Context of Transport Climate Action

Munich is growing and is enjoying increased economic development, but this also brings more road traffic, and air pollution and noise emission are increasing.

The MVG is multimodal service operator for the City of Munich and its surrounding area. It is committed to offering flexible mobility solutions as an alternative to private car use. MVG’s service offer presently includes underground, tram, and bus services as well as complementary services. Besides the central public transport connections (underground, tram, bus), it has its own bike sharing system MVG Rad, cooperation agreements with CarSharing providers, and is extending it service offer with new electric infrastructure (E-Mobility) and Mobility Stations.

Description

MVG is more than Munich’s public transport provider and has put in place several polices and measure to reduce the use of private cars, especially for short trips, to help improve the overall transport situation and reduce GHG emissions.

In addition to MVG’s multimodal transportation offer in the Munich metropolitan area, it provides the following to help support the sustainability of the system:

• MVG Rad – MVG’s own bike sharing system help reduce the use of cars for short urban trips.
• Car sharing options – by offering Car Sharing as part of the public transport service off the whole transport can be improved as each car-sharing car replaces about four private cars.
• E-Mobility infrastructure – An integrated action plan on expanding infrastructure e-mobility for Munich (IHFEM) charging is being built up. Up to 100 charging stations are planned, 2 E-buses are being trialled for full service and there is a programme to integrate pedelecs (pedal bikes with electrically assisted motors) in MVG Rad.

Mobility Stations – a concept to bring all mobility solutions together in one place. The pilot project is Münchner Freiheit: with the central public transport connections (Underground, Tram, Bus), but also with information point, E-charging station (e-CarSharing), MVG Rad (Bike sharing system), Bike + Ride, CarSharing and a Taxi station.

Implementation

MVG and the state capital Munich are the organizations that are part of the implementation process and provide the funding.

Further actions undertaken by MVG:

• MVG recycles all plastics, separates potential recyclables and maintains a site for the safe disposal of hazardous wastes (such as used oil from the vehicles, other highly polluting or non- biodegradable waste). Some of the waste that is collected is used to generate energy.
• MVG has already invested in cleaning up its fleets and its vehicles emit four times less CO2,on average, than private cars.
• In order to further reduce emissions, MVG uses innovative technologies to constantly reduce noise and pollutants. All new buses fulfill the highest environmental and emission standards (effective at the time of their purchase) which is currently Euro 6 (2015). All diesel Citybuses in Munich are fitted with diesel particulate filters, which reduce PM (particulate matter) dust to a minimum.
• Since 2013, trailer buses have been operating. These vehicles are better for the environment because they carry 30 percent more passengers
• For some years, MVG has been testing alternative drive systems like hybrid and electric buses.
• Using ITS traffic control systems, buses get priority at traffic lights, they can save energy by reducing the need to brake and accelerate.
• The choice of components of the new underground trains was also influenced by environmental considerations. The C2 trains are over 95% recyclable. Longer lasting modern LED lights replace halogen spotlights.
• The energy consumption of trams is reduced by the use of lightweight construction materials and by feeding recovered braking energy back into the power cycle. Up to 40% of the energy collected during braking can be reused. Recovering the braking energy is even more efficient in the new underground trains.
• Thanks to 26 km of green tracks for trams (tracks where grass is grown to cover the tram tracks), the percentage of green space in Munich has also increased.
• Energy consumption has also been reduced at stations: with the help of a groundwater heat pump at Neuperlach Süd and Therese-Giehse-Allee stations, up to 90 percent of the energy for heating the stations is saved. This geothermal energy project received the “Energy Masters Award” in 2012.
• 75% of the water used for washing our vehicles is collected, treated and reused.
• Around 700 tons of waste are collected at MVG stations. 57% percent of it is recycled, the rest is used for energy generation.

Benefits

MVG as the overall service provider for multimodal transportation sees this multimodal approach as being successful.

The bike sharing system, started in October 2015 and currently (11/25/2015), has more than 13.000 users, is increasing daily.

Presently MVG has contracts with the Car Sharing providers DriveNow, citeecar, car2go and STATTAUTO. MVG subscription customers get a variety of discounts and the contracts with the providers will be further refined and improved.

E-Mobility Infrastructure is growing with 18, fast charging stations planned to be installed in January 2016

The success of the pilot project Münchner Freiheit, Mobility Stations, is also showing in an increasing number of Car Sharing cooperations and more passengers using their services.

Potential for scaling up

Project: SMARTER TOGETHER (EU project, referring to the Smart Cities and Communities Initiative of the EU commission)

E-MOBILITY SOLUTIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY

The ultimate goal of all mobility related activities is to reduce the use of traditionally fuelled conventional cars to achieve a better carbon footprint, less pollution and noise emissions. The two pillars of SMARTER TOGETHER are the provision of sustainable e-mobility solutions and deployed by citizens and access strategies to mobility solutions in terms of ICT infrastructure to mobility facilities.

The success of e-mobility solutions and their long-term operation require different business and operational models dedicated to the different applications and user needs and these need to be further developed and deployed.. For the consumer, sharing is a smart way of using e-mobility.  In SMARTER TOGETHER novel business models like the offer of service integration to housing companies will be demonstrated. Sharing as well as e-car pooling will also be utilized for business solutions. For logistics and freight the need for the electrification of fleets according to specific requirements will be demonstrated. These activities will be further enriched by other innovative solutions using other e-vehicles like e-bikes, pedelecs and even in some cases e-forklifts.

Project area for SMARTER TOGETHER: Freiham-Neuaubing/Westkreuz

1. Neuaubing/Westkreuz
   • Redevelopment area (ca. 350 ha. with 3,350 buildings)
   • Mainly residential area
   • Two thirds of houses were built before 1978 so there is a high demand for heating (often due to a lack of good insulation)
2. Freiham
   • a new development district designed to house approximately 20,000 residents
   • its role model is distinguished by its sustainable energy concept and contribution to climate protection
   • low-temperature district heating network powered by ground heat

Impacts

Mobility impacts

In order to ensure city-friendly mobility for Munich’s traffic participants in the future, the highest priority is given to all measures aimed at reducing or shifting traffic towards ecologically sustainable means of transport. The overall aim is to increase the amount of trips travelled on foot, by bike and with public transport. The development and extension of the public transport network, sharing-solutions and e-Mobility are designed to decrease the necessity for private vehicle usage, and to free up the roads for non-divertible freight traffic.

Some extensions to the road network, the establishment of a network of mobility stations with e-charging infrastructure, and the development of integrated city logistic hubs are considered as vital means to improve existing traffic conditions. Another impact will be the replacement/decrease of conventional parking spaces by these shared mobility concepts in combination with the permission to increase building density.

Munich’s mobility solutions present a novel and holistic approach to the distribution and sharing concepts for e-mobility focusing on: the integration of the entire environmentally friendly mobility system; intensifying the attractiveness of information services for all users; novel infrastructure design; integration of electric grid and energy management with refurbishments and new constructions. It is estimated that this approach in addition to the considerable reductions in private transport and delivery, this will result in substantial, local CO2 savings.

Munich‘s Climate Protection Targets

• CO2-Reduction Targets of the ClimateAlliance:
  • to reduce CO2 emissions by 10% every five years
  • to halve per capita emissions by 2030 at the latest (from 1990 baseline)

• SWM Renewable Energies expansion campaign
• SWM Vision: District heating from regenerative energy sources

Challenges

The majority of challenges were in respect of organizational problems with all the different service providers or/coordination with the various departments of the City Munich.

Selected references

https://www.swm.de/english/company.html

PROJECT INFORMATION

Location:

Munich, Germany

Start:

2014

Finish:

On-going permanently

Tags:

Europe, Germany, Mitigation, Passenger Transport, Cycling, Busses, Technology, Innovation, Partnership, Awareness

Organizer/s:

MVG, state capital Munich

Contact/s:

Kilian Kärgel, Kaergel.Kilian@swm.de, 0049-89-2191-2009