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OfAnnette Schlegl
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shut down
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The city council majority voted for the introduction of the Hopper on-call bus. On the other hand, from 2022 on, there will be ten percent fewer city buses and no more collective call taxis.
In the coming summer, the “Hopper” will be on the road for the first time in Langen. The majority of city councilors voted in the latest session to introduce the small on-call bus in the city. Only the Free Voters (FWG-NEV) voted against it. You see in the hopper, which travels without a rigid timetable or fixed route, “a nice idea if you are swimming in the money, but not for the basic supply.”
According to the contract, the city bus will run in Langen until 2027. With the introduction of the hopper in the second half of 2022, fewer city buses should be on the road during off-peak times, which means ten percent savings. In addition, the municipal utilities will discontinue the collective call taxis (AST).
The mini electric buses are to run in Langen in stages: in 2022, two will be on the road for the first time, then four in 2023, and then probably eight from 2025. Since the hopper will be funded by the federal and state governments until 2024, the city of Langen will assume almost 115,000 euros in the coming year and almost 230,000 euros in 2023 for its use.
From 2024 it will be expensive, because then the roundabout company (KVG) Offenbach will bear the costs that its deficit will pass on to the municipalities via the district levy. They finance the hopper from their higher district levy. For Langen this means: 755,000 euros in costs in 2024, 977,000 euros in 2025 and 990,000 euros in 2026. Mind you, in addition to the costs incurred by the city bus.
Nevertheless, it makes sense to introduce the hopper in Langen, said the parliamentarians. The city has to contribute to the KVG’s deficit through the district levy even if it does not use the on-call buses. “The hopper can make public transport more flexible,” said Rainer Bicknase (SPD). In addition, large buses would often run empty. Claudia Trippel (FWG-NEV), on the other hand, calculated that 30 subsidized and 37 unsupported hopper vehicles in the Offenbach district will run into a deficit of 27.4 million euros by 2024. “With federal and state funding, it is still 21.2 million euros,” she said. The city bus carried around 1.4 million passengers in Langen in 2019 and caused a deficit of 600,000 euros. That meant a grant of 2.33 euros per passenger. If the same grant amount is used as a basis for the hopper, more than 500,000 passengers would have to order it annually.
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