Funding is in sight Roisdorf railway station is to become more accessible for the disabled
Bornheim-Roisdorf · Funding is available for modernising and upgrading the accessibility for the disabled of Roisdorf station. Within the framework of creating a “mobile station”, charging points for electric cars and a bike station are to be installed.
The railway station in Roisdorf is hardly a jewel of urban development and urgently needs to be modernised and made more accessible to the disabled. Funding is now in sight for this from the so-called Modernisation Offensive (MOF 3), in which the state, federal government and DB Station&Service AG are investing in the repair and improvement of stations in NRW. This is the result of a session document presented by the Rhineland Regional Transport Association (NVR).
As announced by the Mayor of Bornheim, Wolfgang Henseler (SPD), and Oliver Krauß (CDU), member of the state parliament, Roisdorf station is moving up a place in the list over Leverkusen-Schlebusch station into the group of 17 stations that will benefit from MOF 3 in the local transport area in the Rhineland. Linked to this is the prospect of modernisation up to 2023, which the expansion program for the selected stations envisages.
Disabled accessibility is the goal for the station
The jumping ahead in the queue of Roisdorf railway station was possible on the basis of a joint initiative with the NVR, after another “financing pot” can be used for the expansion costs in Schlebusch.
Krauß and Henseler stress the importance of the current programme: “Trains must be accessible by everyone. This corresponds to the goal set by the federal government to create access for the disabled in local public transport by 2022”. Both men had previously successfully taken the side of the German Cycling Association (ADFC) in the initiative to be able to take a bike onto the central platform in Roisdorf via a concrete channel.
Now, the main aim is to provide disabled access to the central platform via a lift. The city of Bornheim is also planning to convert the station into a “mobile station”: The company Cologne Regional Transport GmbH (RVK) already rents out electric bicycles in Roisdorf. Charging points for electric cars and a “bike station” are to be set up as part of creating a mobile station, with the opportunity to safely store expensive bicycles. A small repair workshop already operates in the former waiting room of Roisdorf station.
Henseler and Krauß want to build an S-Bahn on the left side of the Rhine
Roisdorf station is currently served by four bus lines that stop on both sides of the station. “The necessary upgrading of the station will provide a train service that meets the demand at stations in Sechtem and Roisdorf, in the directions of both Cologne and Bonn,” Henseler and Krauß make clear. The aim remains to construct an S-Bahn on the left side of the Rhine, the feasibility of which is currently being investigated under the working title "S17". The long-term perspective is to run a train every 20 minutes, on its own track, as independent of long-distance and freight trains as possible.
(Original text; Hans-Peter Fuss, translation John Chandler)
