BRH viabus

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BRH ViaBus GmbH
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Basic information
Company headquarters Speyer
Web presence https://www.viabus.de
Reference year 2015
owner Metropolitan European Transport Germany GmbH
Managing directors David Leeder
Transport network RMV , VRN
Employee 350
sales 21.5 (2014)dep1
number of vehicles
Omnibuses 190

The BRH viabus GmbH was a German subsidiary of the British Metropolitan European Transport (MET) based in Speyer and other locations in Bad Vilbel , Herxheim , Ludwigshafen , Langen , Offenbach and Zellhausen . The company emerged from Arthur Merl GmbH & Co. KG , founded in 1934 , which was taken over by the British FirstGroup in 2007 . It operated bus services in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region and in the Frankfurt am Main area . At the end of September 2019, the company filed for bankruptcy.

history

The private bus company Arthur Merl GmbH & Co. KG was taken over by the British FirstGroup on May 1, 2007 with the aim of “gaining experience in Germany”. As a result of the takeover, the parent company was renamed FirstGroup Rhein-Neckar GmbH . The Merls subsidiaries, Fröhlich Reisen GmbH in Lorsch , which is mainly active in US school bus traffic and was founded by Merl after the insolvency of the Ludwigshafen bus company H. Fröhlich KG , and Clarissa Schultz KG from Herxheim near Landau / Pfalz were also taken over which mainly operates minibuses for the severely handicapped and which was integrated into the parent company as part of the First purchase. Arthur Merl remained managing director until April 30, 2009, but then completely withdrew from the company. His successor was Marcus Schmidt, who had worked since 2007 and left the company in June 2014.

FirstGroup Rhein-Neckar also had a 25% stake in Nahverkehrs-Service GmbH (NVS) in Bensheim , founded in 2000 , an amalgamation of several regional bus companies in southern Hesse and neighboring regions, in which HEAG mobilo GmbH from Darmstadt, the RNV subsidiary Omnibusbetriebe, also holds Beth GmbH in Lampertheim and the Abellio subsidiary Werner GmbH & Co. KG in Bensheim were involved. All investments have now gone to HEAG mobilo GmbH, as most of the companies involved have in the meantime sold or discontinued their public transport activities.

In October 2011 the company was sold by the First Group to Marwyn European Transport and renamed BRH Viabus GmbH.

On May 2, 2019, the parent company MET filed for insolvency at the Essen District Court .

On September 19, 2019 Viabus filed for bankruptcy at the Essen District Court .

Own scheduled services

The city ​​bus in Speyer, which has been operated independently by Merl since 1997 , has been operated together with the Rhein-Neckar bus service since July 1, 2006 .

In Langen , Hesse , after winning a tender , the FirstGroup operated another city bus system from March 30, 2008, which also extended to the neighboring Egelsbach .

A further eight lines in the area between Hanau , Dietzenbach and Frankfurt Airport were added on February 1, 2009, after the FirstGroup was able to win an express tender from the Rhein-Main Transport Association . This became necessary after the previous operator of the lines, the company Wehnert ETI , had to file for bankruptcy.

On May 31, 2010, the FirstGroup took over the operation of the five city bus routes ("Vilbus") in Bad Vilbel , which were operated by Alpina Veolia Verkehr Rhein-Main GmbH until May 29, 2010 . The company had previously been able to win the line bundle following a Europe-wide tender. At the start of operations, FirstGroup also took over the four midibuses and an articulated bus for school traffic during the morning rush hour. New midibuses were used from December 2010. Viabus also won a new tender for the 2017 timetable change. Since then, standard regular-service buses have been used on two lines, minibuses on three other routes and a newer articulated bus for school transport.

In December 2012, following a Europe-wide tender, the company took over a line bundle consisting of ten lines in the district of Germersheim , which was previously operated by RVS Regionalbusverkehr Südwest GmbH , and from December 2015, initially limited to one year, from the insolvent company Werner from Frankfurt Airport via Mörfelden-Walldorf to Darmstadt , line 751.

From December 2013, BRH viabus took over further local and regional bus routes, which primarily operate in the Offenbach district and beyond the district borders, following tenders .

Since April 1, 2015, BRH viabus has been the general contractor responsible for the works traffic of BASF SE.

Viabus has been driving pupils at the Neumayer School in Frankenthal in minibuses since 2017

Since December 2017, the company has also been taking over several rounds of the X83 bus route as a subcontractor on behalf of DB Regio Bus Mitte GmbH, which was awarded the contract to operate this express bus route. BRH viabus procured several buses in the colors of DB Regio Bus Mitte for use on this line.

Since June 2018, 24 vehicles and six bus trailers from BRH viabus have been on the Hanau-oriented bus routes from Altenstadt, Nidderau, Bruchköbel and Großkrotzenburg in the Hanau North-South line bundle .

ViaBus carries out orders for works transport for BASF Ludwigshafen, for local public transport and school transport for the Rhein-Neckar VRN transport association (district of Germersheim), in southern Hesse for the RMV Rhine-Main transport association, for Offenbach, Bad Vilbel and Hanau, in Frankenthal and Mannheim.

criticism

Shortly after taking over the line bundle in the district of Germersheim at the end of 2012, there were massive qualitative deficiencies. Drivers without sufficient language and route skills were used. In addition, there were repeated bus cancellations and delays, so that the district administrators of the districts of Germersheim and Südliche Weinstrasse intervened and publicly demanded a solution to the problems that had occurred. Sometimes drivers in school traffic could not find the school and undertook dangerous turning maneuvers in the middle of a federal road.

In the Main-Kinzig district, two local entrepreneurs had the award of two line bundles to BRH viabus checked in front of the award chamber of the Darmstadt regional council from January 2018 . They accused BRH viabus of having submitted a dumping offer and of consciously accepting losses. Although the company was able to start operations on June 24, 2018 by way of an emergency award, it withdrew its bid six months later after the Main-Kinzig roundabout company imposed high contractual penalties on BRH viabus for multiple violations of quality criteria. Among other things, trips were canceled several times, once a bus driver threw 18 school children off the bus and left them to their fate without a parent or guardian. The award on February 3, 2019 was then made, among others, to the two entrepreneurs as a second bidder or subcontractor of a second bidder.

Following a complaint from a local bus company, Viabus was subsequently excluded from an award procedure for 31 bus routes in the Lower Saxony district of Diepholz .

After BRH viabus won a tender for bus routes in the Schöllkrippen area in Lower Franconia , there were also numerous complaints about the bus drivers there. Ultimately, this led to the premature termination of the journeys by BRH viabus as well as a new assignment by the district office.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Company profile: Competent partner for passenger transport. Wirtschaftsmagazin Pfalz, issue 11/2015, p. 14, published by the IHK Pfalz, digitized ( memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), PDF file, 478kB, accessed on November 10, 2015
  2. ↑ First also takes over Merl holdings . Public transport competition , May 10, 2007. Accessed April 17, 2010.
  3. ↑ Restructuring at NVS . Public transport competition , January 18, 2009. Accessed April 17, 2010.
  4. ↑ Viabus parent company MET has filed for bankruptcy - Pfalz-Express
  5. ↑ [1]
  6. ↑ https://www.erlensee-aktuell.com/2019/09/20/nils-meissner-zum-vorlaeufigen-insolvenzverwalter-der-brh-viabus-gmbh-bestellt-busverkehr-soll-aufrecht-erhalten-haben/
  7. ↑ Merl and BRN jointly carry city bus traffic ( Memento of August 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). Press release of the City of Speyer from May 18, 2006. Accessed April 17, 2010.
  8. ^ Speyer: Merl, BRN and the city agree on a common urban transport concept. Public transport competition , May 19, 2009. Accessed April 17, 2010.
  9. ↑ New city bus operator after 50 years. Press release from the city of Langen, September 20, 2007. Available online here  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ), PDF file, 15kb. Retrieved April 17, 2010.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.langen.de
  10. ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: new fleet, new drivers, new timetable - FirstGroup will start as a city bus operator on March 30th ) Press release by Stadtwerke Langen, undated, accessed on April 17, 2010.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.stadtwerke-langen.de
  11. ^ First Rhein-Neckar with Becker and Südhessenbus as subcontractors . Roter Renner, January 30, 2009, accessed November 13, 2015.
  12. ↑ The Vilbus is yellow � Five low-floor vehicles with ramps for wheelchair users have been purchased. Retrieved December 5, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Public invitation to tender 2017 "Stadtverkehr Bad Vilbel" line bundle. Notice reference: 3757 2017-06-22. Retrieved December 5, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Change of timetable: That will change on December 10th in Bad Vilbel. December 2, 2017, accessed December 5, 2018 .
  15. ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: busfacts.de accessed on January 3, 2012 )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.busfacts.de
  16. ↑ Bus route 751: BRH viabus replaces Bus Werner . RMV press release of August 25, 2015, accessed on their website on November 13, 2015.
  17. ↑ Allocation calendar for regional local bus transport. In: Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund. Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund, April 3, 2019, p. 1 , accessed on July 20, 2019 .
  18. ↑ https://ausschreiben-deutschland.de/377848_Schuelerbefoerderung____________Referenznummer_der_Bekanntmachung_6157_2017_Frankenthal
  19. ↑ Services - 520424-2017 - TED Tenders Electronic Daily. Retrieved December 5, 2018 .
  20. ↑ Will a dumping provider soon be rolling through Nidderau? January 24, 2018, accessed December 5, 2018 .
  21. ↑ https://www.erlensee-aktuell.com/2019/09/20/nils-meissner-zum-vorlaeufigen-insolvenzverwalter-der-brh-viabus-gmbh-bestellt-busverkehr-soll-aufrecht-erhalten-haben/
  22. ↑ Chaos, Chaos, Viabus - District administrators burst their necks Pfalz-Express, March 11, 2013, accessed on April 30, 2013 /
  23. ↑ School transport : the local council is annoyed with Viabus - Die Rheinpfalz
  24. ↑ State stops awarding the city bus. January 30, 2018, accessed December 5, 2018 .
  25. ↑ Will a dumping provider soon be rolling through Nidderau? January 24, 2018, accessed December 5, 2018 .
  26. ↑ Dispute over bus routes: Emergency award to secure city traffic. April 20, 2018, accessed December 5, 2018 .
  27. ↑ MKK - press releases. Retrieved December 5, 2018 .
  28. ↑ Commuter traffic: Parents pissed off at the new Nidderau bus operator - Frankfurter Neue Presse
  29. ↑ The bus driver puts 18 students on the street in Neuberg - Hanauer Anzeiger
  30. ↑ https://www.fnp.de/lokales/wetteraukreis/nidderau-ort79436/viabus- sucht-sich-ueberraschend-zurueck-heimische-firmen-erhalten-zuschlag-buslinien- 10807558.html
  31. ↑ Bus operators heavily criticized: Air is getting thinner and thinner for Viabus - Frankfurter Neue Presse
  32. ↑ Viabus managing director: "Every complaint is processed and answered" - Main-Echo.de
  33. ↑ Jens Raab: Why Viabus was stopped and how the KVG starts up again | Photo: Harald Schreiber. October 31, 2019, accessed November 1, 2019 .