The RVL Map Disappoints
In case our reader has lost the will to continue breathing, we have been exploring the ramifications of coordination and information about public transport in the complex border area around Basel (Basle) in Switzerland. We are now in the German bit ...
... top right on the map above. The Lörrach area public transport web site is the weakest of all three with a poor map. It looks as if young Klaus cobbled it together before going out to play with his chums at junior school (Grundschule). We will examine the bit which impinges on Basel itself.
Lets zoom in to the border area (click on the "map" below to enlarge some more) ...
... and we can spot BVB tram dotted
orange 8 and, joining it at Drieländerbrücke is
red 6 and 16. Back in the mists of time when this blog series began, the spur to journalistic expiation was chum Dave's lorry parked at Huningue in France.
Knowing no fear (and not much local Geography!) Dave walked across this spectacular footbridge ...
... complete with snazzy lifts ...
... and found himself in Germany.
Drieländerbrücke (Three Lands Bridge OR Passerelle des Trois Pays) was opened in 2007 and on the German side you are almost at the Swiss border (tram stop on map, bottom right). Three Lands, clever name, eh? Here he photographed tram 8 ...
... and its stop information.
Here is the 8 departure list, a local streetmap, a departure list for 6/16, the Basel area map and the Lörrach area map. So Dave snapped a bus ...
... a separate bus stop round the corner ...
... complete with its own set of departure times.
The operator is SWEG.
The Südwestdeutsche Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft (SWEG), in English language Southwest German Transport Company, from its former name, Südwestdeutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (SEG), is a transport company in southwest Germany that operates railway lines ...
... and bus services. It is 100% owned by the federal state of Baden-Württemberg.
So, like DB bus, owned by part of the greater German government, i.e. the state authority.
Also on the RVL map we see route 55 which runs into Claraplatz in Basel ...
... but doesn't feature on the Swiss transport sites; it is "foreign" after all - integration and co-ordination is OK up to a point, but don't go
too far.
This is a longer SWEG service ...
... running half hourly between Haltingen and Basel and (off peak) hourly through from Kandern, a journey of 13.5 miles.
So there is plenty of information "out there" despite potential geographic and political complications, but the RVL web site ...
... is disappointing. Perhaps due to translation difficulties, it took fbb ages to find a simple list of timetables.
But despite the inadequacies (for fbb anyway!) we can be sure that RVL offers complete information and interavailable area fare deals for Lörrach and its surroundings.
We can also be certain that, outside of the big cities, such a level of customer service is unknown in the UK.
But, we hear you cry; that's all very well if you are travelling entirely in France ...
... Switzerland ...
... or Germany. But what if you need to (or desire to) plan itineraries that hop across borders.
Needless to say, there is yet another Umbrella for your edification.
Last Basel bus blog (phew!!) : Thursday 25th June
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