Thinking ahead - thinking outside the box

Further intensifying inter-municipal cooperation

The path of inter-municipal cooperation in Jena and the Saale-Holzland district is to be taken to a new level and further intensified.

Common goal: Interlinking and further developing public transport

To this end, we are pursuing the common goal of even better interlinking and further developing local public transport in the city and district, which is operated by Jenaer Nahverkehr and JES Verkehrsgesellschaft

announced Lord Mayor Dr. Thomas Nitzsche at a press conference today, Wednesday, 6 November 2019. Together with District Administrator Andreas Heller, the managing directors of Stadtwerke Jena and the two transport companies, Jenaer Nahverkehr and JES Verkehrsgesellschaft, he presented a declaration of intent that will now go to the committees in Jena and the Saale-Holzland district for approval.

Mobility as a core component of services of general interest in the joint Jena-Saale-Holzland transport region

The focus of the draft resolution is to offer mobility as a core component of services of general interest in a joint Jena-Saale-Holzland transport area

said District Administrator Heller. Local public transport plays a central role both in terms of achieving climate policy goals and the concrete quality of life of people in the city and district. This should be strengthened by even closer cooperation between the two transport companies.

Closer cooperation between transport companies in the city and district

Shared use of resources, cost savings, for example in the procurement of vehicles, increased efficiency in the creation of routes and timetables and more flexible personnel planning are just some of the synergies that are hoped for by merging the two transport companies. District Administrator Heller summarized:

'In order to achieve these set goals, we are examining a merger of the two transport companies.

Subject to the approval of the declaration of intent in the committees and the feasibility after examining all framework conditions, the merger would be prepared in the coming year and implemented as early as 2021.

Service-oriented mobility

This will bring together two transport companies that are already partners in the Central Thuringia Transport Association and will benefit from a joint managing director in Andreas Möller. At Jenaer Nahverkehr, Managing Director Steffen Gundermann will be added to the top management.

Our idea of a joint transport company is not only to be climate-friendly and sustainable, but also to ensure service-oriented mobility for all residents of Jena and the region

said Thomas Zaremba, Managing Director of Stadtwerke Jena. With 132 buses, 38 streetcars, 50 bus and 5 streetcar lines, the transport links between the city and the countryside would be strengthened in the long term.

Coordinating mobility services

We want to offer our passengers in Jena and the region better coordinated mobility services in the future. At the same time, we want to be a partner for Jena and the Saale-Holzland district in the development, planning and implementation of new mobility concepts

said Andreas Möller at the meeting. Steffen Gundermann added:

Furthermore, we are taking responsibility on the subject of emissions protection by already looking intensively at a possible switch from the diesel bus system to environmentally friendly drive technologies.

This means that the new transport company is also making a direct contribution to the local authorities' climate protection targets. A current example: This year, Jena's local transport company will be adding three electric buses to its fleet.

To prepare the letter of intent, various cooperation models were examined and evaluated in close cooperation with the companies involved and agreed with the representatives of the districts and the city. In the end, the best concept was jointly selected, namely the merger of Jenaer Nahverkehr and JES Verkehrsgesellschaft. It is important to everyone involved that the jobs of the employees and the apprenticeships are secured in the long term.

The new company size also offers us the opportunity to effectively counter the shortage of skilled workers, on the one hand to be well equipped for future tasks, and on the other hand to offer future generations career prospects

says Andreas Möller.