The Future on Rails – Spotlight on Sustainable Service

On 13 and 14 May 2025, the HANNING & KAHL “Service Days“ took place in the historic hall in Zwickau with the motto “The Future on Rails: Spotlight on Sustainable Service”. The two-day event was dedicated to sustainability in public transport and offered specialists a varied program with exciting impulses, practical examples and talking points.  By Andreas Jurczyk

Right at the start, data was collected for a CO2 event calculator with the objective of calculating and compensating the conference’s CO2 footprint. The compensating contribution will be donated to Zwickau’s green area maintenance and management – for plants for a new bus stop, a local token for sustainable mobility.

Impulses from the sector and practical insight

Day one started with a welcome address by Christian Schmidt (Managing Director of HANNING & KAHL) and Zwickau‘s Mayoress Silvia Queck. Presentations by Mrs Mas (VDV) and HANNING & KAHL staff and others gave an insight into the challenges facing the sector – from climate neutrality to obsolescence management. Highlights were the visit to Zwickau‘s Municipal Transport Services SVZ  and a tour of the city on metre-gauge followed by a guided tour of the August-Horch Museum.

Looking to the future

The second day highlighted specific regional projects: conference host Dr. Steffen Schranil, Städtische Verkehrsbetriebe Zwickau, talked about light rail development in Zwickau, Stefan Länger from the Nordhausen transport provider introduced Nordhausen’s success project “20 years of Line No. 10“, and Gert Schleicher from City-Bahn Chemnitz presented the Chemnitz Model. The program was rounded off with an overview of HANNING & KAHL‘s sustainable service portfolio.

Strong signals for sustainable mobility

With numerous impulses, intensive talks and a clear focus on the future, our Service Days 2025 were an all-round success. Zwickau clearly demonstrated its role as an active architect of sustainable urban and transport development.