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Saturday 18 May 2013

Feldkirch, Austria

The mediaeval town of Feldkirch is the westernmost town in Austria.  At around 450 metres above sea level, the town lies close to the borders with Liechtenstein and Switzerland.  With a population of around 32,000, Feldkirch is one of the main towns in the Vorarlberg region.

Feldkirch has a network of "StadtBus" (town bus) services.  These are operated by a private company under contract to the Vorarlberg VerkehrsVerbund (VVV, website in German), which co-ordinates transport across the Vorarlberg region and in neighbouring Liechtenstein.  Stadtbus was established in 1993.  A very modern fleet of 3-door single-deckers operates most of Feldkirch's StadtBus services.






 













One StadtBus route is operated by minibuses. 












Bus routes heading out of Feldkirch into the surrounding parts of the Vorarlberg region operate under the LandBus Oberes Rheintal (CountryBus Higher Rhine Valley) brand.  The livery is a paler shade of yellow than that used for the StadtBus services.  Several private companies operate these services under contract to VVV.



 


The background to this image shows Feldkirch's Katzenturm, a tower built as part of the town's fortifications in the early 16th Century, as well as snow-capped mountains on the Austria-Liechtenstein border.










As well as standard single-deckers, articulated buses operate on the LandBus services.












Cross-border connections from Feldkirch into Liechtenstein are provided by Liechtenstein Bus (website in German only).



Route 14 operates generally hourly between Feldkirch railway station and the Liechtenstein capital, Vaduz, on Mondays to Fridays.  It does not run in the evenings or at weekends.

Liechtenstein Bus route 13 is the main link into the principality from Feldkirch railway station.  It operates half-hourly, seven days a week from Feldkirch to Schaan (and continues on Mondays to Saturdays into Switzerland, to terminate at Buchs).  Route 13 does not serve Vaduz, but connections to Vaduz can be made at Schaan.

As well as standard single deckers, articulated single-deckers and double-deckers also appear on the services from Liechtenstein into Feldkirch.




I've written a separate post describing Liechtenstein's transport system in more detail - click here to read it.

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