By George G. Wynne, APTA Director, International Programs
In Germany, the CityBus (Stadtbus) phenomenon—which has succeeded over the past
decade in introducing or returning public transit to underserved small and medium
cities—is continuing to improve the quality of urban life.
According to recent figures from the VDV, the German counterpart to APTA, Stadtbus
systems were introduced in 12 more communities in 2000, bringing the nationwide total to
well over 100. Last year, towns and cities with populations up to 75,000 added another 15
systems with Stadtbus characteristics to the total, and more are scheduled for launch next
year.
These pulsed systems generally feature a hub-and-spoke arrangement, a central transfer
point where all lines meet at regular intervals, constant headways, an easy-to-remember
timetable, attractive signage, intensive marketing, and local image building. They usually
comprise half a dozen or fewer lines operated by distinctively marked mid-size or
mini-buses that cover the entire community. They are managed by a very small staff,
including a manager and a handful of assistants assigned by or under contract to city
hall.
One key component in the success of Stadtbus systems is their support by the local
political leadership and the local media. Another is their publicity budgets, which
typically range up to the equivalent of $3 per inhabitant per year once the system starts
operating, even more in the period before the launch.
In many cases, the community activists who opted for their own local systems, starting
in the 1980s, were fed up with the lack of adequate public transit and mobilized political
and media support for the concept. At best, their towns were tied into regional intercity
bus networks, with only one or two stops within the downtown area or next to the main
railway station if there was one. This unsatisfactory initial situation, along with
effective community outreach and well-laid-out routes that all depart from and return to
the central transfer point, is a major reason for the impressive ridership gains that are
typical for all Stadtbus systems.
One of the stars is Lindau, a conference and resort town of 25,000 on Lake Constance,
which started running Neoplan low floor mid-size buses in 1994 and now accounts for 2.7
million riders a year, or 104 trips per year per inhabitant. The previous regional through
service with stops in the city center registered only about 300,000 riders a year. Lindau
was one of the hosts for APTA’s European Study Mission earlier this year.
Another example is Euskirchen, a regional center of 51,000 south of Bonn, which tallied
a record four million riders on its Stadtbus system last year.
Farebox Receipts
The coverage of operating costs from farebox receipts varies widely among the
participating communities, depending on such factors as density and whether or not the
system earns revenues from students in towns where it doubles as the school bus. The
highest farebox coverage, 85 percent, has been reported by the town of Neumarkt
(population 39,000) in the Upper Palatinate. Revenue shortfalls are generally met by a
variety of sources, including cross subsidies by municipal utilities; local budgets;
transfer payments for concessionary fares for students, senior citizens, and persons with
disabilities; and even revenues from city-operated parking lots.
Local and regional government subsidies per passenger per year currently range from the
equivalent of about 35 cents in Euskirchen to $1.40 in Dingolfing (population 18,300), a
Bavarian town dating back to the Middle Ages and now the site of a BMW plant. A number of
Stadtbus cities can also be found in neighboring Austria and Switzerland.
The VDV has been promoting and monitoring the Stadtbus model since its inception as a
mobility solution for Germany’s smaller cities. It used the occasion of its recent
fifth and final annual seminar to release a profusely illustrated, 330-page hardcover Best
Practices volume, in German but with a 26-page English summary.
The book is regularly priced at DM 76, or $35, but the German association is making
available a limited number of copies to APTA members at no charge except for shipping and
handling. Orders will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Interested APTA
members are asked to contact George Wynne by e-mail at gwynne@apta.com.
Over the past five years, more than 500 traffic planners, system managers, and local
government leaders have attended the series of annual meetings in prominent cities with
Stadtbus systems. This year’s program was held in mid-October in Arnstadt (population
27,000), located in Thuringia in the eastern part of Germany. The program convened in a
recently completed multimedia center in a converted brewery that dates back to 1404.
Arnstadt’s Stadtbus operation, now four years old, is among the most recent
innovations in a city whose history dates back to the eighth century and whose residents
have included Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach. The system started out with 24,500
passengers a month, but grew to more than 82,000 by the time of the seminar. The system
features intersection priority, a bus location system based on Global Positioning
Satellite operations, and a dedicated bus lane that avoids inner-city congestion. The
central transfer point is located at the edge of the pedestrian zone in the inner city.
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