GERMANY: Following two Europe-wide tenders, Berlin transport operator BVG has selected three partners to develop the next generation of its Fahrinfo journey planning app and establish a central ticket sales platform to create ‘an all-round package for seamless mobility’.
Siemens Mobility subsidiaries Hacon and eos.uptrade will work with digital user experience experts from Ray Sono on the conception, delivery, implementation and operation of the new app. This is intended to provide travel information, route planning and ticketing for all modes, including trains, trams, buses, ferries and e-scooters.
BVG’s mobile trip planner is already one of the most successful public transport apps in Germany, with 5·5 million downloads to date.
As well as fully integrated ticketing, the updated version will incorporate ‘an intelligent, proactive travel companion’, providing better predictive recommendations for selected routes. This will automatically consider individual preferences, and take account of potential disruption, transmitting alerts to the user in real time via a push function.
‘The new UX design of the Fahrinfo app will confirm BVG’s claim to leadership in the digital world, and, at the same time, offer a perfect and intuitive user experience to international passengers’, explained Nicolas Escherich, CEO of Ray Sono. ‘The modern, well thought-out and attractive UX is created based on previous experience as well as numerous user studies.’
Hacon CEO Michael Frankenberg added that the app would be ‘tailored to the individual needs of people in and around Berlin, enabling personalised routing from door to door. Thanks to our long-standing partnership with eos.uptrade, we can seamlessly combine our trip planning with the booking process and contactless ticketing – a big step for BVG towards Mobility as a Service.’
eos.uptrade will provide a single back-end for the central ticket shop, which is expected to increase efficiency significantly and reducing complexity for BVG. As well as the current direct debit, credit cards and PayPal, users will also be able to use digital payment options such as Apple and Google Pay.
All of the operator’s online sales channels will be connected to the multi-client backend via an open interface, including the Fahrinfo and BVG Tickets apps. The VBB Bus&Bahn app covering transport in Berlin-Brandenburg is likely to be connected to the system via the API, with further applications expected to follow.
Following the launch of the updated app, the partners will continue to work together to develop additional functionality through an agile project set-up.
