The district council Offenbach decided on Wednesday about the future of the ferry between Maintal and Mühlheim.
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- Offenbacher District Council has over the ferry decided
- It has been standing for two and a half yearsMS Dörnigheim still
- Citizens’ Initiative fought for preservation
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The members of the Main Ferry Citizens’ Initiative (BI) for the receipt of the ferry connection. This struggle now seems to be finally lost. On Wednesday the District Day of Offenbach district mostly the final decommissioning of the ferry. Before the vote, as the Hessenschau reports, there was a verbal exchange of blows between the opposition and the factions of the CDU and SPD. The latter have the majority in Offenbach district council and were therefore able to pass the application without the votes from the opposition. The ferry service between the city of Mühlheim and the Dörnigheim district of Maintal is now history after 120 years.
Upon request, the district spokeswoman said Offenbach: “Of course it was a difficult decision to stop operating the ferry. But you have to recognize that, given the current possibilities, it cannot be done either in terms of personnel or economically. ”
Open letter to Priska Hinz should change the Offenbach district regarding the ferry
Until the end she had WITH A used to maintain their beloved ferry. In mid-June they even tried to get the state government on board. In an open letter asked Christian Wolf, Member of BI and city councilor in Mainz City Parliament for the fraction of the Alternative choice Maintal (WAM), the Hessian Minister of the Environment Priska Hinz for help. This is because she is familiar with the local conditions. From 1989 to 1994, Priska Hinz worked as a city treasurer and social department for the city of Maintal. Wolf also referred in the open letter to the environmental aspect, which should not be neglected with the ferry. “This creates a detour over the Steinheimer Brücke according to the route planner of 12.7 km via the B43. The environmental pollution caused by exhaust gases and CO2 can be avoided by continuing to operate the ferry, ”Wolf said in his letter.
The MS Dörnigheim is now to be sold.
© Jan Max Gepperth
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However, the request for help did not receive an answer. When asked by the Hessian Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, it was declared that the letter had been noted, but had been passed on to the Ministry of Economy. No feedback had been issued there until the decision was made on Wednesday. This means that the hoped for help does not come “from above”.
Ferry: Klaus Seibert criticizes, among other things, the Offenbach district for its approach
Klaus Seibert, deputy group leader of the WAM in Mainz City Parliament and also a member of BI is visibly upset about the result of the vote. With the termination of the ferry service, “an important, cheap and also environmentally friendly connection of the two cities and counties” would be intentionally destroyed.
Seibert, however, does not seem to be surprised: “That was foreseeable,” explains the local politician when asked. For a long time, he had suspected that it was wanted from the beginning to shut down the ferry. “So far, however, this project has been countered by the resistance of citizens on both sides of the Main with a variety of actions. But now that everything is almost all about Corona, the politicians in charge seemed to have more than a chance to finally cut the ferry connection, ”said Seibert.
Above all, he criticizes the lack of willingness to communicate. According to Seibert, it would have been necessary for the two Counties, the cities Maintal and Mühlheim and the citizens’ initiative come together for a constructive conversation. “The immediate termination of the former ferry operator, the rejection of all early applications for continued operation, circumstances of the accident in July 2019, the non-contacting of possible new ferry guides and so on. only allow one conclusion that the decommissioning of the ferry was carried out from the start, ”Seibert summarizes.
The ferry was repaired by the Offenbach district
The MS Dörnigheim is the name of the Mühlheimer ferry, was shut down in October 2017 due to possible security deficiencies. He saw himself as the owner of the ferry Offenbach district forced to take this step for liability reasons. The Offenbach district then had the ferry repaired. At the same time, the position of the ferry operator was advertised and the financing of the operations from the counties Offenbach and Main-Kinzig district as well as the cities Mühlheim and Maintal supported. The ferry was scheduled to resume operation on July 8, 2019. However, this restart ended after a few hours in an accident. The reason for this is said to have been a driving error. This is due to the lack of qualifications of the ferry staff.
District council decision: Sink of the Main ferry Mühlheim sealed https://t.co/byFRI0G4So
– hessenschau (@hessenschau) June 24, 2020
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In the next few months, the district of Offenbach again unsuccessfully advertised the operator position and began to examine the possibility of operating it themselves. However, these plans were thwarted due to the lack of ferry personnel and ultimately due to the legal situation. Now it seems MS Dörnigheim, which is currently in Frankfurt’s Osthafen, will be put out of service permanently. The ship and the associated ancillary facilities are now to be sold. If this is not possible, the ship should be disposed of properly according to the decision of the district council.
After the decision of the Offenbach district: Maintal checks the ferry’s own operation
The last hope for a ferry now rests on the city Maintal. In the last city council meeting, the MPs decided that the magistrate should have a check carried out to determine whether the city of Maintal could take over the ferry as the operator. The Greens also brought this application into play for the possibility of a motorboat ferry for pedestrians and cyclists. It remains to be seen whether this examination will be successful or whether it will fail due to the legal hurdles. Upon request, the press spokeswoman for the Offenbach district said that the city Maintal didn’t want to put any obstacles in the way of this project: “If the city Maintal if she wants to buy the ship, she should do it. “
Those: Hanauer scoreboard
Category list image: © Jan Max Gepperth
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