article

Keeping Dresden moving

Posted: 4 March 2013 | Reiner Zieschank, Director of Finances and Technical Services, Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe AG, Hans-Jürgen Credé, Director of Operations and Human Resources, Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe AG | No comments yet

Dresden is the capital of the German State of Saxony and has a population of approximately 500,000. It is located in the East of Germany, close to the borders of Poland and the Czech Republic. With its concentration of industrial, scientific and cultural institutions, Dresden is one of the top business locations in Germany with dynamic economic growth.

Dresden is the capital of the German State of Saxony and has a population of approximately 500,000. It is located in the East of Germany, close to the borders of Poland and the Czech Republic. With its concentration of industrial, scientific and cultural institutions, Dresden is one of the top business locations in Germany with dynamic economic growth.

Dresden is the capital of the German State of Saxony and has a population of approximately 500,000. It is located in the East of Germany, close to the borders of Poland and the Czech Republic. With its concentration of industrial, scientific and cultural institutions, Dresden is one of the top business locations in Germany with dynamic economic growth.

Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe AG (DVB) is the public transport operator in Dresden. It is the largest public transport company in the local ‘Upper Elbe’ region and operates one of Germany’s major light-rail systems. DVB is an integrated public transport company entirely owned by the city of Dresden through Technische Werke Dresden – a municipal holding of local utilities such as power, gas, water, district heating and city cleaning etc. DVB is a public sector company but is organised and guided like a private company. It has a clear centre-structure and responsibility for costs, revenues and decisions lie within its units. DVB is one of the major employers in Dresden and the region. More than a half of the 1,731 employees are drivers. DVB runs a training centre that is not only used for its own apprentices but also by other Saxon transport companies.

Annual ridership figures have reached approximately 150 million passengers and the market share of public transport in Dresden is 21% (with 41% private car, 22% by foot and 16% cycling). The frequency on all tram lines and the main bus lines is 10 minutes during the day, 15 minutes on Sundays, Holidays and in the evening, as well as running a continuous night service with secured connections.

DVB operates a light-rail network approxi – mately 134km-long on both sides of the Elbe River, supplemented by an integrated bus network. The fleet consists of 166 modern light-rail vehicles and 31 older high-floor trams, as well as 147 low-floor buses. DVB also operates two cable car lines, each over 100 years old, plus four ferry terminals and two daily running freight trams (‘CarGoTram’) for the delivery service of Dresden’s Volkswagen factory ‘Gläserne Manufaktur’.

In cooperation with Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe, DVB runs a consulting company involved in exporting its expertise to other transport systems around the world.

History

Public transport in Dresden began 175 years ago with the first horse-drawn bus service which was followed in 1872 with the horse-drawn tram and then the electric tram in 1893. Dresden was the first Saxon town to use this modern and futureoriented electric drive system.

In 1905, the municipality purchased the two privately owned tramway companies in Dresden and merged them into a single company, thus following a general trend of the time. The transport company did not only contribute to the municipal treasury, but also facilitated urban development and structural policy.

The history of Dresden’s public transport system is marked by many ups and downs. There were times of innovation of vehicles, systems and drives, high customer demand and economic upswing, but there were also times of deep crises, with the low point in World War II. However, the people of Dresden stood by their tramway in difficult times.

Since 1990, the year of German reunification, DVB has experienced rapid development, including:

● Annual passenger numbers increased from 120 to 151 million

● Employee numbers reduced from approxi – mately 4,200 to approximately 1,730

● Cost recovery has increased from 17% to more than 78%

● Tram fleet reduced from 750 15m units to 166 light-rail vehicles (30, 41 or 45m).

Passengers

With an annual ridership of more than 150 million passengers, residents of Dresden, on average, ride approximately 250 times a year with DVB – it is one of the peak services in Germany. The attractiveness of Dresden’s public transport is also shown in the fact that DVB has almost 130,000 regular customers. The results from a recent annual customer survey shows that 60% of all customers are completely (or very) satisfied, with only 5% less or not satisfied.

On average, DVB carries about 400,000 passengers on a workday – two thirds by tram and one third by bus. But the system is efficient enough to serve up to 1 million passengers a day – this was proved during the German Protestant Church Days in 2011.

One of DVB’s goals is to provide accessible public transport for everyone. Young and old, rich and poor, people with wheelchairs, push – chairs and physical disabilities – all should be able to use the services. To achieve this, DVB operates the following:

● Low-floor vehicles and barrier-free stops with raised platforms

● An information system for blind and visually impaired people

● Free-of-charge assistance for people with disabilities

● An attractive and socially acceptable tariff system.

Passenger information is another important part of the service. DVB provides information in its service centres, via its hotline, via mobile phone messages (both SMS and those able to access the mobile website), on the internet and, for its own employees, on the intranet, on Twitter and Facebook, and, of course, via dynamic passenger information displays at stops. It is based on the real-time data of the computeraided operation control system (OCS).

Dresden, as part of the wider region, has approximately 1.2 million inhabitants and runs an integrated public transport network with DVB, regional bus companies and commuter railways as cooperating partners (‘Verkehrsverbund Oberelbe’). The timetables are coordinated and one ticket is valid for all companies. Passengers can buy their tickets in the traditional ways – in service centres, with the driver, and from ticket machines at stops or in the vehicles – but they can now also purchase electronic tickets with their mobile phones.

Rolling stock

After the modernisation of almost 250 old Czech Tatra trams in the 1990s, DVB began ordering new low-floor light-rail vehicles. Between 1996 and 2002, 83 light-rail vehicles of 30m and 41m-long were acquired from the ‘Sachsen-Tram’ consortium, a cooperation of Siemens, ADtranz and the former DWA in Bautzen/Saxony (now Bombardier). From 2003 until 2010, DVB ordered 83 light-rail vehicles (Bombardier’s Flexity Classic) with 30 and 45 meters length. The width of this light-rail vehicle is 2.35m.

The last Tatra tram stopped normal operations in 2010 but it is now part of a set of three motorised vehicles operating on the ‘Student Shuttle’ line and sometimes on the occasions of great events. #The bus fleet consists of 147 low-floor buses, included 18 hybrid buses by Mercedes-Benz, Hess, MAN and Solaris. The articulated Hess buses and the two-axle MAN buses have Supercaps while the articulated Mercedes buses have batteries. The articulated Solaris went into operation in 2007 as the first seriesproduced hybrid bus in the European urban transport marketplace.

DVB has four depots: One in Gorbitz which is the main workshop for trams; one in Trachenberge for trams and buses; one in Gruna which is a workshop for buses; and one in Reick for trams.

Infrastructure

DVB began reconstructing worn infrastructure beginning with a pilot line in 1994. The pilot line (number 2 between the residential areas of Gorbitz and Prohlis via the city centre) gave the citizens and politicians an idea of how efficient a tram system could be when it is boosted to a standard light-rail system. The Federal and the Saxon government funded the project and went on to be a model line not just for Dresden.

This pilot was equipped with reserved way for the tram, ‘green track’, fully accessible stops, combined for tram and bus at interchanges, dynamic passenger information screens and traffic signal priority.

Parallel to the reconstruction, DVB built about 7km of new double-track tram routes to Coschütz, Kaditz, Pennrich and to the Dresden fair.

For future dynamic-development of Dresden it is essential that the public transport system keeps up with growth. Thus the next largescale project is ‘Stadtbahn 2020’ – the conversion of a highly demanded bus service into a lightrail service.

Biography

Reiner Zieschank (right) has been Director of Finances and Technical Services at DVB AG since 2005. Prior to this, Reiner had been Commercial Director of DVB AG, Director of Technische Werke Dresden GmbH, Director of the DREWAG Stadtwerke, Director of the Energie Verbund Dresden GmbH, and Chairman of the regional group of the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV).

Hans-Jürgen Credé (left) has been Director of Operations and Human Resources at DVB AG since 2005. Prior to this, he had been Member of the Board and Director of DVB AG and also Director of Technische Werke Dresden GmbH.