Today in Rhein-Main: Two good pieces of news about free travel

Good evening,

there is hardly anything better than free travel. We have two good pieces of news on this. The federal highway 263, which was closed because of the ailing Salzbachtalbrücke near Wiesbaden, is open again. On Monday, about five weeks after the bridge was blown up, the road into Wiesbaden was opened. From Tuesday on, another lane out of town in the direction of Hochheim, Darmstadt and Mainz should be accessible again, and the parallel cycle path is also open. That is good news on a large scale. Because up to 40,000 vehicles are on the road every day on the busy federal highway. And from 2023 onwards, at least the southern part of the new Salzbachtal bridge should be accessible. Then all road traffic in the state capital Wiesbaden should normalize.In the meantime we also know how the serious damage to the blown old bridge could come about - Robert Maus has summarized everything worth knowing about it in his report.

Carsten Knop

Editor.

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So much for the car, now for free travel on the subway and tram - in this case in Frankfurt: the transport company VGF will convert the entire subway and tram network to digital control. According to the experts, this means that Frankfurt is the first city in Germany to install a “Digital Train Control System”, or DTC for short. This new technology makes it possible for the individual vehicles used on the routes to constantly communicate with one another - with the result that the underground trains run at shorter intervals and can thus transport more passengers overall. In this way, the capacity of the route network is increased by 25 percent without the costly construction of new tracks. In addition, according to VGF, the digitally controlled trains are more energy-efficient,because they automatically brake and accelerate, and this happens more gently than the most experienced subway driver could do. That sounds really good. It will take ten years to convert the entire network, but the conversion of the first vehicles will begin next year.

However, it is still open who will get a free ride with a view to the next mayor election in Frankfurt. The Frankfurt SPD chairman Mike Josef does not rule out that he reaches for the office, but Peter Feldmann will be difficult to get past. In an interview with the Rhein-Main-Zeitung it reads like this: "Anyone who is in the city's magistrate and designs it with passion should definitely be interested in such an office."

In addition, Frankfurt Airport counted around 2.9 million passengers in November.

Compared to November of the last pre-crisis year 2019, the number of passengers in Frankfurt, at minus 42.8 percent, was again more than half of the pre-crisis level +++ the hotel and restaurant industry in Hesse will receive more money next year.

The collectively agreed fees will increase by 8.5 percent as of March 1, 2022.

In a second stage, wages will be increased by a further 6.5 percent on January 1, 2023 +++ the pianist Igor Levit has shone twice in the Alte Oper, alone and with Simon Bode.

Take care of yourself even when you are driving freely, best regards,

Your Carsten Knop

The

for Tuesday

It starts with fog, and it also stays cloudy for most of the day.

Occasionally it can also drizzle a little.

In addition, a mild 7 degrees.

Have

on

Tuesday December 14th

Béla Réthy

, sports commentator living in Wiesbaden (65);

, alias Jan Seghers, writer living in Frankfurt (63);

, head of the ARD stock exchange editorial office, Frankfurt (51);

, chief conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra from 2014 to July 2021 (44).