RTPI @ Hamburg’s new Central Bus Station

Hamburg’s central bus station – ZOB Hamburg – has been in operation for nearly 50 years, thus marking it out as one of the largest and oldest long-distance bus stations in Germany. Serving more than 3 million customers per year from 27 different countries, the time had come for a radical modernisation to meet today’s public transport requirements. A key feature of this was a new, state-of-the-art passenger Information system.

We opted to build an entirely new structure at the same location. The new central bus station has a striking translucent canopy that seems to hover above Hamburg’s urban landscape. It protects all bus platforms, the three service buildings, a travel goods shop and various food outlets.

Serving more than 600 buses every day, the ZOB Hamburg is used by the local bus operator and long-distance services to more than 400 destinations. Located close to the main railway station in Hamburg, it is also a major transport interchange.

As part of the redevelopment, we decided to implement a computer-based information and control system in order to provide passengers and bus drivers alike with up-to-date information. The system also allows ZOB staff to plan and schedule parking positions and departures, to bill the bus operators for using the bus station and prepare statistics for quality monitoring of the service. We commissioned PSI Transportation GmbH, a Berlin software company, for the realisation.

The implementation of the control system was fundamental to presenting the new ZOB Hamburg as an attractive location for passengers’ point of departure. It runs on a central server with several client workstations based on the PSItraffic software platform.

Automated scheduling

Two workstations located in the supervisor’s office at the central bus station are used to prepare timetables, assign parking spaces and to record fee data chargeable to the bus operators. Each day a scheduling proposal is made for the following day based on the timetable. Data is imported automatically from the existing scheduling system so that possible conflicts are identified, thus enabling dispatchers to make the necessary corrections in the scheduling proposal.

As each day approaches, parking space identifiers are displayed to bus drivers on a dynamic display panel at the entrance to the bus station.

Real-Time Displays for Passengers and Driver

A large LCD departures display in the arrival and departure hall informs passengers when and where their buses are leaving. It also provides information about any delays. Furthermore, two line displays at the individual bus bays provide detailed information to the customer concerning the next two buses scheduled to arrive and/or depart. Additional displays facing the buses offer specific route information to the bus drivers.

Interactive information terminals in the ZOB service buildings enable passengers to interactively find journey information, with additional display panels installed in the food outlets and on the access routes from the underground and mainline rail stations, so that passengers are fully informed about scheduled departures and arrivals or, indeed, delays.

Since the system is connected to the real-time information systems of other bus stations and operators, it also displays their data and enables onward connectivity information between services. The Information and Control System is even used by local travel agencies that can look up information concerning all trips that have been booked by them. All information terminals and travel agencies are connected through the standard web-interface and the information is available via the internet.

The customer benefits are clear: at ZOB Hamburg, customer satisfaction has increased significantly. Before the control system was installed, information was sparse and passengers had difficulty finding the correct bus and subsequently sometimes missed connections. There are a now far fewer inquiries at the information desk – thanks largely to the additional information terminals and the web access. In fact, the whole atmosphere in the bus station is far more relaxed, especially without confused passengers running around looking for buses!

Perhaps most significantly though, thanks to the carefully redesigned building and the clear and accurate real-time information displays, ZOB Hamburg is experiencing increased passenger acceptance of bus transportation – and the number of users is once again growing.