The three largest urban transport operators in Germany—BVG, Hamburger Hochbahn and MVG—have signed a memorandum of cooperation. The agreement provides for the creation of a single management committee with representatives from all three cities, tasked with coordinating separate working groups.
The consolidation of various isolated projects and the elimination of redundant structures is expected to save resources and speed up the development of driverless systems for both rail and road transport. The target is up to 2,000 driverless vehicles by 2035. Additionally, the development of a unified information application for trains and buses, as well as a standardised ticketing system, is planned.
Each of the three participants in the agreement has its own driverless system projects. In Hamburg, work has already begun on the partial automation of metro lines U2 and U4, while the under-construction U5 line will be fully driverless with trains (as shown in the picture) and Alstom signalling systems. GoA2-level driverless operation using Siemens Mobility’s Trainguard MT technology is also planned for Berlin U-Bahn lines U5 and U8. The provision of ETCS traffic control systems on top of ATO is also included in another Siemens Mobility contract for electric trains for Munich.
There is a general trend towards collaboration in this area among several operators. For example, the railways of a number of European countries are implementing the joint OCORA project, a unified architecture for onboard control and signalling systems with the future addition of a driverless module. In Germany, Deutsche Bahn, Siemens, Bosch and several other companies are working on driverless solutions for railway transport.
It should be noted that there is already a successful example in Europe of the consolidation of operators from six cities in Germany and Austria for the development of a tram-train standard. This enabled operators to order up to 500 three-section CityLink vehicles by Stadler under a single contract, resulting in a saving of around €1 mln per unit.
