Germany's three largest public transport companies - in Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, home to seven million people - have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work on smart mobility solutions together.
The heads of Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), Hamburger Hochbahn (Hochbahn), and Münchner Verkehrsgesellschaft (MVG) signed the strategic partnership agreement, "with a greater focus on customers, leveraging synergies to reduce costs and realise efficiency potential, and setting industry-wide standards".
The firms say that digitalisation, artificial intelligence, automation and autonomous driving "are opening up enormous opportunities" but more than local action is required to create common standards and scale.
There are three main areas of interest:
Autonomous driving: By 2035, up to 2,000 autonomous public transport vehicles will complement mass transit systems in the three cities.
Mobility platform: Introduction of a common app for buses, trains and shared mobility services.
Standardised sales systems: These should be standardised and digitised across regions to ensure a seamless customer experience.
"Autonomous driving, a shared platform, a digital future in public transport – none of this is a distant prospect," says Henrik Falk, CEO of BVG.
"We're bringing together the bright minds of the three largest public transport companies and a shared will to advance the future of public transport and mobility in Germany. Waiting is a thing of the past. We're making it happen now."
Hochbahn CEO Robert Henrich says the common goal is "to leverage the opportunities offered by digitalisation and new technologies to implement attractive mobility solutions close to our customers".
MVG's Ingo Wortmann adds: "We want to become more economical and reduce operating costs through this joint initiative with a focus on automation. The entire sector can also benefit from this if the industry brings standardised systems to market."
The planned timeframe for implementing these measures is gradually between 2030 and 2035.
"To avoid isolated individual projects and redundant structures, the three companies are relying on a lean organisation with a few, clearly-focused working groups for the defined use cases," the firms say in a statement.
A steering committee comprising all three cities will be set up for overall management and coordination.
