Austria: Lungau Murau Nocky Mountains
special bus lines (including electric vehicles) to remote valleys
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Type of environment: nature recreation Partners involved: Austrian Mobility Research, Steiermärkische Landesbahnen (STLB) (public transport company), Ferienregion Lungau (tourist organisation), adc LUNGAU Antriebstechnik (responsible for electric vehicles). |
The Austrian project took place in the Austrian Alps, in the region of Lungau-Murau-Nocky Mountains, which covers parts of the three Austrian provinces of Salzburg, Styria and Carinthia. The aim of the Austrian demonstration was to encourage both visitors and inhabitants of this region to use public transport for tours within the region, and make ‘car-free’ excursions and hiking-tours. |
This area is a sensitive alpine landscape and part of two ‘national parks’ (Hohe Tauern and Nockberge), three ‘natural parks’ (Riedingtal, Sölktal, Grebenzen) and several ‘nature-protection-areas’. Tourism is an important economic factor in this region, but at the moment the area is not so well known and no mass-tourism takes place there. The tourism managers of the region try to encourage soft recreation and sustainable tourism. About 700.000 bed-nights are approximately spent in the Lungau-Murau-Nocky Mountains region in summer. |
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Completing existing public transport with special tourist buses to remote valleys, including quiet electric vehicles. |
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The so called “Tälerbus” (valley bus) provide access to starting points of popular hiking tours and mountain huts. The following map shows the bus routes. The normal public transport lines are colored green and light brown, the special bus lines are marked as dashed lines (green for “normal” propulsion vehicles and blue for electrically propelled vehicles). |
The planning of the special tourist routes, the coordination with already existing public transport, operation and maintenance of the vehicles, driver selection and training took place during summer 2007. Some examples of results of the project STREAM in 2007-20008: Riedingtal – operated within the SVV (public transport company of Salzburg). In 2008 the bus into Riedingtal had about 14.000 passengers, which is the best performance since 2003 Weißpriach – this line was operated by the ÖBB (railways) on demand. The number of passengers rose from 199 to 224 in 2007. One of the reasons of success is that ordinary car transport has to pay a road charge to access this valley, and the bus is exempt of this toll. The line to Weißpriach was integrated into the SVV network in 2008 and 2 extra journeys were added, all of which lead to a good increase of passengers. Sölktäler – this special bus line was converted into an ordinary public transport line operated by the StLB (public transport company of Styria) Nockberge – the ÖBB-Postbus operated this line bus from 2008 on. The VVK (public transport association of Carinthia) included the special bus lines forming the “Nockbergbus” into regular operation on the basis of a 5-years contract. This contract both settled operation and financing (good partnership between the STREAM partners, Großglockner Hochalpenstraßen AG, ÖBB Postbus, Lungautakt and Kärntner Verkehrsverbund). It is already integrated into the timetable information and in the future will also be integrated in the tariff system. The times of operation were enhanced from 3 to 5 days and a new vehicle was bought (25 seats, conventional propulsion). There have also been some negative experiences. The line Muhr / Sticklerhütte was cancelled in 2008 because of “road-pricing-issues”. The free use of the toll road was not negotiated in time for the season.
Integrating the special bus routes in tourist packages. |
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It was tried to elaborate car-free holiday packages including the special bus routes. More precisely, the partnership tried to integrate the special bus services in the packages “Perle der Alpen” (alpine pearls), Salzburg Land Card and “Holzweltcard”.
For external reasons, it was impossible to create the planned packages during the runtime of STREAM. The town San Andrea didn’t become an “alpine pearl”. The combination with “Holzweltcard” and “Salzburg Land Card” was promoted, but the tariff integration was postponed.
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Integration of the special bus services in the public transport and tourism information and promotion The timetables and routes of the special tourist public transport were integrated into existing online passenger information systems. Sölktal was included first into the online information system. Nockberge and Lungau followed in 2008. The services were promoted via tourist channels addressing tourist-agencies and hoteliers. |
At a meeting of the regional public transport officials on the 5th of July 2007 it was decided to install a joint information centre for the region Murau-Kreischberg. Another agreement was that all means of public transport were to be included and promoted as part of the holiday-packages. The project has also been integrated in the tourism promotion project “Salzburger Almsommer” in 2008. Among the existing series of publications “hiking with public transport”, a folder is dealing with the Murtalbahn (railroad). This folder also includes information about the special bus lines. Furthermore, specific promotion actions took place. In 2007, there was one on the Links: Tälerbuswebsite - http://www.taelerbus.at |
Updated 23.0209