Regional traffic Cologne

Regionalverkehr Köln GmbH

Basic information
Company headquarters	Cologne
Web presence	www.rvk.de
Reference year	2013
owner	12.5% each Stadtwerke Bonn Verkehrs GmbH District Euskirchen City of Cologne OVAG Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis Rhein-Erft-Verkehrsgesellschaft Linksrheinische Verkehrsgesellschaft mbH SSB
Transport network	VRS
Employee	848
sales	65 million euros
Lines
bus	109
number of vehicles
Omnibuses	317 of these articulated buses : 47 of them fuel cell hybrid buses: 12 328 from subcontractors
statistics
Passengers	50 million a year
Mileage	26.6 million km per year
Stops	2561
Length of line network
Bus routes	2 119 km

The Regional Köln GmbH ( RVK ) is a regional transport company based in Cologne , which focuses on buses outside the big cities in the Rhein-Sieg Transport Association served. The traffic area is characterized by sparsely populated areas and urban centers, which are linked to one another via the RVK network.

Companies

In 2012, the company's vehicle fleet consisted of 317 of its own buses , supplemented by a further 328 vehicles from subcontractors .

The vehicles are used by the six branches / depots in Hürth , Wermelskirchen , Bergisch Gladbach (together with KWS ), Euskirchen and Meckenheim , while five customer centers serve as contact points for passengers.

The following districts and urban districts are primarily served by the RVK:

There are also lines to the cities of Bonn and Cologne .

history

The RVK was created in 1976 from a merger of the regional business units of Bahn- and Postbus .

From 1978 to 1995 the RVK belonged to the United Federal Transport Companies GmbH (VBG) group, since 1996 it has been shared equally (12.5% each) with the following transport companies and districts:

city Cologne
District of Euskirchen
Oberbergische Verkehrsgesellschaft (OVAG)
Rhein-Erft-Verkehrsgesellschaft (REVG)
Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis
Transport company on the left bank of the Rhine-Sieg district
Electric railways for the city of Bonn and the Rhein-Sieg district
SWB bus and train

As a founding member of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg (VRS), its tariffs have also been used on RVK routes since 1987. Tickets are sold in cash via the bus driver.

On December 31, 2011, the RVK-Reisen division ceased operations after 35 years. According to the company, competition and pricing policy made the continued existence of the travel division impossible. Four coaches were recently used, one of them from the manufacturer Temsa and three MAN Lion's Star vehicles .

On January 1, 2014, the RVK stopped its traffic in the Oberbergischer Kreis . To date, extensive transport services have been provided as a subcontractor of OVAG from the branches in Gummersbach and Waldbröl . The transport services, vehicles and staff were taken over by Verkehrsgesellschaft Bergisches Land (VBL), a subsidiary of OVAG and RVK.

subsidiary company

The RVK operates two subsidiaries:

Regio-Bus-Rheinland GmbH (RBR). This 100 percent subsidiary was founded by RVK in 1999, which provides transport services for SWB in Bonn as a subcontractor .

Verkehrsgesellschaft Bergisches Land mbH (VBL). This subsidiary was founded in 2001 together with OVAG , here RVK holds 25% of the shares. At the beginning of 2014, the VBL took over RVK transport services in the Oberbergischer Kreis, the RVK vehicles used there and the staff. The transport services are carried out as a subcontractor on behalf of OVAG.

vehicles

The current fleet includes different vehicle types from the manufacturers EvoBus ( Mercedes-Benz ) and MAN . Without exception, these are barrier-free low-floor buses .

However, individual high-floor vehicles are still in use for RVK via subcontractors, especially in rural regions. While the basic color of older vehicles was ivory with orange stripes on the top and bottom of the vehicle, newer vehicles are now painted completely white due to their better resalability.

The design of the interior has varied several times in the company's history, so that today there is a wide variety. The oldest buses still in existence have gray seat cushions with small colored stripes. Then a red upholstery was used, which was replaced a short time later by the current, dark blue upholstery. There is a different interior design for the buses, which are used for city traffic in Hürth and Brühl : The buses have a different dark blue seat upholstery, which is reflected in a dark blue decorative strip above the windows, and there is no wheelchair space, as is the case with the RVK is common, on the driver's side, but on the entry side, which, especially with the peak loads in school traffic, means that the capacity in this multi-purpose area is fully used by the passengers. The buses are also equipped with air conditioning and a radio for the passengers as standard . All cars are equipped with a visual stop display (in the vehicles purchased from 2004 using TFT screens ) and acoustic stop announcements.