Vorarlberg offers weeklong public transport trial

Vorarlberg’s public transport association will hold its annual VMOBIL trial days from September 16 to 22, allowing passengers to use buses and trains across the state for seven days at the price of a day ticket, ORF reported. The programme will focus this year on commuter travel.

The trial ticket costs 18.40 euros. Passengers can also test services including rental bicycles, bicycle storage boxes at railway stations and carsharing.

According to the transport association, more than 92,000 people already use trains and buses, or combine them with bicycles or carsharing, in their daily lives. They hold a climate ticket.

Commuters will also have the opportunity to test the association’s different mobility services for 30 days. The aim is to encourage employees to consider how they travel to work and return home, while supporting companies with mobility management.

A VMOBIL tour bus will stop in all parts of Vorarlberg to promote environmentally friendly journeys to work. At the launch, it stopped at Blum in Höchst. Since the company introduced a mobility plan, the share of employees travelling to work sustainably has risen by 14 percent.

Blum mobility officer Benjamin Firlus said switching from cars to public transport was not practical for everyone, particularly employees with long journeys. The company has around 3,800 work bicycles in use and has issued almost 1,000 MAXIMO tickets.

Criticism of the transport fare reform has continued, but the association said it still wanted to encourage more people to try buses and trains. In previous years, between 3,000 and 4,000 trial tickets were sold annually. About 10 percent of those purchases resulted in the sale of a MAXIMO ticket, according to the association.