Horse-drawn trolleybuses, a small railway, trams, trolleybuses and finally buses that run almost CO2-neutrally on bio natural gas - Giessen can look back on a long and eventful local transport history. Reason enough for Stadtwerke Gießen to celebrate the anniversary with an action day.
On Saturday, 10 August 2019, Stadtwerke Gießen (SWG) will be holding a special day of action in and in front of the SWG customer centre on Marktplatz between 10 am and 4 pm. The reason for the celebrations: Local public transport in Giessen is 125 years old this year. But SWG and its subsidiary MIT.BUS don't want to keep anyone waiting on this day with lengthy excursions into history. Instead, there will be plenty of useful information on the timetable and range of tickets. Stadtwerke has a particularly interesting offer for schoolchildren and trainees: the Hessen schoolchildren's ticket.
Technology tour for those interested
Anyone interested in modern and environmentally friendly bus technology should arrive at the market square at around 11 am, 1 pm or 3 pm. That's when the free buses will start, taking guests from the market square to Lahnstraße. Here, SWG's master mechanics have spruced up the bus workshop to give visitors an impressive tour of the entire hall. Of course, the experts will explain lots of interesting facts about bus technology and, above all, the almost CO2-neutral drive in the vehicles. This is followed by a visit to the MIT.BUS local transport control centre. Here, the MIT.BUS specialists demonstrate the complex technology that is now required for a functioning local transport system.
Back at the market square, the SWG meeting point awaits with information on Giessen's green electricity, the popular RasenRobo service and the e-revolution. There are small prizes to be won at the SWG wheel of fortune and anyone who buys a ticket in favour of the Tour of Hope even has the chance to win a car. Of course, SWG will also be providing food and drink at family-friendly prices.
Always in tune with the times
The fact that Giessen is now the third German city to boast almost CO2-neutral local transport is a logical development in history. After all, the central Hessian metropolis has been an important transport hub for well over a hundred years. As a result, the city's authorities have always attached great importance to universally accessible mobility services. The starting signal was given when the railway station - at that time still outside the city gates - was built. The aim was to get people there. As a result, horse-drawn buses were introduced. Initially there were two, later four lines, one of which practically only ran on Sundays for excursions.
In 1908, the decision was made in favour of electric trams, which went into operation a year later with the green and red lines. The destruction of the Second World War initially led to partial closure. However, reconstruction began with the invasion of US troops in March 1945. Although this required a relatively large amount of money, the final end of the tramway came in 1951. Since 1942, there had been parallel trolleybus lines that managed without the costly tracks. The electric buses with their long pantographs characterised the cityscape until 1968. 14 years earlier, a real Giessen local transport gem had already been discontinued: the narrow-gauge Biebertalbahn, which ran for almost nine kilometres from Giessen along the Bieber to the town of the same name and brought thousands of commuters to Giessen and back home again over more than five decades.
Today, buses powered exclusively by bio natural gas travel through Giessen's streets and transport around twelve million passengers a year on 14 routes. SWG's local transport services take care of the route network, timetables and any diversions. The SWG subsidiary MIT.BUS ensures safe operation - i.e. the deployment of drivers and control of the buses in the control centre. SWG and MIT.BUS thus provide an indispensable transport service for Giessen. On the one hand, the almost CO2-neutral buses ensure significantly fewer pollutants in Giessen's air. On the other hand, without public transport, the dreaded traffic gridlock would regularly occur during rush hour.