Climate protection in the Rhine-Neckar district: meeting on June 3rd in the district office

Climate protection in the Rhine-Neckar district: meeting on June 3rd in the district office

On Tuesday, June 3rd, at 2 p.m., the district council's committee for the environment, transport and economy will meet in the Heidelberg district office. The meeting will take place in the meeting room on the 5th floor of the Kurfürsten-anlage 38-40. The agenda includes several important points that particularly concern climate protection and local public transport in the Rhine-Neckar district. This is reported by the Rhein-Neckar district website rhein-neckar-kreis.de.

The agenda items initially include the minutes of the public meeting on March 18, 2025. This will be followed by a question time for the district residents, in which concerns and topics can also be raised. A central point will be the status report on updating the photovoltaic cadastre of the Rhine-Neckar district. Local public transport will also be discussed in detail at the meeting.

Climate protection and e-mobility

A big topic in relation to local public transport will be the evaluation of certain regional bus lines. The lines Schwetzingen – Walldorf – Wiesloch (750), Speyer – Hockenheim – Walldorf – Wiesloch (798), Sinsheim – Walldorf (799) and Mosbach – Sinsheim (899) are covered here, among others. These evaluation reports are essential for future planning and improvement of the transport offering in the Rhine-Neckar district.

The discussion about e-mobility in transport is complemented by the challenges of using electric buses. These not only require batteries, but also a suitable infrastructure in order to be able to work efficiently in line operations. Large articulated buses and buses with long running times often have to travel to depots to recharge, resulting in a need for additional buses to continue transporting passengers during charging times. Rhein-Neckar-Verkehrsbetriebe (RNV) has already taken steps to address this challenge and is therefore planning to order new e-buses with fuel cell range extender technology, as shown on the RNV website rnv-online.de executed.

Hydrogen as the fuel of the future

An innovative solution could be hydrogen, which is considered the environmentally friendly fuel of the future. The use of hydrogen in fuel cells could not only help extend the range of electric buses, but also make operation more efficient overall. In April 2024, a new hydrogen bus depot was put into operation in Heidelberg-Wieblingen, supplemented by infrastructure and public dispensing systems in Mannheim and Ludwigshafen.

The outlook for the future of local transport includes the ordering of 40 new electric buses, which will gradually replace the existing diesel buses. This development is part of a comprehensive strategy to actively promote climate protection in the Rhine-Neckar district and at the same time make local public transport more attractive.