Climate protection and sustainability are also a top priority for Deutsche Bahn in creating a green railway.
Every year, Deutsche Bahn invites 250 people from politics and business to a product presentation where innovations expected to benefit passengers in the coming years are showcased. Whether it’s new vehicles, more comfortable seats, public transport apps that make multimodal mobility concepts tangible, or an expanded food and beverage offering – there’s something for every area. This year, our colleague Diana Schlee also had the opportunity to explore Deutsche Bahn’s expanded mobility services as part of a “Women in Mobility” meeting and was able to test some of the new features before they are made publicly available to passengers. Climate protection and sustainability were particularly in focus this year.
#strongRail and a bat whisperer
The event “Experience Mobility” was opened by the DB Management Board, led by Dr. Richard Lutz, who welcomed the guests and presented initial plans for the coming years. Deutsche Bahn is working to expand the #strongRail initiative to further strengthen its role as a driver of CO₂ reduction in the transport sector. The product innovations are intended to encourage more and more people to switch to the green railway – and to stay on board for the long term. One such initiative is the “Deutschlandtakt”, which aims to connect major German cities every 30 minutes in the future, making train travel more attractive. In addition, the 60,000 new seats for the ICE 4 and ICE 3 trains are intended to make rail travel even more comfortable and pleasant. The conversion will begin in early 2020. Conclusion: They’re comfortable – but on longer journeys, it still helps to get up and stretch now and then if it gets uncomfortable. 😉
Several Deutsche Bahn employees were introduced as representatives of the roughly 200,000 staff members working across Germany. Among them was a colleague affectionately known as the “bat whisperer”, who ensures that bats are not disturbed during tunnel construction work.
New Horizons and Artificial Intelligence
The product innovations presented in the black cube were particularly exciting. This is where ideas and projects were showcased in which artificial intelligence plays a major role – such as the Vision.ai solution. Thanks to AI, images and videos are automatically analyzed and evaluated. This allows Deutsche Bahn to make quick decisions — for example, whether snow removal is needed on a platform or if trains have been sprayed with graffiti and need cleaning. This solution is already being used at 22 stations.
Martin Fröhlich has one of the best jobs as Head of New Horizons. With his Future of Mobility Trendmap, he collaborates with companies such as Daimler, Deutsche Post, Lufthansa, the Fraunhofer Institute, Deutsche Bahn, and Porsche, continuously developing and expanding the map. He also keeps a close eye on developments in the Hyperloop sector. The company Hardt Hyperloop from Delft is currently building a 30 km long test track, with investment from the company of “Die Höhle der Löwen” juror Frank Thelen. In the future, the Hyperloop aims to transport people and goods over medium distances climate-neutrally at speeds of up to 1,000 km/h, making it one of the fastest means of transport in the world.