Postbus celebrates 30 years' direct service

The Postbus service between the city of Lucerne and Rotkreuz celebrates its 30^th anniversary this week.
It was on 28 September 1986 that this service began operating on this number 73 inter-cantonal route from Lucerne to Rotkreuz via Adligenswil, Udligenswil and Meierskappel.
 
A public transport service between Lucerne and Udligenswil actually started in 1877; in those days it was a one-horse carriage. Then, in 1925, a bus was deployed on the same route. What is striking in 2016 is that, in carrying 4,500 passengers a day, this (now extended) route is the most used Postbus service in the whole of central Switzerland.
 
Those using the service are not only commuters and school pupils but people on day trips and others. And it has not always been easy for the bus company to satisfy all their different needs, which in the past has led to some criticism of the service. While it was extended in 2013, two years later it suffered from cutbacks the canton of Lucerne initiated with regard to public transport.
 
The service is greatly relied upon by the residents of Adligenswil, Udligenswil and Meierskappel (all in the canton of Lucerne) as it links them up with the larger conglomerations of the city of Lucerne and Rotkreuz, and onward connections to Zug and Zurich. Indeed, the number of people living in the area between the lakes of Lucerne and Zug has increased dramatically in recent years. Whereas 30 years ago some 358,000 used the number 73 service every year, now 1.65 million passengers do, with 48 two-way services running between Lucerne and Rotkreuz between Monday and Fridays. The buses used, including three new articulated ones, cover 700,000 kilometres a year, compared with 500,000 ten years ago.
 
Returning again to the early 20th century, just as the horse-drawn services stopped between Lucerne and Udligenswil in 1925, so did the one between Meierskappel and Rotkreuz, just as the station opened in this former municipality. It was only 60 years later that a direct bus service started connecting Meierskappel and the city of Lucerne and with Rotkreuz; This meant that, after 28 September 1986, Udligenswil was no longer the terminal stop.