Transport association Hegau-Bodensee

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
VHB logo

The transport companies Hegau-Bodensee Verbund GmbH , shortly Verkehrsverbund Hegau-Bodensee or pa called, is an association of nine transport companies in the district of Konstanz of public transport (services public transport provide). These services have been sold and coordinated by VHB since it was founded in 1996. Since then, passengers can use nine different bus and train companies with a coordinated timetable with just one ticket. The VHB does not operate its own buses and trains - all transport services are provided by the nine VHB shareholders.

Tasks of the VHB GmbH

The core tasks of the VHB result from this offer for the passenger - performed by the VHB office in Eisenbahnstrasse 3 in Radolfzell:

  • Distribution of the VHB tariff income
  • Answering customer inquiries about the VHB, especially questions about the VHB tariff
  • Marketing and further development of the VHB tariffs
  • Publication of the district-wide valid network timetable book with the timetables of all lines in the VHB network.
  • Sales of VHB subscription tickets as well as school tickets subsidized by the district

The VHB works closely with its shareholders - the transport companies - in all areas. For example, the VHB timetable book is created on the basis of the line timetables, including the train timetables, which are continuously developed by the transport companies themselves, for which the local transport company Baden-Württemberg , based in Stuttgart, is responsible together with the railway companies. The respective transport company in the VHB is also directly responsible for customer inquiries about lost property, the registration of travel groups and complaint management (acceptance of criticism and praise).

Tariff structure and travel times

In terms of tariffs, the network area is divided into zones 1–5 around the core cities of Engen, Singen, Stockach, Radolfzell and Konstanz.

The flagship tariff is the VHB subscription ticket, which is available for two, three or all zones. You can choose between the variants personal or transferable.

Tariff features and cooperations

The tariffs of the respective VHB city zone, which are not subject to the tariff sovereignty of the VHB, apply to internal city bus traffic from Konstanz, Radolfzell and Singen.

Overnight guests with a VHB guest card in the communities of Allensbach, Gaienhofen, Gailingen, Moos, Radolfzell, Reichenau, Öhningen and Steißlingen can use buses and trains in the district of Konstanz free of charge during their stay.

The VHB tariff area is congruent with the boundaries of the district of Konstanz. VHB tickets can only be purchased within the VHB, with the exception of the VHB subscription ticket as part of AboPlus Baden-Württemberg from Deutsche Bahn.

For historical reasons, day tickets and season tickets (monthly and subscription tickets) are also valid for rail transport to some stops outside the district if the appropriate zone is selected. The same applies to various regional bus routes. On most routes in cross-network traffic, however, the house tariff of the respective transport company applies.

There are additional tariffs between the VHB and the Ostwind tariff association in Switzerland.

A cooperation in the transition area between VHB and Bodo ( Bodensee-Oberschwaben Verkehrsverbund ) has existed since January 2013 with the VHB tariff zone 33 for the Überlingen area.

Passenger numbers

The development of the number of passengers has always been positive since the association was founded in 1996: Since then, the number of passengers has increased by 73 percent. In 2010 the increase over the previous year was around 3 percent. The increase was slightly above average in favor of bus transport, which goes against the national trend. A total of around 16.45 million passengers were traveling with VHB tickets in 2010.

Public transport infrastructure

The local transport plan for the district of Konstanz certifies that the rail routes in the district of Konstanz have a high standard in terms of capacities and line speed. The course book lines 720 and 740 are electrified throughout. There are 24 train and around 840 bus stations in the network area.

Transport companies in the VHB

The shareholders of the transport company Hegau-Bodensee Verbund GmbH are the following three railway companies, three regional bus and three city bus companies:

DB Regio Regionalverkehr Südbaden as a railway company on the

  • KBS 720: Black Forest Railway Constance - Offenburg
  • KBS 730/731: Hochrheinbahn / Bodenseegürtelbahn via Schaffhausen - Singen - Radolfzell - Ludwigshafen - Friedrichshafen - Ulm / Lindau
  • KBS 740: Gäubahn Singen - Stuttgart

Hohenzollerische Landesbahn (HzL) as a railway company on behalf of the district of Constance as owner of the Radolfzell - Stockach line

  • KBS 732: seehäsle Radolfzell - Stockach

SBB GmbH as a railway company with services on the

  • KBS 720: Seehas Konstanz - Engen

Regional bus traffic:

  • Busbetrieb Behringer, regional bus transport on behalf of the district of Constance in the Stockach area on lines 100 (taken over from Busbetrieb Schmidbauer since January 1, 2020), 101 (taken over from DB ZugBus (RAB) on January 1, 2020) and 102-106 (taken over from January 1, 2020 taken over by Südbadenbus (SBG)).
  • DB ZugBus Regionalverkehr Alb-Bodensee GmbH (RAB), own regional bus transport in the Stockach area on lines 100, 7389, 7391 & 7392. Until January 1, 2020 also line 7393, handed over to the Behringer bus company.
  • Bus company Schmidbauer, until January 1, 2020 regional bus service on behalf of the district of Konstanz on line 1000, handed over to bus company Behringer. Merged with Busbetrieb Fecht since January 1, 2020 (see Busbetrieb Fecht & Schmidbauer).

Service providers with exclusively urban bus traffic in the VHB:

Web links

See also: List of German tariff and transport associations