Aare Seeland mobil: your journey is our concern
Aare Seeland mobil is a modern, customer-oriented public transport company with a comprehensive range of mobility services.
The company's core business is regional passenger transport by train and bus in the Oberaargau and Seeland regions. In Langenthal, Solothurn, Herzogenbuchsee, Biel and Ins, connections are provided to the national and international transport network.
Regarding rail freight transport, Aare Seeland mobil successfully covers the niche market outside the major commercial centres. Thanks to a strategy oriented towards customer needs, it is able to offer transport solutions that can also compete with road haulage.
The increase in leisure transport is regarded by the company as an opportunity, because its public transport infrastructure gives it the "means and ways" to meet this growing demand in an environmentally compatible manner. Since 1993, the "Aare Seeland tours" label has been a guarantee of quality in group travel with 10 or more persons.
Every day, Aare Seeland mobil provides a broad palette of travel-related services. This diversity is the greatest asset of the overall company, which encompasses the ideally complementary business sectors of rail, bus, ship, ropeway, freight transport, bus travel, gastronomy, transport planning and tourism.
Aare Seeland mobil has repeatedly attracted public attention with its innovative ideas, introducing, for instance, low-floor articulated tramcars on the Biel - Täuffelen - Ins line in 1997. Aare Seeland mobil was the first public transport company in Switzerland to use these vehicles, and thus made a decisive contribution to what proved to be the most resounding success in Swiss rolling stock history. (The company received an award for innovation in public transport for this.)
The pioneering spirit of Aare Seeland mobil is further underlined by its introduction of unusual ships: as early as in 1991, it began operating the "Siesta" semi-catamaran on the River Aare, and followed this up in 2001 by bringing in the "Mobicat", the world's largest solar-powered ship. Aare Seeland mobil works in close partnership with the Lake of Biel Shipping Company (BSG).
After the merger of the Ligerz-Tessenberg Railway and Aare Seeland mobil in 2003, the entire infrastructure of the railway company was brought up to date, with operations resuming on 17 May 2004 under the new name "vinifuni". Care had been taken to optimally integrate the new Ligerz - Prêles funicular into the public transport schedule. Right from the outset, the public was enthusiastic about the new funicular, which, in its very first year of operation (2004), carried the highest number of passengers in its history - an outstanding result.
Aare Seeland mobil today
15,000 passengers daily
Every year, Aare Seeland mobil transports well over five million passengers, which translates into 15,000 people on an average working day.
The company's catchment area comprises 61 communes with a total of 180,000 inhabitants. The entire network - including 52 railway and 130 bus stops - covers 400 kilometres. Aare Seeland mobil has 200 employees and indirectly accounts for numerous other jobs related to its activities in the region.
Aare Seeland mobil yesterday
A history of mergers
The origins of Aare Seeland mobil date from 1907, when the Langenthal-Jura Railway (LJB) began operating between Langenthal and Oensingen. In the course of the decades, more and more regional transport companies joined forces until, in 1999, today's Aare Seeland mobil was established by the merger of four smaller public transport companies in the region. The Ligerz-Tessenberg funicular was added in 2003, and resumed operations in 2004 under the new name "vinifuni".
Aare Seeland mobil tomorrow
Visions and plans
Aare Seeland mobil has numerous visions and plans, and remains open-minded about new ideas, e.g.:
- Extending the Niederbipp-Solothurn line to Oensingen
- Procuring new, modern rolling stock in the Oberaargau region
- Planning the gradual implementation of fifteen-minute services in the Seeland region, starting with the new schedule in 2007 (with fifteen-minute services throughout the day as a long-term objective)
- Extending the BTI railway line from Biel station to Bözingenfeld.
