PLUTA restructuring expert Ilkin Bananyarli achieves seamless transition of Oberes Gäu bus service

• RAB, Klumpp and Süßer companies to run the service
• No change to the timetable, quality improvements planned

A new operator is set to run the bus service in the Oberes Gäu area from the start of next year. The district of Böblingen, with the involvement of the districts of Calw and Tübingen, has agreed to the change of operator on “route bundle 11”, as the present bus company Verkehrsbetriebe Nagoldtal (VBN) based in Nagold is no longer in a position to continue operating the service. VBN is part of the Rexer Group. Mr Ilkin Bananyarli from PLUTA Rechtsanwalts GmbH has been acting as insolvency administrator for the Group since summer 2019.
The new transport operator is a collective consisting of DB ZugBus Regionalverkehr Alb-Bodensee (RAB), the Klumpp company from Baiersbronn and the Süßer company from Deckenpfronn. There will be no change to the routes covered and the current timetable will still apply. Only one year ago, the district implemented extensive improvements to the bus service in Oberes Gäu, extending its coverage by a third or 340,000 kilometres per year to a total of 1.5 million kilometres.
Böblingen District Administrator Mr Roland Bernhard is relieved about the seamless change of operator: “With the new operator collective, we can continue to run the bus service at a very high level. Passengers in Oberes Gäu will even see some improvements in convenience. I am grateful to VBN for having maintained the service in spite of insolvency until the change in operator could go through.”
Calw District Administrator Mr Helmut Riegger is positive about the transition. “VBN has kept the public transport service running in the southern part of the district over the past 18 months or so. With the new medium-sized operators, we now have secure prospects again and travellers can look forward to quality improvements.”
PLUTA restructuring expert Mr Ilkin Bananyarli, the insolvency administrator for VBN Verkehrsbetriebe Nagoldtal GmbH, and his team have kept the business going since the company filed for insolvency in summer 2019. He explained: “After lots of discussions, we have now found a long-term solution for the bus service in Oberes Gäu. A key objective was to ensure that all Rexer Group passengers would be transported. And I am delighted that we have been able to achieve this. I am also pleased that the majority of employees will be taken on by the bidding consortium.”
The planned improvements include the introduction of electronic checks on eTickets on boarding, the sale of the “bwtarif” fare for connections all across the state of Baden-Württemberg, and the installation of monitors in vehicles to keep passengers better informed.