Minden-Ravensberg transport company

Minden-Ravensberg transport company
legal form	GmbH
founding	1982
resolution	2011
Reason for dissolution	insolvency
Seat	Herford

The transporting enterprises Minden Ravensberg GmbH was a company with 80 years of tradition. They served in a part of eastern Westphalia to public transport . Rhenus Veniro GmbH & Co. KG has been the sole shareholder since August 2007 . The company operated the city ​​bus networks in Minden and Herford as well as regional bus routes in the Minden-Lübbecke and Herford districts until June 2011, after the company had to file for bankruptcy in January 2011 .

history

Regional bus line 433 Herford Bf – Vlotho Ost in Bad Salzuflen, Am Markt near Salzhof (July 1985)

Neoplan N4421 of the VMR when leaving the ZOB Minden

Mercedes-Benz O530 of VMR at the Alter Markt in Herford

Rendezvous at the Old Market in Herford

The predecessor of VMR GmbH was Elektrizitätswerk Minden-Ravensberg (EMR) GmbH Kraftverkehrsabteilung . This took over from 1927 to 1931 most of the capital stock of the Herforder Kleinbahn ( Spenge -Herford- Bad Salzuflen - Vlotho ) and operating them until decommissioning in 1966. early 30s, the line was electrified. From 1928 to 1959 EMR GmbH operated the Minden tram and from 1953 to 1965 also trolleybus routes in Minden. The tram network was geared towards the Minden train station , and during peak hours there were trains to Minden city center every 10 minutes.

The company's intercity bus network mainly supplied routes between Herford, Spenge, Bad Oeynhausen , Vlotho, Hille and Minden in the Minden-Lübbecke and Herford districts. There were also city lines in the larger cities.

On January 1, 1982, the Verkehrsbetriebe Minden Ravensberg GmbH (VMR) was founded as a subsidiary of EMR , in which EMR held 61%, the cities of Minden and Herford 39%.

The employees could choose the EMR's own company health insurance fund. Even today, the similarity of the name of the now open BKK Herford Minden Ravensberg , which has its headquarters within sight of the Herford depot, indicates the connection.

On August 1, 1994, VMR made an attempt for the first time in its history to introduce a completely new line network. However, this very quickly turned out to be impassable and led, particularly in Minden, to considerable chaos and protests from the population due to poor planning . The then operations manager, who had designed the new network single-handedly, was then immediately dismissed by the EMR top and on February 6, 1995, except for minimal changes, the old network system was returned. However, new names of some stops have been retained.

Since 1995 the VMR traffic area was integrated into the Zweckverband Verkehrsverbund OWL . In mid-2000, the tariff association “Der Sechser” was introduced (today OWL Verkehr GmbH ). The new network was considered the darkest chapter in the company's history by VMR, as it had contributed to a considerable mountain of debt that could only be reduced years later, and not to forget to a considerable loss of image .

Urban traffic in Minden was reorganized in 2000 and significantly improved. Through a cooperation with two other bus companies and the inclusion of the regional lines , more frequent intervals could be achieved. In January 2002 the company was privatized, the VMR shares were taken over by üstra and the former intalliance AG Hannover (joint venture DB Stadtverkehr / üstra).

From the end of 2001, Stadtwerke Vlotho GmbH set up its own city bus network with minibuses . For this purpose, the previous regional lines were broken. The city changed operator at the same time; With the exception of the Herford – Exter – Vlotho line, VMR had to surrender its services to Busverkehr Ostwestfalen GmbH (BVO) .

From 2003, the company had to reduce high losses, and intalliance / üstra also made efforts to improve the conditions for a desired resale of the company through a balanced financial position. In 2003 a new line concept was introduced in Löhne , Bad Oeynhausen (→ Werre-Bus ) and Herford. The basis of the successful concept this time was a partial conversion to minibuses (Mercedes Sprinter) in call operation ("on-call bus") in Bad Oeynhausen as well as in Löhne (on the bus routes that are not very well used) and in Herford the introduction of a city bus system with rendezvous on the old market. For this purpose, the Herford route network has been simplified considerably and the previous service of the railway station – Alter Markt – Mindener Strasse section has been thinned out to a 30-minute cycle. Up to now, buses run here every 10/20 minutes, but they now run one behind the other because of the connection. The operation of the station was severely restricted.

In mid-2005, the city bus network in Minden was completely reorganized. All lines were aligned in a star shape to the central bus station in the city center and the intervals were thinned. For this purpose, several previously continuous connections were shared. The generously designed "bus station" at the Minden train station was in a peripheral location in the new concept and lost its function as an important second transfer point in the city (→ local transport in Minden ).

Intalliance AG published its intention to sell in autumn 2006, and in August 2007 it was sold to Rhenus Veniro . This happened at a time when the prospective buyer could by no means be sure that VMR would operate the bus service in Herford even after the tendering process that was passed at the time . Shortly after the purchase, however, it became known that VMR could continue to provide services in Herford. The rides offered by the competitor BVO (via the subsidiary NVO-Temme , based in Halle / Westphalia ) were rated as slightly better by the district government . However, in this so-called approval competition, VMR was able to invoke the old operator bonus in Section 13 (3) of the Passenger Transport Act PBefG . In 2007 the VMR regained a high reputation among the population, which is proven by signature campaigns in connection with the takeover of transport services aimed at by NVO-Temme GmbH .

In another approval competition in December 2008, VMR lost the concessions for the Werre bus lines it served . In the Bad Oeynhausen area, VMR continues to operate.

In connection with the commissioning of the new Minden Clinic in May 2008, new traffic tasks arose. The clinic was connected to the regional bus routes to Bad Oeynhausen and Porta Westfalica . In addition, a city bus route was extended there. Because of the rendezvous concept, however, despite the connection with regional and city lines, there was only a total of 30 minutes, the buses drove one behind the other. Due to the extended travel time to Hausberge , the route network in Porta Westfalica had to be reorganized, which meant that continuous operation from Minden to Holzhausen -Hitzepohl was no longer available (use route 414 to Porta Westfalica, Schalksburg for this purpose. Then you can go without having to change trains [ Change of vehicle circulation], continue with line 418 in the direction of Holzhausen, Hitzepohl).

First night bus in Minden - operations have now been discontinued.

A night bus network in Minden and Herford that went into operation on May 2, 2009 was discontinued on May 30, 2010 due to insufficient passenger numbers. Before that, four night bus routes operated every hour on weekends between 8:45 and 3:45 a.m. at a special rate. On May 1, 2010, a leisure line was put into operation on Sundays and public holidays between Bünde, Herford, Bad Salzuflen and Vlotho at a greatly reduced special rate. The transport of bicycles was free here - as far as the buses allow it.

In March 2010 it became known that the VMR had made a loss of around 2.4 million euros in the 2009 financial year. The company named an unclear interpretation of the legal framework for the approval competition as one reason for this , whereby the participating companies would have continued to outbid each other in a kind of auction. In addition to other reasons, an alleged "politically motivated capping of actually required fare increases" played an important role in the imbalance. On June 24, 2010, the company announced that it would cease operations by June 30, 2011 at the latest. The reasons given were: the shareholder (Rhenus-Veniro) is not prepared to bear the losses in the long term and "an overdimensioned range of services with an above-average wage structure [is] unable to cover costs". The specifications of the local transport plan were specified as the range of services. It was assumed that the number of passengers could not be increased if the network tariff adjustments were too low (tariff increase in August 2010: approx. 2%). However, attempts to increase the number of passengers have not taken place since the company was taken over by Rhenus-Veniro in 2007. The previously introduced city networks in Herford and Minden (2003 and 2005, respectively) were taken over and not changed - for example through better connections to the train stations.

The VMR did not participate in the new tender for the city networks in December 2010. Observers expected the end of the operation. On January 19, 2011, bankruptcy was filed. The transport department of the Minden-Ravensberg power station , formerly wholly owned by the local authority, was eliminated from the competition.

The VMR bus routes were taken over by BVO on June 12, 2011 . This means that the privatization of this public transport company has failed, the new operator is a publicly owned company. The buses run under the name DB Bahn Ostwestfalen-Lippe-Bus . At the last minute it was possible to set up a rescue company for the unemployed employees, which covered 80% of the wage costs for a year.

Operation until 2011

52 lines were served. The service took place with regular buses, call lines ( Taxibus ) and call collective taxis (AST). The core of the offer was the city transport in Minden (a total of 13 lines, partly operated by MKB and BVO ) and Herford (6 lines). There were also two depots in Minden and Herford. The company was based in Herford. Buses and other VMR assets were auctioned at the Herford depot on July 21, 2011 at the request of the insolvency administrator.

Vehicle inventory

The VMR recently used the following vehicle types: MAN NL 202.2 , MAN NL 262, MAN NG 272.2 , MAN NG 312, MAN NG 313, MAN Lion's City , MAN Lion's City G, Mercedes-Benz O 405 G , MB O 405 GN2 , MB O 405 N2 , MB Citaro , MB Citaro G, MB Sprinter , Neoplan N 4016, Neoplan N 4021, Neoplan N 4416 (Centroliner), Neoplan N 4421 (Centroliner G).

Depots

The two depots in Minden and Herford belong to the successor to the Minden-Ravensberg electricity company , E.ON Westfalen Weser, and were rented by the Minden-Ravensberg transport company. There were differences in the amount of rents in the closure process.

Collective agreement

According to the company, the Minden-Ravensberg transport company paid its personnel wages according to the NRW local transport collective agreement .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Participation of the Herford district in transport company with VMR is not permitted. Retrieved April 18, 2014 . 
2. ↑ Rhenus Veniro and Herford district are looking for solutions for VMR ( Memento from April 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ A bang in Herford: VMR will be shut down on June 30, 2011 . on: Vlothoer-anzeiger.de . Archived from the original on April 20, 2012. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 26, 2010. 
4. ↑ Peter Steinert, Hartmut Nolte: Five hats are in the bus license ring . In: Mindener Tageblatt. December 11, 2010.
5. ↑ News of the WDR: local time OWL
6. ↑ Neue Westfälische: Everything has to go. Retrieved April 18, 2014 . 
7. ↑ Media Information of the VMR , accessed on January 27, 2010.

Coordinates: 52 ° 7 ′ 41.5 ″  N , 8 ° 40 ′ 8 ″  E