In some districts of Hamburg, it has long been possible to use an app to order something that should be commonplace for millions of people in Germany in a few years: a local transport shuttle that picks up passengers at home or at a bus stop. In this way, the passengers of the HVV transport association can be taken to their destination, for example to the nearest train station, and not at the cost of a taxi, but at a local transport tariff. Passengers with similar routes are automatically bundled into carpools and transported together.
Deutsche Bahn now wants to expand these so-called on-demand services, which have so far mainly been available in cities, on a large scale and also bring them to rural regions. “The plan is that we will transport around 200 million passengers in on-demand traffic by 2030,” said Evelyn Palla, the group board member responsible for regional traffic in Berlin. In a few years, every second trip in the country would then be handled with such a service. So far, there are only 18 such offers nationwide. The number of passengers is still comparatively small, according to the railway.
It is about more flexible and more suitable transport options for people in the country as an alternative to their own car, Palla said. However, experts also believe it is possible that previously hardly used local transport routes will be replaced at regular intervals by such offers. This meant that costs could be saved thanks to the smaller vehicles. The railway wants to offer such offers primarily as a service provider for the transport associations. They would then not be offered under the group logo, but on behalf of the regional transport associations.
Pilot project in Darmstadt and Offenbach
Deutsche Bahn also wants to use new technologies for the new services: Autonomous vehicles, i.e. cars that do not need a driver. They will soon be tested in a pilot project in Darmstadt and Offenbach. For the time being, however, there should still be a driver on board. In the future, however, according to the DB Regio boss, the vehicles should be on the road on a larger scale without personnel on board.
Deutsche Bahn has had plans for this for a long time. As early as 2017, at the start of a pilot project in Bad Birnbach, Bavaria, Deutsche Bahn announced the increased use of automatic vehicles and thus the significant expansion of individual local public transport. So far, however, little has happened apart from pilot projects. According to Palla, the fact that the railways are now expecting a boost is due to technical and legal developments. Germany is now the world leader in the possibility of using such vehicles.
In Hamburg, too, there are already big plans for expanding business with automatic vehicles. Hamburger Hochbahn wants to use up to 10,000 on-demand shuttles in a few years. This time, however, the start is modest. From 2024, the first five vehicles will be on the road, but from 2025 series vehicles will be built. From 2030, thousands of such autonomous shuttles could be on the road in the Hanseatic city, the Hochbahn announces. However, from different providers. The example also shows that the railways have to reckon with competition in this business area. The taxi trade was also critical of Deutsche Bahn’s advances in this business area.