Bus rendezvous celebrates its first anniversary

Since the Elbe-Havel-Stern went into operation a year ago, it has been used by around 300,000 passengers. The PlusBus concept, which was implemented by Nahverkehrsservice Sachsen-Anhalt GmbH (NASA GmbH) together with stendalbus GmbH and Nahverkehrsgesellschaft Jerichower Land (NJL), has thus fulfilled the high expectations of those involved. The towns of Stendal, Havelberg, Genthin and Tangermünde are now reliably connected by an hourly service.

“The project is a complete success,” said Saxony-Anhalt's Minister for Infrastructure and Digital Affairs, Dr. Lydia Hüskens, in Magdeburg today. “With more than one thousand passengers per working day, passenger numbers have increased by around 37 percent,” emphasized Hüskens.  According to the Minister, around 400 passengers a day travel on PlusBus routes 790 and over the Elbe bridge near Tangermünde. That is around 80 percent more than in 2022.

Every second passenger who travels through Fischbeck on the PlusBus uses a transfer connection. Further proof of the high level of confidence in the reliability of connections. Because there is also a direct connection every two hours that could be used. Daniela Kramper (NJL) and Sarah Fretter (stendalbus GmbH) confirm this with the satisfaction of their bus drivers about the well-functioning connections and journey times.

Since February 3 of last year, the PlusBus line 790 has been running every hour from Genthin via Jerichow to Fischbeck and from there alternately on to Tangermünde or to the terminus at Stendal main station. Line 900 starts in Havelberg and takes passengers via Klietz, Schönhausen and Fischbeck to Tangermünde or Stendal, also alternately.
All buses meet and wait for each other at the special rendezvous stop in Fischbeck so that passengers can change buses by the shortest route before the four buses continue in all four directions of the star.

“Mobility means freedom. Freedom means a real choice of the mode of transportation. This requires well-developed infrastructure: cycle paths as well as roads, including bridges and, of course, attractive public transport services.We are working on this.Every day.The PlusBus concept and the Elbe-Havel Star in particular are living examples of this,” concluded Lydia Hüskens.

Background to PlusBus:

The PlusBus is the premium product in regional bus transport with uniform standards throughout Germany.
Lines with this designation always run every hour from Monday to Friday and are also in operation during vacations and at weekends. They also offer coordinated connections to rail services. There are now 39 PlusBus routes in Saxony-Anhalt, most of which are funded by the state of Saxony-Anhalt as part of the state rail-bus network.

Nahverkehrsservice Sachsen-Anhalt GmbH provides support with planning, funding and implementation.Outside Saxony-Anhalt, there are also PlusBus routes in Saxony, Thuringia, Brandenburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Saarland.