Car park in Bonn city centre Deutsche Bahn advertises cheap parking in Bonn

Bonn · Deutsche Bahn is luring motorists to its multi-storey car park in Bonn's city centre at the Alter Friedhof with a cheap rate. What do politicians and the operator of most other car parks in the city centre have to say about this?

 On the sign at the entrance to its multi-storey car park on Rabinstraße, Deutsche Bahn also advertises its low tariff of three euros per day.

On the sign at the entrance to its multi-storey car park on Rabinstraße, Deutsche Bahn also advertises its low tariff of three euros per day.

Foto: Benjamin Westhoff

It was only in June that the city of Bonn increased the charges for parking in public areas. Since then, one hour of parking at the side of the road or in parking spaces in Bonn's city centre has cost four euros instead of 2.60 euros. This is considerably more than Deutsche Bahn (DB) charges for parking in its multi-storey car park Am Alten Friedhof: Since 1 October, drivers have been able to park their cars there for 1.50 euros an hour or even three euros all day.

258 parking spaces in a central location

With the slogan "Here's where motorists get their money's worth", DB is currently even advertising for parking customers with a flyer. Among other things, the flyer is available on trains. As a DB spokesperson explained in response to a GA enquiry, Deutsche Bahn has rented the former multi-storey car park of the Zurich insurance company, which has since moved to Cologne, since 1 October and has it operated by Contipark-Parkgaragengesellschaft mbH. According to Deutsche Bahn, Contipark operates the car parks at most DB stations together with the Deutsche Bahn subsidiary DB Station und Service AG. The garage opposite the old cemetery on the corner of Rabinstraße and Noeggerathstraße has 258 parking spaces.

Cashless parking system

"The car park is managed with a barrier-, ticket- and cashless Arivo parking system," the spokesperson also said. With this system, one downloads an app. When you park in and out of the car park, you are then recorded by licence plate number and can pay up to 48 hours after parking, according to DB. The spokesperson also confirmed that anyone can park their car in the garage. So you don't have to be a rail customer. Asked at Contipark how this pricing could be economically presented in terms of operating costs, there was no answer.

If the cheap parking tariff certainly makes the hearts of car drivers beat faster, it could, on the other hand, be a thorn in the side of climate protectionists. The railway spokesman said: "The goal is clear, we want to make it easy and smooth to switch to environmentally friendly rail. Therefore, sufficient capacity must be created for all means of transport that come into question for journeys to the station - whether bicycle and car parking or car sharing." The short distance from the car park to the station makes travelling by train much more pleasant. Of course, this also includes attractive offers in the DB car parks.

Parking garage as neighbourhood garage?

Even if DB were to make this garage available exclusively to rail customers, this would in fact be uncontrollable, according to the transport expert of the Bonn Greens, Rolf Beu. He himself travels a lot by train and has also found the flyer there. "Of course, it would be best if the drivers would leave the car here at the latest and then change to the train. We would like to advertise the positive effects that cycling and walking, as well as bus and rail, have on one's health, well-being and climate," Beu said. At the same time, the needs of those who depend on their own cars - for example to get to the city centre or the train station - must also be taken into account. "And we are of course happy if cars do not take up space in public areas.“

Beu suggests that the city of Bonn and DB AG could make contact to enable a first neighbourhood garage in Bonn for residents of the western city centre in a partial area of the multi-storey car park. As reported, the city plans to reduce public parking spaces and significantly increase residents' parking fees in its further parking management in these districts.

The Greens' alliance partners also view DB's low-cost parking offer rather positively. Especially if it leads to more commuters using the train for longer distances, said Gabi Mayer (SPD). "The SPD parliamentary group is not concerned with not allowing any more cars into the city, but rather with channelling traffic flows and directing incoming cars into the existing car parks." Tobias Haßdenteufel of the Left Party Group says, "we are concerned with making the city centre more attractive for pedestrian and bicycle traffic. We have always included the availability of the existing car parks for car traffic in our considerations.“

The CDU expressly welcomes the low-cost parking alternative. "We are pleased that car drivers in Bonn still have affordable parking options, whereas otherwise they are always asked to pay by the green-left coalition, as we are currently experiencing with the residents' parking permits and four euros per hour," said CDU council faction leader Guido Déus, commenting on the new offer. Werner Hümmrich (FDP) takes a sober view: "It is an attractive tariff that probably only serves to introduce and publicise the location," he believes. He does not see any economic danger for the municipal car parks.

And what does Bonner City Parkraum GmbH (BCP), the operator of most of the car parks in the city centre, say about this competition? "We have our customer centre on site in the city centre and are a local player with the retail trade. We have calculated our prices economically and do not shy away from competition. We don't get involved in price dumping," says the spokesman of the Stadtwerke Bonn (SWB), Jürgen Winterwerp, who is also responsible for BCP. (Original text: Lisa Inhoffen / Translation: Mareike Graepel)

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