Updating the local transportation plan should lead to a significant improvement, especially for communities located further from the railroad. But this will also cost more. Additional costs are calculated at around 1 million euros. The region will account for a third of this amount, and the municipalities will bear the rest. There are also costs for night traffic on top. The county council agreed to update the plan.

“It will boost the rural area, but the abolition of parallel rail traffic will have to be examined in detail,” said Matthias Hirschbulls (CDU). “If I still walked 20 minutes to my bus stop and sat on the bus for 30 minutes, it wouldn’t be great to leave the car behind,” says George Pinkert (SPD), believing that the CO2 saving goal was not achieved. There should be a denser network of breakpoints and faster connections.

Hanno Hurt explained that the local transport plan sets the framework for the next five years, and in individual cases there may be changes, and municipalities are welcome to do more. The plan should ensure a safe rhythm between the fifth and twenty-three hours of the day. The plan is the baseline, but Tim Anders of the Regional Regional Transportation Association doesn’t expect it to be implemented in real traffic anytime soon. “We may get a few more applicants with the schedule change in December 2021,” but it will likely be December 2022 before the planning is reflected in real buses on the street. The required basic service will be implemented within the five years for which the local transport plan is being updated. If the country then extinguishes PNV Fllhorn, the expanded supply by 2030 could be considered outside the primary supply.