Setback for Bad Birnbach: Autonomous e-buses are threatened with extinction!

The pilot project for autonomous e-buses in Bad Birnbach, which was started in 2017, is about to end. By September 2024, three of these innovative buses had carried over 110,000 passengers, with the connection to the train station, just outside the town center, being the most popular route. Despite these successes, the project will be discontinued on December 31, 2023 efahrer.chip.de reported.

A major reason for the temporary end of the project is the financing problems. The initiative project was supported by various funding until the end of June 2023, while Deutsche Bahn covered the costs. From 2024, the financing costs should be borne by the Rottal-Inn district, Markt Bad Birnbach and Regionalbus Oberbayern (RBO), but the annual operating costs amount to around 342,000 euros. Without new funding, the district and the market are faced with the challenge of meeting these costs on their own.

Manufacturer withdraws

The manufacturer EasyMile announced that it would withdraw from passenger transport and concentrate on aviation and shipping in the future. The operation of the shuttles on line 7016 will be discontinued from January 2024. Nevertheless, the connection on line 7015 between the train station and the town center will initially be maintained with conventional buses until March 31, 2024. Future steps envisaged that the e-buses would drive completely autonomously without supervision, although initial preparations have already been made.

Further information about the autonomous buses in Bad Birnbach is available here BR24 available.