It comes buzzing out of the fog of the Wupperberge: the future. A light blue electric car, model LEVC TX, buzzes through a residential area in the Elberfeld district. It looks just like the famous London taxis, but it’s not painted black, it’s light blue. And it is operated by the Wuppertaler Stadtwerke. The so-called “WSW Cabs” have yellow handles, a bench and three folding seats. “Hol mich app” is written on the bonnet, a play on words that reminds passengers how to book this means of transport: exclusively via smartphone app.
“I was also skeptical at the beginning,” says Martin Dönch, the project manager of WSW Cabs. “But the slogan is really well received.” To book the modern vehicle, passengers have to grab their cell phone, install the “Fetch me” app, enter their credit card number or Paypal details and then choose a starting point. Then a light blue electric taxi whirrs up to pick up passengers at a “virtual stop”. There is no fixed timetable; instead, a computer plans the route so that as many people as possible get on along the way.
Six taxis serve three parts of the city
“If I have to get somewhere on time, the WSW Cab isn’t the best choice,” admits Dönch. For the leisure sector, on the other hand, it is ideal: “We are almost always fully booked, especially on weekends when people go out to party.” There are currently six such electric taxis in Wuppertal, they are active in three parts of the city. Two more are expected to be added in April. The whole thing is part of a research project in the Bergisch city triangle (Solingen, Wuppertal, Remscheid) that aims to explore the mobility of the future. “It will be really exciting when the cars drive autonomously at some point,” says Dönch. Then the light blue runabouts could fully exploit their potential.
However, the “cabs” are still not much more than a polished version of the classic shared taxi, albeit a comfortable one. The temperature in the passenger compartment can be adjusted, there is a glass roof and an extendable ramp to take people with wheelchairs on board. Contact can be made with the driver, who is sitting behind a plexiglass pane, via an intercom system. In English, passengers are reminded to put on their seat belts. “We first considered removing the sign,” says Dönch. But the London effect then prevailed. Must be so much fun.
Offers like the WSW Cabs are not entirely new. In Hamburg and Hanover, the provider Moia, which belongs to the VW Group, drives around with mini buses – according to a similar principle. Other major cities cooperate with the Berlin company Clevershuttle, which was founded in 2014 and has been majority-owned by Deutsche Bahn since 2018. The special feature of Wuppertal is that a municipal utility company is trying to set up its own system there. “A bus just can’t get into many corners,” says project manager Martin Dönch. “So offers like this are a good addition.”
In addition, the electric taxis are cheaper, at least in places where only a few people use local public transport anyway: “A WSW Cab costs around 65,000 euros to buy,” calculates Dönch. “With a bus, we’re quickly in the six-figure range.” The payment model is also different from a traditional ticket: in the WSW Cab you pay as the crow flies, two kilometers cost 5.15 euros (those who have subscribed to a monthly ticket pay less). “We’re moving between public transport and taxis,” says Dönch. According to him, around 1,000 passengers per week are currently using the service. Because of the corona pandemic, however, the values are not very meaningful, says Dönch.
At the other end of Wuppertal, in the Zooviertel, the mobility of the future is shown from a different angle. The Stadtwerke stopped bus services there in August 2021 due to insufficient passenger numbers. A signature campaign was unsuccessful. Instead, the so-called “Taxi-Bus” now runs: regular taxis that come to the stop once an hour – but only if you call in advance. If you want to ride, you have to register at least 20 minutes in advance. The journey costs as much as a normal bus ticket.
The blue taxi is ordered using a smartphone app.
(Photo: Stefan Tesche-Hasenbach/WSW)
At “Petersen”, a corner shop in the zoo district, the customers are not very enthusiastic about this solution. “Everyone wants the bus back,” says Ronald Börgener, who uses public transport every day. “Calling 20 minutes beforehand is impractical,” says the 63-year-old. “Once I had to wait an hour because no taxi came.” Anette Kneip, 52, takes a similar view: “Of course it’s not bad to get a taxi for the price of the bus,” she says. “But buses are much more flexible and anonymous.” The space conditions are not always pleasant in Corona times either. “I wonder why at least small buses are not used.” The fear that the connection will eventually be completely terminated is always there.
Call the municipal utility: Why are hyper-modern transport services emerging in some quarters, while elsewhere even the bus is being canceled? The spokesman takes a breath. One has nothing to do with the other, he says. The WSW Cabs would be financed with research funds, while the regular bus services would be financed from the current budget. The public utilities also do not want to speak of a canceled bus line: it was finally replaced by the taxi buses.
Do hurdles scare users away?
It is obvious that there is still a difference between the two offers. Even with the space available. While dogs can be taken on buses – and in Wuppertal also on the suspension railway – this is not always the case in taxis. With bicycles it becomes completely impossible, whether in the taxi bus or in the modern WSW cabs.
Martin Dönch is in charge of the project at the Wuppertaler Stadtwerke.
(Photo: Steve Przybilla)
In addition, the technical barriers give reason to fear that the brave new world of local transport is by no means open to everyone. A phone call to the taxi bus is enough, but even that sometimes represents a hurdle for people with disabilities or a poor knowledge of German – at least a bigger one than simply getting on the next bus at a bus stop. With the electrically powered WSW Cabs, the requirements are even higher: In order to use them, you definitely need the mobile phone app, plus a credit card or a PayPal account. Even the airline tariff is not accessible to everyone. Are people still coming? Especially older people? Project manager Dönch tends not to see such problems. “You do a lot of older people an injustice,” he says. The municipal utilities are also planning to offer training for senior citizens in the near future.