Freiburger Verkehrs AG

The predecessor of the VAG was the “Direktion des Elektrizitätswerkes und der Straßenbahn”, which was founded on 1 October 1899.

On 14 October 1901 the horse-drawn omnibuses that had existed since 1891 were replaced by the electric tram. The task of the directorate was to provide a stable electricity supply for the trams as soon as possible. This happened with the commissioning of the electricity plant at Eschholzstraße. The power station was taken off the grid in the 1950s and now houses three schools and a cultural centre.

The Directorate became part of the VAG on 1 January 1974. Today, VAG cooperates with the regional energy supplier badenova, a provider which belongs to the Stadtwerke Freiburg.

In October 1970, the company opened the bus depot on the Haid. In 1992, the administration of the historical depot South also moved there. In 1995, shortly after the opening of the tram line to Munzinger Straße on the Haid, the tram workshop and depot moved in. Since then, the depot has been continuously expanded. In 2021, construction began on a 78-metre-long shelter for electric buses. In the summer of 2022, the fleet of electric buses is to be expanded from two to seventeen.

On 1 January 2009, the electricity supply of the Freiburg tram and the Schauinslandbahn was completely switched to green electricity. In 2013, VAG put into operation the first flywheel generator on the Moosweiher in Landwasser, which stores the braking energy of light rail vehicles and transfers it to accelerating railcars. In 2018, the second flywheel generator in Zähringen was inaugurated.

VAG operates a network comprising tram lines, bus routes, and a gondola lift. The network carries an average of 200,000 passengers a day. The backbone of the network is based on four tram lines. Coordinated with these are 26 bus lines connecting interchange points to surrounding areas. In addition, the Schauinslandbahn provides access to the summit of Schauinsland mountain.

VAG operates its lines by a fleet of 62 trams and 104 buses. These cover 3.1 and 4.1 million kilometres a year respectively.Most trams and all buses offer low floor service.Regular tram intervals are five minutes (line 1) and 7.5 minutes (lines 2,3 and 5) and the bus service intervals depend severely on the line and vary mostly between 10 minutes and 60 minutes.

An extension of tram line 2 (green) of 1.8 km to the border of Gundelfingen in the north was inaugurated and started service on March 15, 2014. An extension of the tramline to the Messe was finished in 2015.

The increasing service quality and quantity increased the number of passengers from 46 million in 1990 to 73 million in 2010. This 58% increase is remarkable whilst the population of the city increased by 23%.