In the future, local public transport in Vaterstetten should be quieter and, above all, less polluting. Electric vehicles will then be on the three bus routes through the greater community. The municipal council has now approved this with a large majority. This means that the first battery buses could be on the road in Vaterstetten in just under six years – but there are still some ambiguities with the plan, not least in terms of finances.
The decision to become independent of fossil fuels, if possible before the end of this decade, has been a decision in the district and in its municipalities for some time. In addition to electricity and heat – for the latter, Vaterstetten is currently restarting the geothermal project – traffic is also to become more environmentally friendly. The municipality wants to set a good example in this respect, so its own vehicle fleet has been gradually being converted to electric cars for a good decade now. According to the will of the municipal council majority, this should now also happen with the buses that are on the road on behalf of the municipality of Vaterstetten. Specifically, it is about the three lines 451, 452 and 466. The first is in the core community, the other two are between Baldham station and Parsdorf or Vaterstetten and Grub.
A little over ten years ago, the then mayor Robert Niedergesäß officially commissioned the first electric vehicle for the building yard.
(Photo: Christian Endt)
Expert Nicolas Kämmling from the TTK office had examined two options for electric buses on these lines for the municipality. Either you use vehicles with fuel cells that are refueled with hydrogen – the district of Ebersberg wants to start a corresponding pilot project in the coming years – or vehicles with batteries. The result of the very extensive factual presentation was quite clear: If the community wants to use electric buses, they should rely on the battery model.
On the one hand, this is due to the infrastructure. Although this is not available for both variants, it is easier to create a charging station for the battery bus – the study recommends a location in Parsdorf – than a hydrogen filling station for the fuel cell vehicle. In addition, according to the expert, the latter are currently not available for the special requirements of route 451 – minibuses are used there due to the narrow streets. However, the currently available battery minibuses are not yet optimal, so the recommendation was to first electrify the two lines on which normal-sized buses are used. The next opportunity to do so would be when the timetable changes at the end of 2027.
Actually, Vaterstetten has too few bus lines
Above all, however, the battery buses fare significantly better in terms of costs – at least when you compare them with the fuel cell model. According to Kämmerling, the additional costs for the municipality over ten years would be 350,000 euros if all three lines were to be converted to battery buses. In the case of the fuel cell bus, the sum would be 3.36 million in the same period, i.e. almost ten times as much. However, the expert also made it clear that these sums only apply under the condition of “maximum funding”. Whether this will actually exist “cannot be classified as certain due to the generally high demand”, and it is currently not possible to foresee “how the funding situation will develop in the coming years”. Without funding, the community would have to pay another 1.5 million euros for the fuel cell bus and around 2 million for the battery model over the ten years under review. Its big drawback is that you would need two more buses than with diesel or hydrogen operation, since charging takes so long.
The disadvantage of battery buses is the long charging time. The photo shows a pilot test with electric buses in Unterföhring in 2019.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
According to Mayor Leonhard Spitzauer (CSU), the current funding programs in the field of electric buses are of particular interest to larger municipalities, which have significantly more lines to allocate than Vaterstetten. The question to the municipal council is therefore: “Can and should we afford it?” For Renate Will (FDP), the answer was no, at least not at the target time in five years: “Why do we as a community have to be pioneers here? Can’t the district do that?” After all, Vaterstetten has “many other construction sites” to deal with in the coming years.
The proponents expect falling costs
The factions of the SPD and the Greens were clearly in favor of switching to battery buses, at least for the two Parsdorf lines. According to Josef Mittermeier (SPD), one is by no means a pioneer, “other communities are already much further than we are”. In addition, one can assume that the additional costs will continue to fall until the lines are put out to tender because more and more electric buses are being produced. Technical progress could also reduce costs, expects David Göhler (Greens), if the buses last longer with one battery charge, you might need fewer vehicles overall.
The majority of the committee ultimately voted for the switch to electric buses on routes 452 and 466, against which Will voted, along with her parliamentary colleague Klaus Willenberg, as well as Christl Mitterer and Manfred Vodermair from the CSU parliamentary group. However, it is not yet certain that e-buses will actually be on the road in Vaterstetten in six years. A concept for this is expected to be drawn up in the coming year, which could cost around 90,000 euros.