The City-Tunnel has thus proven its benefit to Leipzig and the entire region. Many visitors from outside the city can travel straight into the centre of Leipzig on public transport thanks to the City-Tunnel and the S-Bahn network. For the Leipzig citizens, it is easier to visit the city environs without a car. The operators have declared themselves satisfied with the high number of passengers, fully in line with forecasts.
Customer satisfaction
In a representative customer satisfaction survey by an independent polling institute, the Central German S-Bahn system gained 79 of possible 100 points for overall satisfaction. Aspects which were rated especially positive compared with the previous year, before the S-Bahn was introduced, were the trains' travel comfort, punctuality, speed and cleanliness; the on-board personnel; the train announcements, and how safe passengers felt on the trains at night. Despite some interferences caused by strikes and construction work, the Central German S-Bahn system's punctuality was high, at around 96 per cent.
Improvements are now to be made to vehicle availability. In the past, several vehicles were put out of use by planned and unplanned maintenance work, and vehicles sprayed with graffiti had to undergo an expensive and time-consuming cleaning process.
"In recent months, we have taken various steps to improve vehicle availability. Among other things, the S-Bahn trains on the S3 service are always to have two sections due to the high demand", explained Frank Klingenhöfer, head of DB Regio AG's southeast regional management. "To minimise existing vehicle shortages, we are currently building an additional maintenance hall at the DB Regio workshop in Halle. Vehicle availability should be noticeably reduced as a result by the summer. "
New timetable
The new timetable which came out on 14 December 2014 included adjustments to the vehicles used for some trips. For example, some longer trains are now in service on the S1 and S3 routes. Only the following changes have been made to the timetable: on Sundays, the S1 between Wurzen and Riesa will be replaced by the RE 50, now as a non-stop hourly service from 7 a.m. even on Sundays and public holidays. The S7 S-Bahn service in Halle will now stop at Rosengarten in both directions once again.
More Information
www.bahn.de/s_mitteldeutschland