EBSF

The City of Bremerhaven suffers - like many other small andmedium sized cities in Germany - from demographic changes (fewer employees, fewer pupils, increase of elderly people) and an urban regeneration as some districts are deteriorated in social and economic quality.

In Bremerhaven, 6% of the population use public transport for their displacements. Bremerhaven Bus (BHVBUS - PT Operator) has a fleet of 69 buses which cover 16 lines.

Use Case Objectives

Bremerhaven Bus and the City of Bremerhaven make the necessary changes to overcome the existing situation and for increasing operational effectiveness and efficiency through:

• Enhance public's perception of public transport to non-travellers by focusing on the operators' and authority tasks to provide a ‘seamless journey' with a high level of convenience regarding the vehicle on-board comfort and safety, attractiveness, in time operation and last but not least a consistent level of information service;

• Extend level of information to other means of transport (e.g. train, ferry), information sources (e.g. e-public services, tourism) and public authority activities (e.g. announcements);

• Provide adequate devices for a wide range of user groups (included elderly and mobility impaired persons) in retrofitted busses and at so-called "service hubs" and link them to the existing information network (info-terminals (in total 25 in the city area and surroundings), static ‘visitors signage system').

From April 2011 to November/December 2011, the EBSF Use Case partners in Bremerhaven are joining forces to achieve these targets.

Description of the work

The pilot develops a new prototype bus: the EvoBus demonstrator bus, an innovative urban transport to reduce the existing physical and psychological constraints for using buses. The vehicle improves the accessibility and provides a high level of comfort to users. It is equipped with special lighting elements to show passengers where it is the best to get on, so the congestion is avoided at the doors. On the other hand, the internal layout has ceiling lights to distinguish between occupied and unoccupied seats, thus the time spent looking for a seat is reduced.

Remodelling existing bus stops through adding an info-terminal with an information system (partly combined non-and public transport information services) is an important objective addressed by EBSF. Those info-terminals are a further development of the already existing ones, in particular with bigger screens and supplemented wireless communication devices.

In addition, the project provides an advanced Information Technology (IT) and communication system to achieve better reliability. This system is retrofitted to the existing buses.

Use Case performances & features

The UC focuses on the following activities along a reference line which connects densely populated districts on the outskirts of the City Center, the main tourist resort site, the City Center district and the main station:

1. Innovative bus shelter ("service hub")

The operator BHVBUS realizes together with the Bremerhaven Tourist Board (BIS) and the support of the City of Bremerhaven at well selected sites an innovative bus shelter ("service hub") covering innovative advanced information & communication system, fed by the back-office AVMS system. The "service hub" will be an adapted standardized bus shelter providing by its implemented facilities:

• an extended offer of other online information sources (status of train services connections, tourist & event information, e-public services, authority announcements, web-based routing service, etc.), and

• improved use and accessibility of provided passenger & public information for elderly and mobility impaired persons,

2. On- and off-vehicle passenger information system

BHVBUS and BIS develop with support of the supplier INIT and the city of Bremerhaven:

• a modular advanced passenger information system (interior and probably exterior vehicle devices), and

• the integration in their overall public information system by an improved on-board communication infrastructure (data gateway, on-board AVMS devices).

Fifteen retrofitted EvoBus buses and one demonstrator bus (developed by the manufacturer EvoBus) will be equipped with such a system linked to those at the service hubs & to the existing info-terminals throughout the city area.

Watch a video about Bremerhaven Use Case

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAwoZrrOCWo