Could you imagine a future mode of transport that is fast and efficient, but also much more environmentally friendly than all existing modes of transport? Would it be possible to combine the advantages of private cars, buses, urban and other types of railways, as well as long-distance and high-speed trains, to create a comprehensive transport system that does everything better than before? No more traffic jams and accidents, no waiting for public transport, no changing of trains, no parking worries? Not just driverless cars, but much more. Vehicles that travel from anywhere in the city and rural areas, perhaps even from your own home, on their own light routes directly into a suburban and long-distance transport network and even into a high-speed network, and finally end up at another location, exactly at their destination.
What you do virtually on your route planner today, for example, a direct journey from home over hundreds of kilometres, first through neighbourhood streets, then on motorways and finally directly to the door of your hotel, is exactly what Ottobahn dreams of being able to offer in the future, not only virtually, but also physically and without having to change vehicles.
Is that even possible? Theoretically, yes. Two prerequisites are necessary: a suitable comprehensive operating control system and a physical solution for vehicles and tracks that allows both slow city traffic and high speeds. The whole system must therefore meet the requirements of the StVO (German Road Traffic Regulations), BOStraB (German Railway Traffic Regulations) and TSI (Technical Specifications for Interoperability) or their equivalent in other countries.
The operating control system must first meet the requirements of passengers, i.e. ensure a journey to the destination from the desired departure point. To do this, it must take into account how many passengers want to travel and, of course, whether they have any special requirements in terms of disabilities or comfort. There is no predefined timetable, as is the case today when travelling by car. At the same time, this control system must coordinate the individual journeys, sequence them and, if necessary, bundle several transport units into a train set. Instead of a timetable, there would need to be predictive information for daily, weekly or seasonal peak times in order to adapt the service offering to the expected demand and thus also provide passengers with information about expected waiting times and journey durations. As an absolute prerequisite, passenger safety when boarding, alighting and during the journey would have to be guaranteed at least as high as it is today, if not higher.
With today’s and even more so with future information technology, which may be enhanced with artificial intelligence, this is easily achievable. Just think of the automotive industry, where finished cars in a wide variety of versions, with an average of around 50,000 different parts, leave the large factories every minute. Almost every car is individually equipped. Different colours, variable equipment ranging from the engine to the transmission, seat covers, left-hand or right-hand drive, diesel, petrol or electric, audio and information, wheels and tyres, and accessories lead to a wide variety of models and pose a challenge in terms of supplying the corresponding parts in the right order, but also in terms of ordering or manufacturing them on time. This requires an extremely efficient computer-controlled logistics system that commands thousands of work steps every second and ensures that there are no interruptions in the manufacturing process, even for a few seconds, and that no incorrect parts are delivered. Such logistics solutions already exist and have been tried and tested for years. They can be adapted for passenger transport systems, even in large networks.
With this background knowledge, the dozen or so employees of Ottobahn GmbH in Munich, led by their ‘Can Do Officer’ Marc Schindler, have been working since 2019 on a concept for fully automated, highly customized urban public transport. After studying engineering and management in Karlsruhe and Nashville, Schindler gained practical experience in various positions at Daimler, Merril Lynch, Horváth, Kearney, Audi, nextLAP and 3p-d. His goal is to combine the sustainability and energy efficiency of public transport with the comfort and flexibility of private transport.
In principle, the knowledge required to operate such an individualised automatic public transport system is therefore available. Adjustments will certainly be necessary, but it seems even easier to control a public transport system than a car factory. Human requirements in terms of personal safety, misconduct and deliberate disruption must of course be taken into account, which adds a new dimension to the control system. However, information technology is advancing and it is expected that controlling such a transport system will become even easier in the future.
But what might this look like in physical terms? In order to be able to respond to individual needs and, in principle, only offer journeys without changes, small units are required. As with private cars, it should be borne in mind that often only one or a few people want to make exactly the same journey from start to destination. Large vehicles such as articulated buses, trams or trains can only exist in such a system if the small units are mechanically or virtually coupled together for suitable and, in some cases, several consecutive sections of a journey.
The Ottobahn combines several proven and new technologies. Small cabins for one to four people or for goods with a payload of up to 1 tonne are suspended from a rail at a height of 5 to 10 metres. It is possible to imagine a visionary future in which cities are served exclusively by the Ottobahn. Then there would be no need for cars or roads, perhaps only footpaths or cycle paths, and the entire city area could be greened or used for other purposes such as playgrounds, sports facilities, street cafés and the like. The cabins can be lowered to the surface like lifts at practically any suitable point along their route. The cabins travel individually during off-peak times and in larger groups during rush hours in what is known as platooning. The transport capacity is therefore initially similar to that of a bus or tram line. If enough passing points are created where several cabins can drop off or pick up passengers on the side track while other cabins continue on the main track without stopping, the capacity can be significantly increased. Ottobahn also envisages that the cabins will be able to speed through the countryside at up to 250 km/h, allowing them to be integrated into long-distance transport without the need to change from city transport.
For passengers, this means that they can enter their desired journey, including the start and destination and any other details, via an app on their mobile phone. The software then ensures the shortest possible waiting times and informs them exactly where and when the cabin will stop to take them directly to their destination. AI-supported algorithms are used in the background to optimise the fleet management system. This creates sequences and sorts the fleet so that the time from order to destination is minimised for passengers. The Ottobahn wants to offer much more. It knows who is getting in and whether they always travel the same route at the same time of day, so it can also cater to their preferences. Different types of cabins can accommodate different needs and be designed for disabled passengers or pushchairs. Single cabins at an extra charge or even private cabins with personalised fittings in their own ‘garage’ are also conceivable.
A circular track in the form of a 40-metre-long test facility has been set up in a hall at M-Park in Munich-Sendling. Here, a single-seater cabin makes its rounds. Interestingly, the running gear consists of two fairly conventional bogies with small tram wheels 400 mm in diameter and a track gauge of 600 mm with conventional suspension. They run on lightweight S18 rails with a weight of 18 kg per metre. The turnouts, which are not installed in the test facility, are passive, i.e. they have no moving parts and are designed so that a mechanism on the cab chassis selects the direction at junctions or passing points. Ottobahn uses conventional wheel-rail technology. This should enable such cabins to travel at higher speeds of up to 250 km/h in long-distance transport. The bogies are enclosed in the overhead support structure of the track, which means that there is no need to worry about high noise emissions. In urban transport, the drive power of a cabin is 2 x 7.5 kW. Power is supplied via a third rail with 400 V three-phase current. The vehicles are largely self-monitoring and can report and disseminate emergencies within the fleet. The entire system is designed to be highly efficient with an energy consumption of only 8 kWh/100 km, whereas electric cars currently require between 15 and 30 kWh/100 km. Space for solar panels is planned along the route. Ottobahn aims to be not only emission-free, but also CO2-neutral and even climate-positive.
In Germany, Ottobahn is to be approved in accordance with the Tram Construction and Operating Regulations (BOStrab) in cooperation with TÜV Süd Industrie, making it eligible for up to 90% federal funding. Discussions with the Technical Supervisory Authority (TAB) to determine the approval requirements for a commercial route, particularly with regard to fire safety, are ongoing.
Every beginning is difficult, and even if such a visionary transport solution seems attractive, it may fail because transport infrastructures already exist today that would become useless. The question of social acceptance also arises. Will motorists really want to give up their cars and the joy of driving? And will city dwellers want road users looking into their first-floor windows? Ottobahn is optimistic, calculating an investment of only around €5 million per kilometre based on real offers from manufacturers, which would then be significantly less than €10 million for two-way traffic. But this seems extremely low: for example, the urban cable car in the Créteil district of Paris, which is due to open at the end of 2025 and does not require any expensive support structures, will cost over €30 million per kilometre.
Ottobahn wants to finance itself entirely from private sources in order to make rapid progress. There were plans for a 900-metre test track in Taufkirchen near Munich in 2023. The aim was to cover 100,000 test kilometres there in one year. It was later to be expanded into the first commercial Ottobahn between the Ludwig-Bölkow-Campus in Ottobrunn, Taufkirchen and Karl-Preis-Platz in Munich’s Ramersdorf district. However, probably due to the uncertainties during the coronavirus pandemic, only 2.7 million euros in capital could be raised for the test track through a crowdfunding campaign instead of 5 million, even though very high returns were promised. Ottobahn is therefore returning to the industrial sector and hopes to generate the necessary funds for future passenger transport networks itself and then later generate profits from licence and advertising revenues as well as fares.
Website: https://ottobahn.de
The author’s e-Mail address: tramway@christeller.net
11.10.2025
