The district office has given Ottobahn GmbH the green light for a test route on Ludwig-Bölkow-Allee in Taufkirchen. According to the company, the authorities have granted the building permit for a 900 meter long course, where the first gondolas are to make their rounds along a track system at a height of several meters before the end of this year. The start of construction is planned for mid-March. “In the second half of the year, one vehicle will initially start operating on the oval,” says Managing Director Marc Schindler. “We then increase that to a total of five vehicles that are to cover 100,000 kilometers.”
The ambitious goal of his company is to create an alternative in local public transport. According to the company’s plans, the gondolas will one day be ordered via an app and passengers will be able to board and disembark anywhere along the route. For this purpose, the cabins, which offer space for one or four people, are lowered to the ground with an elevator. In order to avoid waiting times, software should take over the control of all gondolas and coordinate the journeys. The Taufkirchner municipal council has already suggested that the test track that has now been approved should later be expanded into the first commercial Ottobahn connection – namely between the Ludwig-Bölkow-Campus and the Karl-Preis-Platz in Munich.