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MVV’s preparations for the World Cup 2006

Posted: 31 March 2006 | Dr Markus Haller, Ph.D., MVV GmbH, Authorised Signatory, Head of Conception Department, Head of MVV Consulting | No comments yet

After the World Cup of 1974, the time has finally come again: just a few more months and Germany will host its second FIFA World Cup. Under the slogan ‘Germany 2006: A time to make friends’, countless football fans from all over the world are expected to visit the twelve FIFA World Cup stadiums in June.

Compared to 1974, the World Cup has now become a global spectacle that brings entirely different logistical challenges. It is not only the increased number of spectators that will present challenges, but also the numerous representatives from the written press and the broadcast media, for whom support, information and transport services must be provided. All eyes will be focused particularly on Munich, where the World Cup International Media Centre will be located. More than 150 television stations will be based here.

After the World Cup of 1974, the time has finally come again: just a few more months and Germany will host its second FIFA World Cup. Under the slogan ‘Germany 2006: A time to make friends’, countless football fans from all over the world are expected to visit the twelve FIFA World Cup stadiums in June. Compared to 1974, the World Cup has now become a global spectacle that brings entirely different logistical challenges. It is not only the increased number of spectators that will present challenges, but also the numerous representatives from the written press and the broadcast media, for whom support, information and transport services must be provided. All eyes will be focused particularly on Munich, where the World Cup International Media Centre will be located. More than 150 television stations will be based here.

After the World Cup of 1974, the time has finally come again: just a few more months and Germany will host its second FIFA World Cup. Under the slogan ‘Germany 2006: A time to make friends’, countless football fans from all over the world are expected to visit the twelve FIFA World Cup stadiums in June.

Compared to 1974, the World Cup has now become a global spectacle that brings entirely different logistical challenges. It is not only the increased number of spectators that will present challenges, but also the numerous representatives from the written press and the broadcast media, for whom support, information and transport services must be provided. All eyes will be focused particularly on Munich, where the World Cup International Media Centre will be located. More than 150 television stations will be based here.

Public transport services in the Munich area

The public transport system in Munich covers the City of Munich and eight surrounding rural districts. The area has a total resident population of approximately 2.5 million.

The transport system is organised by the Munich Transport and Tariff Association (MVV). MVV consists of more than 50 different transport companies. MVV’s rapid transit network is made up of Deutsche Bahn’s 10 suburban railway lines and National Rail’s 13 branches, which cover 443km. This network provides direct access (without passengers having to change) from across the region to the city centre.

MVV also has eight high-performance underground lines in the City of Munich operated by the Munich Transport Company (MVG), covering over 85km. The network is complemented by 10 tram lines, around 70 city bus routes and over 210 regional bus routes. Everyday, more than 1,800,000 passengers travel on MVV’s network.

World Cup events in Munich

The opening match will be held in Munich on the 9th June. This will be followed by three more first-round matches on the 14th, 18th, and 21st June. Then there will be a ‘final sixteen’ match on the 24th June and a semi-final match on the 5th July.

Munich’s Allianz-Arena stadium will be used as the venue. It is situated to the north of Munich, in the district of Fröttmaning. The Allianz-Arena is where the clubs FC Bayern München and TSV 1860 München hold their matches. It was inaugurated on 30th May 2005, and is deemed to be one of Europe’s most modern stadiums.

During Germany’s Bundesliga (premier league) matches there are approximately 11,000 car parking spaces and 350 bus and coach parking spaces available for 66,000 spectators at the Allianz-Arena. However, during the World Cup this capacity cannot be used to its full potential due to security-related provisions, parking reservations for the FIFA guests of honour, and the increased needs of the press.

Nearly 4,500 parking spaces in the stadium car parks will be reserved for the FIFA guests. A further 4,500 parking spaces in the car parks, however, can be used by other stadium visitors provided they are in possession of special parking permits issued by FIFA. There will be a further 1,200 parking spaces available in Fröttmaning‘s ‘Park+Ride’ multi-storey car park, which FIFA will hire on match days exclusively for stadium visitors. Visitors who will arrive by car and do not hold a parking permit can either use the underground car park 2km away, or they will have to use one of the 20,000 ‘Park+Ride’ parking spaces in the MVV area.

As well as hosting the six matches, Munich will also be home to numerous additional events, such as the Fan Festival in the Olympic Park. Here there will be various cultural and sports events and it is where the official big screen will be erected, enabling over 20,000 spectators to follow all of the World Cup matches live. The World Cup programme will be accompanied by additional World Cup events, such as the FIFA Congress at the Munich Trade Fair Centre.

It should be kept in mind that during the World Cup in Munich ‘normal’ life will go on. This means that nearly two million passengers a day will still need to be provided with the transport services they are used to.

Arriving at the World Cup stadium in Munich

The World Cup Arena and the Olympic Park can be easily reached from the city centre via the underground lines U6 and U3 respectively. There will be no direct connection for spectators arriving from the airport or from the central station. These passengers will need to change – mostly at Marienplatz.

At present, 37% of spectators going to watch Bundesliga matches use local public passenger transport to travel to and from the matches. However, as part of FIFA’s Green Goal initiative, it is hoped that public transport will account for at least 50% of spectator transportation to World Cup matches. Yet MVV expects that the local public transport system will actually account for well above this 50% target.

It is estimated that up to 40,000 visitors per match will arrive at the stadium via public transport. In addition to this, it is expected that around 15,000 to 20,000 passengers will need transportation to the Fan Festival in the Olympic Park.

The planning authorities have set a goal to ensure that the transportation of fans to and from events during the World Cup runs as smoothly as possible. Moreover, it should be possible for every spectator to be able to return to their desired destination in the city or the region after the end of every game.

Infrastructure upgrade

In order to cope with the increase in passenger flows, nearly /100 million has been invested in strengthening the infrastructure. At the central underground station, Marienplatz, the platforms and public thoroughfare are being extended and a relief tunnel between the two platforms is being constructed. Also, the stadium underground station, Fröttmaning, is being extended and upgraded. The two centre platforms, the rail tracks and the holding sidings are also all being extended. In order to ensure connections to the stadium, even in the case of any disruptions, it has been necessary to undertake construction work on the route U6 (Marienplatz-Fröttmaning). This work included the installation of additional track crossing points, extending the signalling system and strengthening the power supply capacity. These works are now near completion.

Extended services

No real problems are expected when spectators arrive at the stadium. Admission to the stadium will be possible up to three hours before the beginning of a match. This is to avoid football fans clashing with the evening commuter traffic, particularly for the matches scheduled to begin at 1700h and 1800h. However, the U6 has already proven successful in serving the stadium during the Bundesliga matches.

Perhaps the biggest challenge will lie on match days, when some passengers will need to be transported to the stadium and others to the Fan Festival in the Olympic Park. Since the two relevant underground lines U3 and U6 are running on the same route in the city centre and use the same underground stations, the offered frequencies to the Olympic Park and the stadium are mutually exclusive.

Currently, a maximum of 18 trains per hour are planned to serve the route from the city centre to the World Cup stadium (running every 31/3 minutes). 12 trains per hour (running every 5 minutes) will run to the Olympic Park. The 18 trains per hour will be able to serve around 16,000 passengers between the city centre and the stadium. In addition, up to 5,000 stadium visitors can be transported along the U6 from the opposite direction, from the station Garching-Hochbruck. To be able to ensure the necessary short alighting and boarding times, additional staff will be deployed in some stations to make certain the doors close after the defined stop times.

It is difficult to estimate how many passengers will travel to the Fan Festival on the Olympic Park grounds on non-match days. However, additional trains will be kept ready for the underground lines in order to complement the services if needed.

Even greater efforts will be necessary for the spectators’ return journey. Experience has shown that spectators disperse in large groups after football games, which leads to problems with individual and public transport alike. In the past the underground railway has been able to cope with crowd flows relatively well. However, during the World Cup the majority of underground lines in Munich will not reduce the length of the trains in the evening (as they usually do). This will mean that the six-carriage trains that are usually used during the day will now also be available in the evenings. In this way additional seating capacity will be gained.

Three of the four first-round matches will begin at 1800h and the ‘final sixteen’ match at 1700h. This means that, even allowing 100 minutes for the stadium to be cleared, the spectators’ journey home will fall within the regular hours of public transport operation. Time bottlenecks can occur only on the two days with matches beginning at 2100h. This could be particularly true on the 5th July, especially if the semi-final match goes into extra time. In fact, extra time could potentially be followed by a penalty kick shootout. If this happens then the transport services must be extended in order to make it possible for the spectators to return home.

This problem will be dealt with by flexibly extending the operation times of underground trains and by extending the services of the night city bus and tram routes, as is currently offered during weekends. Concepts for adaptation of the night services are presently being developed for the suburban and the regional trains as well.

Information services

Information about these additional services must also be communicated to the World Cup visitors in order to encourage then to use public transport and to increase the share of the local public transport in the modal split to more than 50%. To help with this a number of information services and media have been newly designed and optimised specifically for the World Cup 2006.

The MVV website (www.mvv-muenchen.de) provides direct access to the electronic timetable information (EFA) which has also been improved and upgraded with a specific focus on the World Cup. Intermodal information (door-to-door) is now available with entire area coverage. Furthermore, it provides essential information for people with reduced mobility. Detailed maps are also available. Currently, the EFA is receiving on average more than 250,000 queries per day. Up to 400,000 travel information queries per day are expected for the duration of the World Cup. The MVV timetable information is also available in the central timetable databases of the Deutsche Bahn AG and the information system offered on the official FIFA website (http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/de/d/traffic/index.html).

The MVV timetable for the mobile phone represents yet another attractive information medium. All timetables for the rapid transit railway can be downloaded to the mobile phone at a one-time fee of around €0.50. This offline timetable, which was inaugurated for the first time for the National Garden Festival BUGA 2005, will also be available in English, French and Spanish.

In addition, the following innovations will be introduced:

  • The MVV info phone will be extended with additional voice operated information assistance.
  • For arrivals from the 20,000 ‘Park+Ride’ parking spaces a flyer will be published containing detailed recommendations on how to reach the Arena from the various directions. It will be supplemented by a special edition in English.
  • Apart from the TFT monitors already installed in the suburban train stations, additional underground stations are being equipped with modern monitors and destination displays. Thus, beside information on departure times, travel information will also be available in several languages.
  • Additional personnel will be deployed at the major junctions and, if needed, provide information in English.

For the first time in the history of the World Cup, match tickets can be used as tickets for all means of transport on the public transport networks of the twelve World Cup host cities on the respective match days. In particular, this provision will benefit non-local and non-German speaking persons and it will support the commitments to increase the use of public transport.

All of the presented measures show that the City of Munich, the transport companies and the Munich Transport and Tariff Association (MVV) have been intensively and purposefully preparing for the World Cup. Munich and its local public passenger transport are looking forward to the World Cup 2006.