Yesterday, Monday, members of the Volt council group carried out a previously unannounced practical test of LOOP Münster, the ridepooling service operated by the Stadtwerke.
- Martin Grewer sees room for improvement for LOOP
- The course for the future of LOOP in Münster must be set soon
- How LOOP is to help make the transport transition a success
Among them was Martin Grewer, the Volt council group's spokesperson for transport policy. “On Monday, shortly after midday, we spent three hours playing out a scenario of potential LOOP users, starting from Hiltrup station, and also talked to passengers. We wanted to find out how LOOP performs in practice,” said Grewer.
First, the group went to a consumer electronics store in the Gewerbegebiet Süd business park, after which a minor health problem was simulated that was meant to require a visit to a pharmacy relatively nearby. This was followed by a hypothetical short visit to the Clemens-Hospital and finally the return to the station.
The verdict was mixed. “The advance booking did not work so well. According to the system's first notification, we would have arrived at our first destination with a long delay. After another spontaneous booking attempt on the spot, vehicles were suddenly available and, pleasingly, we reached our first two destinations very quickly, almost at taxi speed,” said Grewer. After that, however, at times nothing worked at all: all vehicles were fully booked, and even moving to another location on foot did not help.
However, the app did show alternatives using public transport, although handling the smartphone interface takes some getting used to. At the end of the practical test, bad luck struck as well. “We had to make the return journey on the number 5 bus, which was running late and was also overcrowded,” reports Norbert Bangert, who also took part in the test.
In an initial interim assessment, Grewer stated: “We are aware that LOOP is only a supplementary service, serves as a feeder and does not operate across the entire city. But many potential first-time customers don't know that, and in our estimation they would probably not have come back after an experience like this.”
What conclusions are to be drawn from this will now also be a task for the Volt council group. Its members had already obtained detailed information beforehand in two meetings with those responsible at Stadtwerke Münster. According to the Stadtwerke, facts and figures on use so far will be made public shortly. “Although Volt's attitude is generally favourable, we first have to wait for the interim report. And there is room for improvement with LOOP too – we saw that within these three hours,” said Martin Grewer.
Of course, the group would also get in touch with the coalition partners in Münster again and, if necessary, jointly consider what options there are for the future.
