Countrygoer editors Fleur and Colin Speakman recently went on a fact finding mission to Germany and the Czech Republic to look at a unique cross-frontier National Park public transport network which has important lessons for protected areas within the UK
At a time when many UK National Park and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty are looking to develop a holistic, integrated approach to traffic and visitor management which involve the provision of green networks of public transport, walking and cycling routes, what is currently happening in the Bavarian Forest National Park in Southern Bavaria, and in the Šumava National Park, in the Bohemian Forest, Czech Republic, is of more than local interest.
Like the British, German people are obsessed with their motor cars, and out of around 1.2 million annual visitors to the ecologically sensitive Bavarian Forest National Park, about 82% come by car. The National Park Authority, concerned about environmental impact of traffic in their National Park - including the impact of exhaust emissions on the ecology of the area - has, over the last few years, pursued a policy of gradually restricting traffic, eliminating unsightly roadside parking and even closing some cul-de-sac forest roads to traffic. However local tourist interests have successfully resisted some road and car park closures, for example above village of Waldhaüser, proving that the Germans tourist interests can be every bit as fanatical in protecting what they believe to be their car-borne trade as their UK equivalents.
But a key part of the strategy has been to offer a number of important carrots to balance against the sticks, including well waymarked circular walking routes to attract motorists around the fringe of the Park away from the most sensitive area and into tourist villages, waymarked cycle routes, and the development of a new recreational bus network, operated by environmentally-friendly gas-powered buses. Known as Igel ("Hedgehog") buses to emphasise their green credentials, these buses provide a frequent park and ride service from main tourist towns of Grafenau and Spiegelau, linked to key walking routes to the summit of the popular Rachel and Lusen mountain peaks, with a large park-and-ride car park, toilets and information point outside Spiegelau.
Equally important has been concern to link the bus services with the wider bus and local train network, with the much neglected branch line from Zwiesel now provided with brand new lightweight railcars which can carry cycles. The Waldbahn (Forest Railway) is fully integrated with the DB German rail network and there are through regional multi-journey ticketing systems available valid on both bus and train.
One innovation on the service is a bike-bus, between Spiegelau, Finsterau and the Czech border, using a 20 cycle-carrying trailer, which links car parks and rail station and cycle trails, but also interfaces with cycle trails and a new network of bus service which has just been established across the Czech border in Šumava National Park.
Šumava, in the Czech Republic, is a magnificent, largely forested National Park, which, with its surrounding landscape protection area, forms part of the Bohemian Forest International Biosphere Reserve. With the Bavarian Forest, Šumava now forms the largest continuous natural reserve and protected landscapes in central Europe. Because for over 40 years it was once formed part of the heavily guarded Iron Curtain, massive tourist development did not take place, and unspoiled nature reigns supreme. Many of the quiet lanes and forest roads have remained closed to traffic since the National Park was created in 1991, and there are over 135km of traffic free cycle trails as well as an extensive network of quiet roads.
And the National Park Authority want to keep it that way. Czechs, not as wealthy as their western European counterparts, have far less cars, and in Šumava the bike is king. As many people go cycling in Šumava as go walking, and the landscape of primeval forest, shimmering glacial lakes, peat bogs, river valleys, including the infant River Vlata which eventually flows to Prague, is perfect cycling country. But there is also a network of fine waymarked walking routes, and a choice of accommodation in the villages. The new Šumava National Park Bus service, which operates in the summer months, crosses the National Park and links with the rail services from Plen (also the border town of Bayerische Eisenstein) and České Budėjovice.
Close co-operation between the two National Parks is most graphically illustrated by the foot and cycle-only frontier crossing at Bucina (terminus of the Bavarian bike bus) where you can either cycle into the Czech Republic or walk 500 metres to catch the Šumava National Park bus to the mountain resort of Kvilda.
Visitor management and sustainable transport development are now high on the agenda of many National Parks and protected landscapes in Europe, and as our recent visit to Germany and the Czech Republic confirmed, we have much to learn, but many ideas to share with our mid-European friends. As car ownership and usage continues to increase, even faster in former Communist countries than in the west, close co-operation to develop new techniques of traffic management and new ways to achieve environmentally sustainable mobility has never been more important.