STOAG is adapting its offer - timetable light starts on January 22nd

The entire public transport industry is affected by high levels of sickness. At STOAG, too, the long-term and exceptionally high level of sickness means that the timetable now has to be reduced.

“We have exhausted all personnel options to prevent this step,” said STOAG spokeswoman Sabine Müller. “For many weeks, employees from the transport service have been working overtime to compensate for the absences. Administration employees who have a bus driver's license also take on services. But with a sickness rate of between 15% and 18% and even more than 20% on some days, absences cannot be prevented,” says Sabine Müller. “In addition, the burden on drivers due to overtime has increased significantly and overtime cannot be reduced. Although STOAG is hiring new employees in the driving service every month, the situation is not easing as hoped.”

“Timetable light” ensures reliability
In order to offer passengers a reliable service, a reduced timetable has now been set up. Jochen Sander, head of the traffic management department, emphasizes that this timetable was preceded by extensive analyses. “We have specifically restricted or temporarily discontinued those lines that have a low number of passengers or for which there are alternative connections. This allows us to minimize the impact on customers so that as few passengers as possible are restricted.”
The aim of the new timetable is to create a stable service with the available driving staff. “We want to prevent,” Jochen Sander continued, “that individual lines are canceled at short notice, as is the case at the moment, and that this always affects lines that are used by many passengers and for which there are no alternative connections.”

The current changes
The “light timetable” affects lines SB97, 952, 953, 961 and 966 from Monday to Sunday.
The SB97 line is no longer applicable. It mostly runs parallel to line SB94 and has not been used during the summer holidays in the past. Passengers can switch to line SB94, which has additional trips during peak traffic times to avoid overloading.
Line 952 is only used by relatively few passengers and has been changed from a 20-minute frequency to a 30-minute frequency. This changes the departure times.
On lines 953 and 961, which both run every hour, a minibus for eight people will be used between the Spechtstrasse and Osterfeld Mitte stops instead of a regular bus. The frequency and travel times remain unchanged. As an alternative, the SB92 and SB93 lines and, on certain sections, the 957 line are available. Since lines 953 and 961 south of Osterfeld to Wehrstrasse are only used by relatively few passengers and alternative connections also exist here, these line sections are no longer applicable. Both lines end in Osterfeld Mitte; a change is required to continue towards Wehrstraße.
Line 966 was discontinued from Monday to Friday in mid-December. It runs largely parallel to other lines, for example line 956, and is now no longer available on weekends.  

Enter address instead of stop
The new timetable data can be accessed via the electronic timetable information and the STOAG app. Despite the reduction in services, only a few individual stops are no longer served - in all cases there are alternatives. “We recommend that all passengers who are now looking for another connection use the electronic timetable information. It is important not to enter the stop but the address at the start and destination,” explains traffic planner Jochen Sander. “This shows the alternative connections including the route to the stop.”
All other STOAG lines and emergency vehicles are running as usual. The duration of the new timetable should be as short as possible. If the staffing situation at STOAG eases, the regular timetable will be run.