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Preserve Neumarkt Bus Hub and the Calm of Johannisfreiheit! No Additional Burden on Johannisstraße!

Author: Zukunft Kernstadt Osnabrück

Original available at the short link: openpetition.de/!hcyhc

This petition is addressed to the members of the Osnabrück City Council and the Mayor of Osnabrück

At the central bus hub Neumarkt in Osnabrück, passage for 70% of buses is to be blocked.

This is the decision of CDU, Bündnis90/Die Grünen, and SPD in the Osnabrück city council. For the 70 meters blocked in the east-west direction in front of the courthouse, a 1000-meter-long detour through the city center will be built. The detour passes, among other places, through the historic core of Neustadt and the green Johannisfreiheit. Currently, this narrow passage is used only by cyclists and emergency vehicles heading to the hospitals. Opening Johannisfreiheit for permanent bus traffic requires extensive concreting, as already seen on Johannisstraße.

Negative consequences for the city center and its connections include, among others:

• Worse transfer options due to long walks to stops in side streets.
• Longer travel times for up to 800 buses daily due to kilometer-long detours.
• Loss of traffic calm for the health district (Marienhospital, children’s hospital, other facilities) on Johannisfreiheit.
• Hundreds of additional buses in the already heavily burdened pedestrian zone Johannisstraße.
• Higher costs for bus transport.

These plans are intended to create a "New Center". Neumarkt will be continuously paved with concrete slabs from Lyrastraße/Alte Münze to Kollegienwall. The result is a 400-meter-long "Stone City Square" with little greenery and low quality of stay.

We demand the withdrawal of these decisions and instead:

• Development of the available alternatives to maintain the central bus hub "Neumarkt" with direct access from all directions,
• Priority for safety and functionality at Neumarkt, strengthening the calm on Johannisfreiheit, and upgrading the pedestrian zone Johannisstraße.

Justification

The majority decision of the Osnabrück city council leads to significant disadvantages for employees, students, seniors, patients, visitors, those in need of care and assistance, retail and business, and all citizens.

1. The connection of many districts of Osnabrück, the Osnabrück district, and communities in North Rhine-Westphalia such as Lotte, Westerkappeln, and Mettingen will become more expensive and complicated.
2. The planning and construction of the detour via Johannisfreiheit and Johannisstraße are costly and delay the implementation of an efficient bus network for years.
3. As a result, the entire Osnabrück city center continues to lose its appeal. The devaluation of the pedestrian zone Johannisstraße continues. The downward spiral in retail intensifies.
4. Due to bus traffic at minute intervals and the parallel two-way bike path, it becomes more dangerous to cross Johannisfreiheit on foot. Affected are patients, visitors, and employees of the health district (Marienhospital, Christliches Kinderhospital, etc.) and pedestrians to/from the main train station.
5. Johannisfreiheit, which is significant for the founding history of Osnabrück, with the historic ensemble of Johannis Church and Neustadt Town Hall, loses its calm and experiential quality. The currently single-lane and green traffic-calmed area between the hospitals will be replaced by a 14-meter-wide concrete track. For the realization of the bus track, the church congregation must sell part of the graveyard of its former cemetery to the city of Osnabrück.
6. The historic building fabric on Johannisfreiheit, which was already damaged by construction work in the past and is under observation, will be exposed to further stress. The effects of the operation of very heavy electric buses in the tight curve are unpredictable.
7. The situation for cyclists and pedestrians in Neustadt worsens: They will constantly be in conflict with the dense bus traffic on Johannisstraße. The heavily used southern Wallring, which is already too narrow for safe cycling measures, must also accommodate buses.

8. Despite the city of Osnabrück’s extreme debt, a total of 27 million euros is to be spent on redesigning Neumarkt as the "New Center". Many other costs are still unclear; so far, there are no cost plans for the detours via Johannisfreiheit, Pottgraben, Petersburger Wall. The additional operating costs for the detours are estimated to be six figures per year. It is also unclear whether the requested subsidies in the millions will be approved. In any case, less money will be available for urgent investments, e.g., in schools.

Finally, but not least: Climate protection and environmentally friendly transport options are being weakened. The goal set by the city of Osnabrück for 2040 to significantly increase the share of public transport in total mobility will be missed. The approximately 59,000 commuters and approximately 27,000 outbound commuters will not be offered a sufficiently attractive alternative to private cars. A further decline in the already very low acceptance of bus transport in Osnabrück (66% negative ratings) is to be feared.

Thank you for your support!

Further information:

Council decision 09.12.2025: 

https://www.osnabrueck.sitzung-online.de/public/vo020?VOLFDNR=2001806&refresh=false&TOLFDNR=2006883

Council decision 01.10.2024:

https://www.osnabrueck.sitzung-online.de/public/vo020?VOLFDNR=1020913&refresh=false&TOLFDNR=1107329

Planning graphics for the "Stone City Square" of the "New Center": 

https://entwickelt.osnabrueck.de/de/stadtraeume-gestalten/der-neumarkt/

Thank you for your support!

Zukunft Kernstadt Osnabrück, Osnabrück

Zukunft Kernstadt Osnabrück:

We are a non-partisan group of Osnabrück citizens who are actively involved in the city in various ways. We want to prevent the significant negative effects on the city center, the inner city, and an efficient bus system that would result from the abolition of the previous central bus hub "Neumarkt".

The construction work is to begin in 2026 according to the decision of the council majority from CDU, Bündnis90/Die Grünen, and SPD. FDP, UWG, and Die Linke voted against.

Thank you for your support!

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Deiters, Ruth Hammerbacher, Dr. Thomas Lob-Corzilius, Marius Meinert, Elke Schulte, Bruno Switala, Urban Teepe

Contact: Marius Meinert, Ruth Hammerbacher, Kernstadt-OS@web.de