Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - The Ministry of Transport supports the expansion of the regional bus network in the southwest. In the current year, ten new lines will be funded, as Transport Minister Winfried Hermann (Greens) announced on Wednesday in Stuttgart. There is a total of 26.6 million euros in funding. The funds are intended for an expansion of the existing offer, but also for follow-up funding. The regional bus network will thus grow to 46 lines and thus reach around a third of the length of the rail network.
Hermann said: "With the regional buses, we are expanding the range of local transport services and are enabling communities in rural areas in particular to have an attractive, reliable and fast connection from early in the morning until late in the evening." With the Alb-Donau-Kreis and the district of Biberach, two new regions will be developed with regional bus routes.
The CDU parliamentary group explained that the regional bus lines would connect rural areas in particular that had no rail connection at all or where trains only ran on a few routes. The Greens group emphasized that more and more people rely on local public transport in everyday life to get to work, school or training facilities.
