Berlin's Rufbus project before: What is the east now?

Berlin's Rufbus project before: What is the east now?

A dramatic upheaval in Berlin local transport is based: The Senate and the Berlin Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) have announced that the city, MUVA flexible, has been stopping the only call bus system. While the green criticism and speak of a "devastating signal" for passengers in the east of Berlin, BVG boss Henrik Falk expresses that the project has failed in business. With only 49,300 passengers in 2023 and a modest number of users of an average of 135 a day, the system was not profitable. The last trips will be carried out by the end of February 2025, which destroys the hope of many Berliners for flexible local transport in the eastern districts, the Berliner Zeitung .

new technologies in sight

But instead of mearing the tickets for Muva, the BVG is optimistic about the future. Henrik Falk reports on plans to use autonomous minibuses in the outdoor districts in order to improve public transport in the long term. The BVG hopes that these vehicles will not need drivers and would be hoping for a solution to the economic challenges in local transport. According to Falk, who hopes for a possible approval of this technology from 2027 to 2030, Berlin and Hamburg could experience a "turnaround in time" with this progress, which would make it possible to change mobility sustainably and reduce the dependency on own vehicles.

Despite the hiring of the Muva project, there is another service called Muva to replace it, which has so far also been insufficiently used. This is a driving service for people restricted mobility who currently receives even fewer driving requests than the previous call bus. The Senate has reacted to criticism by promising that Muva is not fully stamped and instead a plus for passengers, reports bvg.de . Nevertheless, there is doubt as to whether the new solutions can actually solve the existing problem of mobility in the east of Berlin.

Berliner Zeitung