Scheduled services: Long-distance public passenger transport

Anyone who wants to get around in the Bavarian Forest often needs more than just a timetable. Between small villages, long distances, and fluctuating demand, classic line services quickly reach their limits. The Regen district has therefore, since 1 September, been relying on a new concept for demand-responsive transport—and on digital support from Hanover.

Bus and rail are regarded as the backbone of public transport. But in many places, traditional scheduled services no longer suffice to meet people's mobility needs. A new summit, organized by BVTM, therefore aims to open up the debate—and to bring taxis, on-demand services, and new mobility forms more into focus.

Autonomous shuttle buses are already operating in Hamburg, Paderborn, and soon also in the Rhine-Main region. But the real bottleneck no longer lies in the vehicle technology. Public transport operators, authorities and manufacturers are now working to clear an obstacle from the path that could determine the future of autonomous mobility: the approval procedure.

The debate about the future of public transport has been caught in a contradiction for years. On the one hand, the expansion of buses and trains is being invoked as the key to the mobility transition. On the other hand, crowded trains, reduced schedules, and poorly served regions show that conventional line services alone cannot solve many mobility problems.

(dpa) After the upheaval caused by electric mobility, the industry faces the next technological shift. Saxony sees opportunities for industry, research and public transport.

When the cheapest price becomes a problem - who takes children to school in the morning, drives people with disabilities to facilities, or organizes the transport of kindergarten children, often works far from public attention. But behind these trips lies a market that is under pressure in many places.

A nationwide data standard enables the integration of taxi and rental car rides into intermodal travel chains. Digital patient transports and control-center dispatchers will also benefit.

The digitization of public transport often begins where everyday life becomes particularly complex: in organizing school transport and special-needs transport. The Dresden-based company Stadt.Land.Netz has specialized precisely in this area—and is now receiving fresh capital for further growth.

The Association of Private Commercial Road Passenger Transport of North Rhine-Westphalia (VSPV) continues to seek close cooperation with federal politics. However, the meeting with CDU transport politician Henning Rehbaum was not a first contact, but the continuation of a dialogue that had already begun at the state level.

In Orlando, the expansion of an autonomous fleet for public transport begins. The first trips are scheduled for 2026.

The Federal Association of Taxi and Rental Cars e.V. is expanding its continuing education offering with a new online format. Two dates in April and May 2026 will focus on market opportunities and procurement procedures in school transport.

On the occasion of the first "World Public Transport Day," attention turns to the backbone of mobility – and its gaps. The Association of Private Commercial Road Passenger Transport in North Rhine-Westphalia (VSPV) uses April 17 to issue an open letter to Federal Minister of Transport Patrick Schnieder.

A one-year pilot project is launching in 20 districts of Hamburg. Passengers can commute in the evenings and at night for a fixed price between their home and selected U-Bahn and S-Bahn stations.

The expectations were high; the results are modest. After the latest conference of transport ministers, criticism of the policy of the states and the federal government in public transport (ÖPNV) is growing.

When the town of Kelheim buried the on-demand bus KEXI in the summer of 2025, it did not sound like a mobility turnaround, but like a budget cut. The project had become too expensive for the municipality. Subsidies no longer helped; the ongoing costs remained. Since then, Kelheim has opted for a decidedly more sober model: taxi vouchers instead of the on-demand bus.

Around 100,000 taxis are on standby on the day of the strike. Why delays are still likely and what passengers should pay attention to.

In the Görlitz district, taxis already play a supplementary role in public transport and bring people specifically to bus and rail services. What began as a pilot project in the Weißwasser area is set to soon cover almost the entire district.

Autonomous shuttles should soon belong to Oslo's regular cityscape. The transportation authority Ruter and the operator Holo have been pushing the topic forward for years. Now they are bringing in a partner with the Hamburg-based mobility company MOIA that combines its own vehicle design, software, and operating competence. From spring 2026, self-driving ID. Buzz vehicles are to be in regular service in the capital.

With the BumbleB project, Bertrandt aims to show how autonomous vehicles can ease the burden on rural public transport. The company relies on open-source technologies and works with municipalities on real-world deployment scenarios.

NovaHub and HeyNova are supposed to make planning school and medical transports easier. The new partnership between the Federal Association of Taxi and Rental Cars and Stadt.Land.Netz focuses on practical digitization in passenger transport.

With "AmiGo", PostAuto will begin testing automated, electric, on-demand vehicles from 2025. The concept resembles taxi- and ride-pooling services—but is part of public transport. For the industry, the project could serve as a test case for future mobility services.

As part of the research project MINGA, SWM and MVG, together with partners, are testing automated shuttles. The test in the Gern/Nymphenburg district provides data on technology, maintenance and user behavior and is intended to create a guide for future deployment in local public transport.

(dpa/tk) In the northwest of Berlin, a large-scale trial is beginning these days that is likely to be of interest to the taxi industry: The Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) are launching their largest pilot project to date on autonomous driving. Five fully electric minibuses will be on the roads in the coming weeks in the districts of Spandau, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf and Reinickendorf – at first still without passengers.

At the end of August, in Hagen, around 100 representatives from licensing authorities of various districts in North Rhine-Westphalia met for the joint information event of VSPV and FPN. And under the title "Bus-Taxi Rental Cars: Shaping Future Mobility Together!?" the VSPV had invited experts from administration, transport companies, and licensing authorities to Dortmund in early September.

In the historic Stadthalle, around 210 professionals from politics, transport companies, security authorities, and civil society recently gathered for the ÖPNV Security Congress NRW 2025. Under the motto “360°: Safety in view – subjective perception, objective responsibility,” they discussed how safety in public transport (ÖPNV) can be strengthened – also with a view to passengers' trust.

Germany’s three largest public transport operators want to work together more closely in the future. Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), Hamburger Hochbahn (HOCHBAHN) and Münchner Verkehrsgesellschaft (MVG) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that sets out a strategic partnership for the public transport of the future. The aim is to leverage synergies, develop standards and offer smart mobility services to millions of passengers.

In the Munich district of Hadern, the MVG has launched a small experiment in recent weeks that is more than just a promotional campaign: On a section of bus line 167, fully electric minibuses are running, which can be coupled together when needed and can be used free of charge during the test period. To what extent this service affects the local taxi business remains to be seen.

sei mobil Verkehrsgesellschaft mbH, a company of the NETINERA Group, will henceforth base its planning on a new digital foundation. With the NOVAhub software solution from the developer Stadt.Land.Netz (SLN), school and passenger transport are to be organized more efficiently.

"Dalli" – according to Duden, "quickly, hurry up". In the Oder-Spree district, not far from Frankfurt (Oder), the "Dalli" on-call bus has been running since April 2022 – a demand-driven on-demand service that forces local taxi operators to rethink.

After Moia's withdrawal, the taxi industry is calling for clear political measures to protect local passenger transport. Competition from international ride-hailing services is growing – now the city of Hanover is also responsible.

(dpa/lhe) Autonomous driving via app – the pilot project "Kira" is introducing self-driving cars into regular service for the first time. Southern Hesse is testing what could soon become everyday life everywhere.

(dpa/mv) The district of Ludwigslust-Parchim is testing a new mobility concept for rural areas. By 2028, passengers are to be transported without drivers – on demand, by booking, and entirely without a fixed timetable.

Strong exchange and clear perspectives – at the meeting of the specialist divisions for taxi and rental car transport of the Rhineland-Palatinate transport associations on April 3, 2025, the future opportunities of the industry were the focus.

The Taxi and Rental Car Association (TMV) makes a clear appeal to the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV). Public mobility with foresight must necessarily include taxis.

(dpa) Those who sell their car in Frankfurt am Main receive an annual pass for bus and train. Other cities also want to promote the transition in transportation with such or similar incentives.

ioki, a European technology company for digital mobility and a pioneer in the field of autonomous transport in public transit, is the software partner of the pilot project for autonomous driving in public transport in the canton of Zurich.

(ots/PRNewswire) The mobility company Moove acquires the urban mobility provider Kovi, headquartered in São Paulo, thereby strengthening its position as a global leader in the mobility sector.

As part of the third Conference on Transportation Science, a topic that has often been neglected in research was discussed: "Mobility in rural areas". Unfortunately, the topic of public transport taxis was left out of the discussion.

The Federal Association of Taxi and Rental Cars was able to secure three high-ranking federal politicians for the digital panel discussion before the election: Michael Donth (CDU), Nyke Slawik (Greens), and Mathias Stein (SPD). In the 60-minute discussion in the format "Taxi Politics Live," they debated with association president Herwig Kollar and answered questions from the taxi audience.

For the first time, the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV) and the trade union ver.di have developed a joint paper outlining a vision for public transport up to 2035. The taxi associations have also formulated their demands.

The transport committee of the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament decided in its meeting on January 15 to introduce a proposal for the statewide implementation of the public transport taxi. The initiative was introduced by the FDP and received support from the governing factions of the CDU and the Greens. The final vote in the plenary session is considered a formality.

The campaign for the federal elections is underway, and the Taxi and Rental Car Association of Germany e. V. (TMV) is taking the opportunity to once again promote dialogue between the industry and prominent transport politicians.

The President of the TMV, Thomas Kroker, and the Chief Executive Officer of the TMV, Patrick Meinhardt, met with the Deputy Chairman of the SPD Parliamentary Group, Detlef Müller, before Christmas. Müller is responsible for transport policy in Berlin.

The sale of electric-powered vehicles has significantly declined in Germany. According to international car experts, models with car subscriptions have a great, yet untapped potential that could drive Germany's environmentally friendly mobility forward.

Convince the authorities of the necessity of the public transport taxi in five steps – with the new flyer, the Federal Association of Taxi and Rental Cars (BVTM) provides taxi entrepreneurs with arguments for implementation.