Verkehrsgemeinschaft Ostwestfalen-Lippe

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Verkehrsgemeinschaft Ostwestfalen-Lippe (VOW) was the first tariff association for local public transport in East Westphalia . It was founded in 1980 and existed until October 2000. Initially, it comprised the tram and bus routes in the city of Bielefeld as well as the train , post and TWE bus routes to the Bielefeld region. A few years later, the Gütersloh district joined.

Historic bus stop from the 1990s with the VOW logo

Today the former VOW area is part of the North Rhine-Westphalian Cooperation Area 6. As a common tariff including rail traffic, there is “Der Sechser”, organized cooperatively by the authorities and transport companies by OWL Verkehr GmbH .

history

The VOW was founded on March 1st, 1980 initially as the Verkehrsgemeinschaft Ostwestfalen . The aim was, and a comprehensive traffic community a -Verbund for possible throughout OWL including circles Minden-Lübbecke , Lippe , Gütersloh, Paderborn and Hoxter to develop. It all started with a tariff cooperation between Stadtwerke Bielefeld and the Federal Railways and Federal Railways (from 1982/83 the GBB rail bus division ) and TWE for trams and buses. On April 1, 1983, a common tariff was introduced. Continuous regional buses and coaches from Bielefeld were included . a. to Herford , Bad Salzuflen , Gütersloh and Spenge . The regional bus network then consisted of considerably more continuous lines than today, which means that the VOW tariff range expanded accordingly:

The private lines or lines of the Stadtwerke Gütersloh (line 87 Kesselbrink - Ummeln - Gütersloh) did not yet belong to the community.

As a second step, the Gütersloh district was incorporated on September 27, 1985 (joint tariff from autumn 1986):

  • Stadtwerke Gütersloh, Leeker Touristik GmbH Borgholzhausen, Travel Service Orth KG Versmold, Wittler & Vosshans Omnibusbetrieb GmbH Schloß Holte.

The city bus lines in the district town received 40 line numbers, the bus network of the Teutoburg Forest Railway (TWE, today Veolia Verkehr GmbH) consisted of lines with 70 numbers and the overland bus line 80.

Bus stop at Bad Salzuflen train station with the VGL and MHS logo

There was no further expansion of the community to the east and especially south. In the mid-1980s, the Paderborn-Höxter transport association (VPH, founded in 1986), the Lippe transport association (VGL, founded in 1987) in the districts of Paderborn and Höxter, and the Minden-Ravensberger transport association ( founded in 1987) in the Herford and Minden-Lübbecke districts ( MRV, founded in 1985).

Only the VGL formed a cooperation with the VOW. It was the only one to also include local rail passenger transport . This means that regional trains can now also be used for the first time from or within Bielefeld at a joint tariff. The railway lines Bielefeld Hauptbahnhof - Oerlinghausen - Lage - Lemgo and Bielefeld - Herford - Lage - Detmold - Altenbeken - Paderborn were included. VGL or VOW tickets were valid for travel via Herford, but not from / to Herford or between Brake and Bielefeld Hbf.

As a joint effort by all communities, numerous changes were made to the bus route numbers. In the whole of OWL there should no longer be a double name (Paderborn / Höxter was of course excluded). Each bus company was assigned a tens or hundreds number:

  • 20 to 200 Bielefeld and Gütersloh district (Stadtwerke Gütersloh 40 to 47, TWE 70s)
  • 300, 600, 700 Busverkehr Ostwestfalen GmbH (BVO), successor to GBB
  • 400 former Minden-Ravensberg GmbH (VMR) transport company
  • 500, 900 other, mostly private companies
  • 800 Verkehrsbetriebe Extertal GmbH (vbe, Karl Köhne Omnibusbetriebe GmbH).

These line names continue to exist; However, as a result of tenders and new concessions being awarded in the meantime, they no longer coincide with the transport companies and the route network appears disorganized in various places today.

After the first public transport law for North Rhine-Westphalia came into force at the beginning of 1995, a new association ( Zweckverband ) was founded with the aim of developing a comprehensive association for OWL. The name was now "VVOWL" (Verkehrsverbund Ostwestfalen-Lippe). The “L” for Lippe was missing from “VOW” until now. This was preceded by a discussion about an overall OWL network including Paderborn / Höxter; However, these two groups decided to found their own organization, the Paderborn-Höxter local transport association (nph, founded in October 1995). From 1995/96 restructuring in the company forms took place. Service companies, u. a. the Minden-Herford Traffic Service GmbH (MHS) and the transport company Lippe mbH (SEE). Bielefeld's tasks were taken over by the Bielefelder Nahverkehr GbR (GBN) community.

The VVOWL developed an association agreement by 1999, which then could no longer be politically enforced. In October 2000, the tariff “Der Sechser” replaced the VOW as a network tariff for regional rail transport as well, while the “VVOWL” became a special purpose association for regional rail transport while retaining its name. The new tariff was supported cooperatively by the authorities and transport companies, which founded the Verbundgesellschaft OWL Verkehr GmbH in 2004 . The service companies then went into this.

Tariff structure

The VOW tariff was initially a zone tariff, but there was also a subdivision in the city of Bielefeld:

  • Zone 101 core area, zone 102 (north / south) outer districts.

Later, based on the model of the tariff system introduced by the VMR, the following price levels were applied:

  • C (city), CU (city environment), R (region), N (network, corresponds to today's price level 4 "The Six").

A uniform tariff was introduced in Bielefeld . To this day, all destinations within the Lippe district can be reached by bus at price level 4 - the maximum level of the former VGL tariff.

See also

Web links


Coordinates: 52 ° 1 ′ 38.8 ″  N , 8 ° 32 ′ 9.2 ″  E