport as in 2010. Otherwise it would not be possible to make Baden-Württemberg climate-neutral by 2040, Hermann explained. If you take the statistics of the State Statistics Office as a basis, there is still a long way to go. Transportation performance in Baden-Ritemberg was approximately 8.6 billion person-km in 2010 and about 9.4 billion person-km in 2019.
To finance the expansion, according to the state’s view, municipalities should be given the opportunity to implement a local transport tax – also known as a “mobility pass”. Municipalities can decide whether to ask all residents or just drivers to pay. In a model test in four municipalities, monthly contributions of 10 to 57 euros were discussed. The state expects the levy to put up to 800 million euros in the municipal coffers. This will enable municipalities to expand the range of local transport services and offer tickets more cheaply.
Harman wants to take a number of measures to ensure that people in rural areas are no longer dependent on cars. More than half of rural households own two or more cars. “It’s just a very high standard.” In addition to a closer cycle to buses and trains, car sharing and better village development, there is a need for a “change in awareness” among people in rural areas. “It is essential that we make better use of many cars.” So your chances of riding along should be improved.
If the country wants to remain climate neutral by 2040, the transport sector will also have to emit significantly less carbon dioxide. The appeal “Please turn” is addressed to municipalities and citizens. Harman reaffirmed that in this election period until 2026, it is to ensure that half-hour intervals are implemented during half-hour intervals in rural areas and quarter-hour intervals in metropolitan areas. In the second phase after 2026, then full-day service should apply such that quarter-hour service will be used in metropolitan areas and half-hour service in rural areas.
To achieve the goal, federal, state and local officials will have to spend more money. They had indications that the SPD, GRN and FDP, emerging traffic light partners in the federal government, wanted to increase regionalization funding to expand local transport. But district councils also have to invest more if they want to combine climate protection and good transportation.
