Ring pull

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Logo triple ring train
A ring train railcar in Rottweil
Route plan of the ring train

The ring train , also known as the 3-ring train , is a local rail passenger transport system in the districts of Tuttlingen , Rottweil and Schwarzwald-Baar in southern Baden-Württemberg . The ring train started its regular operation on August 31, 2003 and has been in operation in its current form since December 12, 2004. Concept of Ringzugs is a clockface and tailored to a variety of other busses and trains train -like offer in a rural area structured to provide. In March 2006, the Pro Bahn passenger association awarded the Ringzug as an exemplary local transport system with the “Passenger Award 2006”. The ring train attracted widespread attention beyond the region and can point to steadily increasing numbers of passengers and a decreasing need for subsidies.

designation

The name "Ringzug" was chosen because its route was originally intended to form a ring, but it is still interrupted by the gap between Immendingen and Donaueschingen . The network is completed by routes that are not part of the ring. These include the Trossinger Railway as well as parts of the Bregtal Railway , the Wutachtal Railway and the Tuttlingen – Inzigkofen railway . The alternative designation "3-ring train" is intended to indicate that three districts are participating in the project.

history

Still threatened with closure in the mid-1990s: Trossingen Stadt station of the Trossingen railway

Starting position

In the 1970s and 1980s, the Deutsche Bundesbahn gave up a large part of the stations and stops in the Ringzug area as a result of so-called express train travel , and local trains were largely saved. On the 28-kilometer-long section of the Gäubahn between Tuttlingen and Rottweil, Spaichingen train station was the only remaining stopover. Even in the 7500-inhabitant community of Aldingen no train stopped anymore.

Passenger traffic on the Marbach – Bad Dürrheim line was abandoned as early as 1953, the Heuberg Railway followed in 1966 and the northern section of the Wutach Valley Railway from Lauchringen to Zollhaus-Blumberg was without scheduled passenger traffic from 1967. Since 1972 this has also applied to the Bregtalbahn. The Trossingen Railway was even supposed to be shut down completely according to a resolution passed in 1996 by the Trossingen municipal council.

Only in the area of ​​the Obere Donau Nature Park between Tuttlingen and Fridingen was part of the school traffic shifted back to the railways with the “Danube Valley Model” launched in September 1990 by the Tuttlingen district . Otherwise, local public transport in the region was largely geared towards transporting school children by bus .

As a result of this withdrawal from the area, only supra-regional connections remained in the Schwarzwald-Baar-Heuberg region , two of which were in long-distance passenger rail transport . On the Black Forest Railway, in addition to the express trains, interregional trains ran every two hours between Hamburg and Constance . In addition to express trains, D trains or EuroCitys ran on the Gäubahn from Stuttgart via Zurich to Italy . There were also long- distance express trains on the Ulm – Tuttlingen – Donaueschingen – Neustadt (Black Forest) and Rottweil – Villingen – Donaueschingen – Neustadt (Black Forest) routes .

Political decisions on the way to the Ringzug 1995–2001

Logo of the Hohenzollerische Landesbahn

In January 1995, the Black Forest-Baar-Heuberg regional association presented the study “Integral timetable bus and train for the Black Forest-Baar-Heuberg” study drawn up by Gerd Hickmann, a local transport consultant from Tübingen . This suggested introducing an integral cycle timetable in the region and linking rail and bus traffic. The backbone of this new transport concept should be a “ring train”. Following Hickmann's study, his colleague Ulrich Grosse continued to oversee the concept and advised the politically responsible until it was implemented. In January 1996, the district administrators of the Tuttlingen and Rottweil districts as well as the Schwarzwald-Baar district decided in the so-called "Trossinger Agreement" to implement the concept developed. The then Prime Minister Erwin Teufel , who lived in the region as a representative of the state of Baden-Württemberg, promised to promote the new local transport system to be introduced.

After the Trossingen agreement, the three district assemblies dealt with the concept and approved it in 1999. The state of Baden-Württemberg then started looking for an operator for the ring train system by means of a price request. Among several offers received from a total of four railway companies , including one from Deutsche Bahn AG , the Hohenzollerische Landesbahn finally prevailed with its offer at the end of 1999 . From 1999 to 2001 further planning stalled because a dispute broke out between the districts about the distribution of operating costs. This conflict was settled in 2001, and in the same year the financing agreement with the state of Baden-Württemberg was concluded. In December 2001 the Zweckverband Ringzug was set up, the first chairman of which was the then Tuttlingen District Administrator Hans Volle .

Improvement of the transport infrastructure 2001–2003

Motorcar at the Immendingen depot

The routes, some of which have been shut down for decades, and the lack of stops required massive investments in the transport infrastructure. The security technology, which partly originated from the early 20th century, had to be fundamentally renewed and was eventually replaced by a computer-controlled system. Electronic signal boxes were also introduced, which are now remote-controlled from Karlsruhe . All in all, the new safety technology, the stops and the upgrading of the route network cost around 67 million euros. In addition, there were 33 million euros for the 20 regional shuttles that were delivered at the beginning of 2003 and which will use the new route network. A new depot was built for these in Immendingen.

Limited ring train operation in 2003/2004

Originally December 15, 2002 was planned as the start of the ring train. Significant delays in the renovation work, however, postponed the start of operations until August 31, 2003. However, since the infrastructure was not yet fully available at this point in time, only limited operations started. Many of the planned new stops were not yet completed, so that they could not be approached for months. In addition, due to the switch to electronic signal boxes at the Wutachtalbahn junction in Hintschingen, this route could not be included at first. The ring train started with an incomplete route network and too few stops, which meant that in the first year of operation, buses still ran parallel to the railway lines.

Route network

The ring train as part of the HzL route network, also listed are the traffic outside the main network

Integrated routes

The Ringzug route network consists of the following seven railway lines :

  • the Bregtalbahn from Bräunlingen (formerly from Furtwangen) to Donaueschingen in its entire remaining length,
  • the Black Forest Railway from Offenburg to Konstanz in the Donaueschingen – Villingen section,
  • the entire length of the Rottweil – Villingen railway line ,
  • the Gäubahn Stuttgart – Singen in the Rottweil – Tuttlingen section,
  • the Tuttlingen – Inzigkofen railway in the Tuttlingen – Fridingen an der Donau section,
  • the Wutachtalbahn from Immendingen to Waldshut in the section Immendingen-Blumberg-Zollhaus,
  • the Trossingen Railway from Trossingen train station to Trossingen city in its entire length.

None of the railway lines mentioned belongs to the main network of the Hohenzollerische Landesbahn. DB Netz AG is the responsible railway infrastructure company for most of the routes , Trossinger Eisenbahn belongs to Stadtwerke Trossingen, Wutachtalbahn belongs to Blumberg and the Hüfingen –Bräunlingen section is owned by Südwestdeutsche Verkehrs-AG (SWEG). The latter two were reactivated for the ring train after there had been no regular passenger traffic on them for decades. On the three routes that do not belong to DB Netz AG, today only the ring train runs as a year-round regular service in passenger transport. Deutsche Bahn trains also run on the remaining sections of the route.

Gap between Donaueschingen and Immendingen

There is a gap in the system between Immendingen and Donaueschingen. The reason for this is the timetable design in the mid-1990s, when the concept was developed. At that time, the interregional trains on the Black Forest Railway between Donaueschingen and Immendingen were occupying the timetable routes at exactly the times when the ring train would have needed them. That is why it was initially decided not to include the route in question in the concept. Instead, it was decided to include the Wutach Valley Railway in the relatively sparsely populated section of Immendingen-Zollhaus-Blumberg in the ring train. This led to the reactivation of this section, which was not originally planned, and the gap mentioned above.

After the end of interregional traffic on the Black Forest Railway and the postponement of the travel times on this route, it would be possible today to travel the gap between Immendingen and Donaueschingen with the ring train. This means that Geisingen Bahnhof, Geisingen-Gutmadingen, Donaueschingen-Neudingen and Donaueschingen- Pfohren could be connected. This is always the subject of political discussions, but is currently not planned.

Stations

The Weilheim stop on the Gäubahn; the town received a rail connection again through the ring train
At Geisingen-Kirchen on the Wutachtalbahn
At the Donaueschingen Mitte / Siedlung stop on the Black Forest Railway
Blumberg-Zollhaus is the southern end of the ring train

By 2004, DB Station & Service had set up 18 new stops for Ringzug operations and reactivated 16 abandoned stations. Some existing stations have also been moved closer to the respective settlements. The average distance between the access points is 1.9 kilometers. As a rule, all communities and parts of the community along the route were connected, so that even smaller towns again have one or even more stations. Most of the Ringzug stations are on- demand stops , most of them are barrier-free .

station km route Composite
Bräunlingen train station 0 Bregtalbahn VSB
Bräunlingen industrial area 3 Bregtalbahn VSB
Hüfingen middle 6th Bregtalbahn VSB
Donaueschingen Allmendshofen 7th Bregtalbahn VSB
Donaueschingen train station 8th Bregtalbahn / Black Forest Railway VSB
Donaueschingen center / settlement 9 Black Forest Railway VSB
Donaueschingen Aufen 11 Black Forest Railway VSB
Donaueschingen Grüningen 14th Black Forest Railway VSB
Brigachtal Klengen 17th Black Forest Railway VSB
Brigachtal Kirchdorf 18th Black Forest Railway VSB
Marbach West (Villingen-Schwenningen) 19th Black Forest Railway VSB
Villingen (Schwarzw) 22nd Black Forest Railway / Rottweil – Villingen VSB
Marbach East (Villingen-Schwenningen) 25th Rottweil-Villingen VSB
Customs house (Villingen-Schwenningen) 28 Rottweil-Villingen VSB
Schwenningen ice rink 30th Rottweil-Villingen VSB
Schwenningen (Neckar) 31 Rottweil-Villingen VSB
Schwenningen Hammerstatt 32 Rottweil-Villingen VSB
Trossingen train station 37 Rottweil-Villingen TUTicket, VSB, VVR
Deißlingen middle 40 Rottweil-Villingen VVR
Rottweil Saline 46 Rottweil-Villingen VVR
Rottweil train station 49 Rottweil – Villingen / Gäubahn VVR
Rottweil Göllsdorf 50 Gäubahn VVR
Rottweil Saline 52 Gäubahn VVR
Rottweil-Neufra 56 Gäubahn VVR
Aldingen (b Spaichingen) 60 Gäubahn TUTicket
Spaichingen center 62 Gäubahn TUTicket
Spaichingen 64 Gäubahn TUTicket
Balgheim 66 Gäubahn TUTicket
Rietheim (Württ) 69 Gäubahn TUTicket
Weilheim (Württ) 71 Gäubahn TUTicket
Wurmlingen North 73 Gäubahn TUTicket
Wurmlingen middle 74 Gäubahn TUTicket
Tuttlingen schools 76 Gäubahn TUTicket
Tuttlingen train station 77 Gäubahn / Tuttlingen – Inzigkofen railway line TUTicket
Tuttlingen goose sack 78 Tuttlingen – Inzigkofen railway line TUTicket
Möhringen train station 81 Tuttlingen – Inzigkofen railway line TUTicket
Möhringen Town Hall 82 Tuttlingen – Inzigkofen railway line TUTicket
Immendingen middle 87 Tuttlingen – Inzigkofen railway line TUTicket
Immendingen 88 Tuttlingen – Inzigkofen railway line TUTicket
Immendingen rooms 89 Tuttlingen – Inzigkofen / Wutachtalbahn railway line TUTicket
Geisingen-Hausen 93 Wutach Valley Railway TUTicket
Geisingen churches 94 Wutach Valley Railway TUTicket
Geisingen-Aulfingen 96 Wutach Valley Railway TUTicket
Geisingen-Leipferdingen 99 Wutach Valley Railway TUTicket, VSB
Blumberg-Riedöschingen 103 Wutach Valley Railway VSB
Blumberg Customs House 107 Wutach Valley Railway VSB

Operation and organization

Linking with other means of transport

With the start of operations, local transport in the region was fundamentally reorganized. Parallel bus services along the railway lines have largely been discontinued. Since then, the bus routes have served as feeders to the railroad and have been consistently synchronized with the ring train. Important points of connection between rail and bus are Bräunlingen Bahnhof, Donaueschingen Bahnhof, Brigachtal-Klengen, Brigachtal-Kirchdorf, Villingen (Black Forest), Schwenningen, Rottweil, Aldingen, Tuttlingen, Immendingen, Geisingen-Hausen and Geisingen-Leipferdingen.

In Rottweil, the ring trains coming from both directions are synchronized with the long-distance traffic on the Gäubahn, so that all stops between Leipferdingen and Rottweil have a connection to the two-hourly intercity trains to Stuttgart. In Immendingen and Villingen there is a regular connection to the Black Forest Railway in the direction of Karlsruhe and Konstanz . In summer, the ring train also serves as a feeder for the museum railway from Blumberg-Zollhaus to Weizen .

Traffic and clock sequence

A railcar outside the route network in Neustadt (Black Forest)

The ring train serves the line from Bräunlingen to Geisingen-Leipferdingen or Blumberg every two hours on weekdays as well as on weekends . On weekdays, numerous additional amplifier services are added to this basic service , but these usually do not cover the entire route. Many trains have their start or end point in Rottweil or in Trossingen Stadt and go to and from Leipferdingen. On weekdays there is at least one hourly service between Bräunlingen and Trossingen and between Rottweil and Leipferdingen. This hourly cycle is increased again on some routes during rush hour, so that, for example, between Tuttlingen and Spaichingen on weekdays between 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. there is an almost half-hourly cycle. However, there is only a two-hour basic cycle between Trossingen and Rottweil on weekdays outside of rush hour, so that the Deißlingen stop is only served by the ring train every two hours, even on weekdays.

A multiple traction on the non-clocked section between Tuttlingen and Fridingen

Some trains fall out of this timing scheme as well as from the routing. The trains on the Trossingen Railway run in such a way that basically all trains stopping there can be reached in Trossingen Bahnhof. On the Tuttlingen – Fridingen an der Donau section, however, the ring train traffic is not synchronized. Only individual trains run there on weekdays. There is no ring train traffic there on weekends. The majority of public transport here is still covered by buses. Most of the ring trains on the Wutachtalbahn end and begin on weekdays in Leipferdingen instead of in Zollhaus-Blumberg, so that the Wutachtalbahn section Leipferdingen-Zollhaus is also mostly used by buses on weekdays. A few ring trains run beyond the actual route network to Sigmaringen and Neustadt (Black Forest) . On school days, a pair of trains also runs from Immendingen via Geisingen train station to Donaueschingen.

1,258,000 train kilometers are driven annually.

vehicles

Multiple unit railcars

The vehicles of Ringzugs are diesel railcars of the type Stadler Regio-Shuttle RS1 , of which a total of 20 were purchased. They differ from other vehicles of the same type in that there are sockets for laptop use on some of the seats. All are air-conditioned and have a toilet .

In the morning rush hour, ring trains were sometimes driven in cooperation with DB Regio AG and carried out with an electric multiple unit of the 425 series . The reason for this was the fact that some of the Ringzug regional shuttles, even in multiple units , were not able to cope with the enormous demand at that time. The 611 series also ran as scheduled as a ring train.

The unexpectedly high passenger numbers led to capacity bottlenecks early on, which from December 2004 onwards, among other things, resulted in the old T3 and T5 railcars built in 1938 and 1956 being used again as planned on the Trossingen Railway. The modern regional shuttles, which were actually intended for traffic on the Trossingen Railway, had to be used as multiple units to increase unexpectedly heavily used trains on other routes.

Passenger numbers and punctuality

Heavy passenger traffic in school traffic
Particularly popular: Tuttlingen train station

The ring train carries an average of 10,000 passengers a day. On school days, values ​​between 12,000 and 12,500 passengers are reached every day. The number of passengers has risen significantly since it was launched in 2003.

Particularly heavily frequented train stations are Villingen, Tuttlingen, Schwenningen and particularly striking Aldingen as a reactivated stop with more than 1000 passengers daily. A total of 53.7 percent of passengers travel in the area of ​​the Tuttlingen district, 36.6 percent within the Schwarzwald-Baar district and only 9.7 percent in the Rottweil district. 20 percent of passengers cross a district boundary during their journey.

54.8 percent of the passengers go to the central locations Villingen-Schwenningen, Tuttlingen, Rottweil and Donaueschingen. On average, a passenger covers 10.5 kilometers with the ring train, with 53.4 percent of the passengers using stops that were reactivated or newly set up with the ring train. The highest average occupancy rate is achieved between Villingen and Brigachtal. The punctuality of the ring train is over 97 percent.

Organization and finance

Exterior view of the depot operated by HzL in Immendingen with the Ringzug-Regio-Shuttle

The operation is spread over two organizations. The Hohenzollerische Landesbahn is responsible for technical operations and the depot in Immendingen. This currently employs 50 people and receives fixed operating subsidies for its tasks. The manager of the HzL transport company Ringzug is currently Katja Fritzsch. The transport operation was set up by Frank von Meißner, who moved to SBB GmbH in Konstanz in 2009.

The Zweckverband Ringzug, on the other hand, acts as the umbrella organization for the three circles involved. This association, which has now also become a railway company , is responsible for the commercial management, sales , marketing and the coordination of tariffs . The Zweckverband also bears the revenue risk of the business and distributes the business deficit or profit to the three districts involved. All income from ticket sales and grants from school transport go to the Zweckverband and thus to the districts. The managing director of the Zweckverband has been Michael Podolski since January 1, 2019. The chairman of the association is the district administrator of the Schwarzwald-Baar district, Sven Hinterseh .

Before the start of the Ringzug, an annual operating deficit of 2.9 million euros was expected, half of which should be borne by the state of Baden-Württemberg and the three districts involved. The mixed financing and the long-term contracts with the local transport company Baden-Württemberg and the districts were also the reason why the Ringzug was excluded from the train cancellations that occurred in Baden-Württemberg in 2007 as a result of the reduced regionalization funds . Rather, the increasing number of passengers and the increased income from school transport meant that the originally calculated subsidy requirement fell sharply and the distribution of the burdens and revenues got into difficulties. While the state's share remained more or less stable, the need for subsidies in the districts, to which the increased fare income and subsidies for school transport went, decreased sharply. In 2005 and 2006 the districts even generated a surplus. The state then urged the districts to sign a new financing contract, with which they can participate in the ring train costs again from 2007 by means of an annual special payment of 750,000 euros and thus relieve the state financially.

Transport associations and tariff system

Logo of TUTicket, one of the three transport associations in the Ringzug area

When the Ringzug started, it was not possible to create a unified transport network for the new joint transport system. Rather, there are three transport associations at the district level: TUTicket in the Tuttlingen district, the Rottweil transport association in the Rottweil district and the Schwarzwald-Baar transport association in the Schwarzwald-Baar district. To compensate for this, however , a roof tariff was established between the three associations with the regional tariff cooperation Schwarzwald-Baar-Heuberg , also known as the 3-tariff . This also enables journeys beyond the district boundaries and thus offers a uniform tariff in the entire Ringzug area. For inbound and outbound journeys, however, the price system of Deutsche Bahn AG, including the BahnCard, applies . The BahnCard is not valid for internal transport within the tariff cooperation, but the Baden-Württemberg ticket is valid without restrictions.

So today five different tariff systems apply. This system, which is often perceived as confusing, is one of the main points of criticism.

The Baden-Württemberg tariff came into force on December 9, 2018. Since then there has been a nationwide uniform tariff for buses and trains. This allows you to travel across the network at your destination z. B. use the buses and trams without having to buy another ticket. The Baden-Württemberg tariff also recognizes the Bahncard.

future plans

Inner-city route of the proposed Tuttlingen light rail

The requirement to close the network gap between Immendingen and Donaueschingen has existed since the start of operations. This would enable direct ring train connections from Tuttlingen to Donaueschingen. Since 2006 there has also been a discussion about fully integrating the non-clocked route to Fridingen an der Donau into the network. In addition to the cities of Fridingen and Mühlheim an der Donau , the district town of Tuttlingen in particular would benefit from this, on whose territory the Ringzug is to run as a light rail and for the first time connect the city center, the northern industrial area and Nendingen to a clocked train service. The administrative committee of the Rottweil district also decided in June 2008 to consider expanding operations to the Gäubahn section from Rottweil to Horb am Neckar , but abandoned the project in November 2008.

literature

  • Frank von Meißner: An S-Bahn in the country: The 3-ring train on the road to success . In: Proceedings of the Horber Rail Days 2005 . Munich 2005
  • Zweckverband Ringzug Schwarzwald-Baar-Heuberg (Hrsg.): The 3er Ringzug: An investment for the future of the Schwarzwald-Baar-Heuberg region . Villingen-Schwenningen 2006
  • HzL ring train runs from September . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , Issue 8–9 / 2003, p. 383.
  • Frank von Meißner: Ring train concept started successfully . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 11/2003, p. 522 f.

Web links

Commons : Ringzug  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. Announcement of the passenger price for the ring train . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International . Issue 5/2006, p. 215.
  2. Article "Ringzug popularity leads to problems" in the regional edition of the Schwäbische Zeitung Tuttlingen (Gränzbote) from July 19, 2008
  3. Imprint Zweckverband Ringzug. Retrieved January 25, 2019 .
  4. District Office Tuttlingen, District Assembly, submission No. 162, publicly discussed on July 19, 2007 (unpublished)
  5. Local edition of the Schwäbische Zeitung Tuttlingen (Gränzbote) from August 21, 2006 online: page on the Tuttlingen city railway
  6. Will the Ringzug also travel to Oberndorf and Sulz soon? (No longer available online.) In: Neue Rottweiler Zeitung. July 2, 2008, formerly in the original ; Retrieved January 19, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.nrwz-online.de
  7. Ringzug will not roll to Horb ( Memento from May 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Neue Rottweiler Zeitung from November 3, 2008, accessed on January 19, 2012.
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on February 24, 2007 in this version .