Saar traffic management company
The VGS Verkehrsmanagement-Gesellschaft Saar mbH (VGS) was founded in 1986 as the Verkehrsgemeinschaft Saar (VGS) based in Saarbrücken and was renamed the Verkehrsverbundgesellschaft Saar in the 1990s.
She took care of cross-company offers in the area of tariffs and sales. Single, day and monthly tickets were offered, timetables (e.g. for the university or joint transports) were issued, online timetable information was set up and a cross-company customer center was operated at times. The Saarland summer tour ticket for schoolchildren and the semester ticket for universities were also initially managed and marketed by VGS.
The establishment of a tariff association at transport company level in 2005 was taken over by the newly founded Saarländische Nahverkehrs-Service GmbH (SNS) with the product name saarVV. Thus the renaming of the VGS to Verkehrsmanagementgesellschaft Saar mbH came about, as an association of the task authorities (districts, cities, Saarland in the special purpose association for local passenger transport Saarland). The VGS thus became the operational unit of the ZPS and the "counterpart" of the SNS at the level of the responsible authorities. The approval authority according to PBefG was also part of the VGS until 2016.
In 2017 the VGS was dissolved and became the current office of the ZPS. Until 2017, the Saarland (50%) and the Zweckverband Personalennahverkehr Saarland (ZPS) (50%) were shareholders of the VGS.
Special purpose association for local passenger transport Saarland (ZPS)
The Zweckverband Personalennahverkehr Saarland (ZPS) is according to § 6 of the local public transport law of the Saarland from 2016 the "association of the task authorities " in the local public transport. It is an amalgamation of the Saarland authorities: 5 rural districts in Saarland, the special purpose association for local public transport in the area of the Saarbrücken regional association (ZPRS), the cities of Saarbrücken, Neunkirchen, Völklingen and Saarland.
The ZPS is responsible for the bus routes in the nationwide interest (RegioBus routes R1 - R7, R8 / 280, R10 - R14, R200, nationwide night bus routes N1 - N7, cross-border route MS, express bus 666) and works as an office for the transport authority local rail passenger transport in Saarland (purchaser of the services of RE and RB lines in Saarland), the Ministry of Economics, Labor, Energy and Transport.
In addition, the ZPS office is responsible for the implementation of the resolutions of the association assembly of the ZPS u. a. responsible for regional bus transport. The Saarland-wide information system "saarfahrplan.de" is organized by the ZPS office on the basis of the data supplied by individual transport companies. In addition, the ZPS takes on central tasks in public transport such as the allocation office and the creation of local transport plans in consultation with the individual responsible parties. At present, 15 employees work in the ZPS office in the areas of bus transport planning, transport planning and cross-sectional tasks, rail, IT and passenger information as well as controlling, finance and administration.
Data and facts about public transport in Saarland
- Size of the Saarland: 2,568.70 km²
- Saarland population: 1,050,293
- Number of train stations in Saarland: 78
- of which completely modernized or under construction, including surroundings: 19
- Length of the rail network: 283.5 km
- Operating performance in Zug: 7,100,000 train km per year
- Length of the RegioBus route network: 369 km
- RegioBus operating services: 4,300,000 timetable km per year
(As of October 2011)