Mastering the Challenges Facing Public Transport. Taking Stock.
Climate change, the war in Ukraine and not least the Covid pandemic have a palpable impact on our society, which, in some cases, will have to radically adapt to the new conditions. Mobility has a high priority in our lives, and public transport is not spared the effects of these structural changes. There is not much time left to achieve the climate targets. Digitalisation will play an important part and the decisive factor will be what steps we have already taken.
By Uwe Zobel, Verkehrsautomatisierung Berlin GmbH
Looking at the changes ahead, three main challenges for public transport crystallized in the numerous forums held at this year’s InnoTrans:
- Lowering CO2 emissions and reducing energy costs
- Staff recruitment and retention
- Improving the mobility mix to make the service more attractive.
Verkehrsautomatisierung Berlin (VAB) has been working on digitalisation projects in this environment for many years and can draw on foundations for future requirements.
Lowering CO2 emissions and reducing energy costs
Reduction in CO2 emissions can only be achieved by electrification of the vehicle fleet. Not only must the type of drive be replaced, the operator’s infrastructure must be reconstructed, and deployment and setting variants will have to change significantly in some cases. Corresponding IT support must ensure that the degree of use of the vehicles is comparable to that with conventional drive types. To do so, VAB has expanded its VABdepot depot management system (BMS) to include the functions necessary for the operation of e-buses. With our BMS extension called BMS E-Bus, vehicles are assigned to the most suitable runround in accordance with their charging status. Charging points and processes up to preconditioning can be controlled and monitored with the VABevSuite. The integrated charging management module of our VABevSuite ensures efficient use of the energy which is available.
VABnet – our Intermodal Transport Control System (ITCS) – helps lower energy costs on line networks. Vehicle data such as current position, speed, stops, delays and early arrivals can support ad-hoc measures to avoid unnecessary energy consumption and also assist with vehicle-allocation planning. Integrated range monitoring helps control-centre staff to recognise possible risks to the runrounds in good time.
Staff recruitment and retention
Seldom before have staff recruitment and retention been so much talked about as today. The baby boomers have either now retired or will soon, and there is a growing shortage of new recruits not only for sociographic reasons. This makes personnel recruitment increasingly difficult and entails increased costs. As expenses are expected to rise, alternatives are now becoming attractive which were still unthinkable a few years ago on account of the associated development costs. One such alternative is autonomous driving.
In the tram sector in particular, VAB already offers data and functions in the VABtrack modules which will assist autonomous driving in the future. These include destination-parking allocation, the setting of secured routes, processing of loop information and reacting to signals which are still activated by drivers today, but which could be controlled by onboard electronics in the future.
In bus transportation, too, VAB is active in future-oriented projects. Here, the existing data and functions of VABdepot and VABnet are supplemented with corresponding vehicle data from ambient sensors and monitors, and even includes traffic-sign recognition. Autonomous driving can be enabled in the different levels step by step using this data. The first objective – Level 4 on the depot – is to be achieved in a few months.
Improving the mobility mix to make the service more attractive.
Reducing inhibition thresholds for ticket purchase (e.g. nationwide validity) is just one aspect of the target of improving the mobility mix. Integration of the “last mile“, which is a key competitive factor in comparison with private transport is far more complex. Today, multi-modal navigation apps like Quixxit or Ally already help passengers choose the most convenient and most favourably-priced door-to-door mode of transport. But what about reliability or external influences like the weather which invariably influence the choice of transportation mode for the last part of the journey.
An ITCS can help increase the attractiveness of public transport nationwide. VABnet has access to passenger numbers which can help predict ad-hoc use of/requirement for other modes of transport at a certain stop station. Modern communication means between control centre and vehicle via radio or LTE enable transfer of information to taxi companies who can then provide sufficient vehicles in good time. Sharing-vehicles could also then be reserved at the request of passengers with precise timing using corresponding apps, just like on-call buses.
The future of public transport will be significantly shaped by advancing digitalisation in the individual sectors. VAB has already paved the way for this. VAB systems process data from equipment made by vehicle manufacturers as well as data which can be used for the smooth flow of business transactions (e.g. timetables). This data is processed in the modules of VABnet, VABdepot and VABtrack and forwarded to corresponding internal and external recipients. It does not matter whether the recipients are “people“ in the control centre, passengers or machines like integrated traffic-light controllers.
VAB products thus form the basis for further developments, such as autonomous driving or integration of supplementary modes of transport. We are preparing for the future by using modern technology like artificial intelligence or semantic analyses.
There is still a lot to do – we are working on it.