Omnibus traffic Ruoff
| Omnibus-Verkehr Ruoff GmbH (OVR) | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Basic information | |
| Company headquarters | Waiblingen |
| Web presence | www.ovr-bus.de |
| owner | Transdev GmbH |
| Managing directors | Horst Windeisen |
| Operations management | Reinhard Mühling |
| Transport network | VVS , HNV , naldo |
| Employee | 221 |
| Lines | |
| bus | 48 |
| number of vehicles | |
| Omnibuses | 112 |
| statistics | |
| Passengers | 7.5 million per year |
| Mileage | 6 million km per year |
| Length of line network | |
| Bus routes | 582 km |
| Operating facilities | |
| Depots | 5 |
The bus transport Ruoff GmbH (OVR), based in Waiblingen is a bus company in regular service operates. It belongs to Transdev GmbH and has five locations in Württemberg.
history
On August 23, 1926, Richard Ruoff registered a Ford truck with the Waiblingen regional office for registration. The truck was provided with benches and public service between Korb and the Waiblingen train station was started. This was the hour of birth of Omnibus-Verkehr Ruoff GmbH.
A short time later, the truck was replaced by a small omnibus, which, because of its green color and shape, was quickly dubbed the “tree frog” by passengers. In 1932 there were already twelve buses. At that time, the OVR was one of the first companies to operate coach tourism on a large scale. Destinations such as Paris or Venice were on the program and made the name Ruoff known throughout the specialist industry. At the end of the 1980s, the OVR was financially troubled. The tough competition in the field of bus tourism had contributed significantly to this. In 1990, the Württembergische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (WEG) took over the OVR and put the company back on a solid economic basis by gradually thinning out the travel offer.
In 2000, WEG and its subsidiaries OVR and WEG-KVG were taken over by Connex (later Veolia Verkehr , today Transdev GmbH ).
Today, the OVR principally operates scheduled services in the Rems-Murr district , in the district of Ludwigsburg , district Heilbronn and in Zollernalbkreis . The focus is on regular city traffic in Waiblingen and Albstadt as well as on neighboring local traffic in the northern Rems-Murr district, in the Strohgäu and in the Kochertal .
WEG-KVG
From 1928 the Württembergische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft operated its own motor vehicle lines and sometimes competed with its own railways by setting up bus lines parallel to the railway lines. In 1955, WEG-Kraftverkehrs-GmbH (WEG-KVG) was founded as a wholly-owned subsidiary, which until 1996 also included a forwarding agency with its own trucks.
In 1993 WEG and WEG-KVG moved their headquarters from Stuttgart to Waiblingen- Beinstein on the OVR site.
With effect from January 1, 2008, WEG-Kraftverkehrs-GmbH was merged with Omnibus-Verkehr Ruoff GmbH. At the operating locations of the former WEG-KVG, the company continued to operate under the WEG brand until 2012, until the external appearance was gradually converted to OVR.
In addition, the school bus route 469 from Amstetten to Schalkstetten was operated within the DING transport association until mid-2011 . This bus route resulted from the discontinuation of regular passenger traffic on WEG's own local Amstetten – Gerstetten railway in 1996. The services were provided by a subcontractor - the Häge company from Geislingen - until it was sold to the Merkle company.
Locations
Waiblingen
At the headquarters in Waiblingen , the OVR has a depot in the Beinstein district . 32 buses are parked on the 17,659 square meter area. The workshop, which acts as the central workshop for the OVR locations in Waiblingen, Backnang and Hemmingen as well as for the sister company Württembergische Bus-Gesellschaft (WBG), guarantees timely and reliable maintenance and repair of the around 90 buses it oversees. A washing system with service water treatment ensures that the buses are also in good external condition in an environmentally friendly way.
The depot is also used by the Esslingen-based company Fischle & Schlienz , which has been operating several bus routes in Waiblingen and Weinstadt since January 1, 2019.
Backnang
Almost 40 employees work in Backnang. From here 27 buses are dispatched every day. Since December 2003, a modern depot in Backnang has been meeting all contemporary requirements on a 7,211 square meter site.
As part of the line tenders by the Rems-Murr district, the OVR had to hand over the city traffic in Backnang to FMO on January 1, 2019 . Since August 1, 2019, OVR has been operating line bundle 13 in the Backnang / Sulzbach / Murrhardt area together with the subcontractor Eisemann.
Albstadt (formerly WEG)
In Albstadt, the OVR serves the Albstadtbus in the Talgang area with ten buses. The model is extremely successful and has seen strong passenger growth.
Hemmingen (formerly WEG)
The Hemmingen farm serves the Strohgäu , the Vaihingen an der Enz area and the large district town of Leonberg . In 2005, a new administration building was added to the existing workshop building and the company filling station was renewed.
Neuenstadt am Kocher (formerly WEG)
The so-called Kochershuttle runs every half hour from the Neuenstadt company all day . This express bus connects Neuenstadt am Kocher with Heilbronn in a journey time of 27 minutes . At the Neuenstadt Lindenplatz stop, you can switch from the Kocher shuttle to the other lines in the Kochertal. Since July 2007 there has been an hourly connection from Neuenstadt to Öhringen with the Frankenexpress , which the OVR operates together with the Hohenlohe public transport . At the end of December 2007, the company moved into the new depot in the GIK industrial area in Neuenstadt. This depot has striking similarities with the new OVR building in Backnang. In Neuenstadt, too, the buses are parked under a carport. The Neuenstadt company also offers bus rental and a small program of tourist trips.
Former locations
Neuffen (formerly WEG)
The transport area Metzingen / Neuffen / Beuren / Bad Urach / Reutlingen was opened up by the Neuffen company with eleven buses . As additions and fetcher of the Württembergische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft served Tälesbahn was run during the week. On Sundays, when the Tälesbahn was not running, the route from Nürtingen to Neuffen was served by bus route 180, which continued from Neuffen to Beuren. At the beginning of 2011, the regular service of the company Birkmaier from Hülben was taken over (line 100 Hülben – Bad Urach – Reutlingen).
After the bundling and tendering of bus services, the OVR lost its lines in the Esslingen district on January 1, 2018. The sister company Württembergische Bus-Gesellschaft (WBG) was able to win line bundle 8 (Kirchheim / Lenningen / Weilheim) on January 1, 2017 and operates also as a subcontractor for the new operator Bader on the former OVR / WEG lines in the Esslingen district and also on behalf of the OVR on line 100 in the Reutlingen district.
Vehicle fleet
The OVR fleet includes 112 buses from the brands Mercedes-Benz , Neoplan , MAN and Solaris, as well as an original vintage car from Gottlob Auwärter jun. from 1948.
At the end of 2004, the OVR was the first company in Baden-Württemberg to put a Neoplan Centroliner Evolution (N 4522) articulated train with the new, legally permissible maximum length of 18.75 meters into operation. Waiblingen was the third city in Germany after the big cities of Munich and Hanover .
Antique car
The history of the Auwärter bus began in 1939 with the manufacture of the OP 3750 chassis at Mercedes-Benz in Mannheim. During World War II, the OVR lost all but one of the buses. In order to be able to resume traffic after 1945, improvisation had to be made. She acquired some old chassis from the American occupation forces and then had them from Gottlob Auwärter jun. provided with a body. One of these bodies is the coach that is preserved today and was built in 1948. From now on it was used in tourist traffic. It had a folding roof, large windows and a rear luggage compartment.
A few years later, more efficient buses appeared in the tourist traffic, with which this bus could no longer keep up. He has now been transferred to the OVR's regular service. Here, too, the bus was soon replaced by younger and more powerful buses and sold to a used car dealer in Stuttgart- Bad Cannstatt . Here it was built with a wooden shed and served as a storage shed for decades.
In 2003, classic car enthusiasts discovered the bus, which it took two years to restore. Konrad Auwärter then bought it and left it to the OVR so that the vehicle can be used again in its original traffic area as a "contemporary witness of bus history".
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ From August 1st: better bus connections in the Sulzbach an der Murr, Backnang and Murrhardt area . VVS press release, July 16, 2019.
- ↑ Neoplan press release: Omnibus-Verkehr Ruoff procures the longest Neoplan articulated train for Baden-Württemberg. December 2, 2004