Erfurt (dpa/th) – For the journey of tens of thousands of winter sports fans to the upcoming World Championships in luge and biathlon in Oberhof, the organizers and the state are relying on a comprehensive bus and train concept. The tickets purchased in advance for the individual competition days are also valid as tickets for important bus and train connections, as the organizers announced on Monday in Erfurt. The Zella-Mehlis train station, neighboring Oberhof, will be the central World Cup train station for both major events.
“We are very committed to the issue of sustainability,” said the state government’s Oberhof representative, Secretary of State for Finance Hartmut Schubert. It is therefore only logical that as many people as possible should be encouraged to come to Oberhof by train or bus for both world championships.
At the end of January, the luge world championships will take place in Oberhof. Biathlon World Championships will then be held there from the beginning to the middle of February. According to the organizers, around 3,000 tickets have been sold for the luge world championships and around 125,000 tickets for the biathlon world championships.
Both Schubert and the heads of the organizing committees for the luge and biathlon world championships, Uwe Theisinger and Thomas Grellmann, emphasized that the new local transport concept is an attempt – with which there is no guarantee that it will be accepted. “However, we have to be so honest that we assume that it will be cuddly,” said Grellmann. While some of the trains used will be extended during the Biathlon World Championships, it is not possible to run additional trains. Therefore, the train capacities could reach their limits.
Overall, the organizers are expecting 15,000 to 18,000 visitors for the luge world championships and 160,000 to 180,000 for the biathlon world championships.
