(Hamburg, November 11, 2020) Shuttle-service ioki Hamburg to be extended in • 400.000 passengers and 1.4 million travelled kilometers since the kickoff of the project • Electric vehicles saved over 250 tons of CO2 • On-demand service improves barrier-free mobility

Since mid-2018, the on-demand shuttles of the DB subsidiary ioki and the Verkehrsbetriebe Hamburg-Holstein GmbH (VHH) have been boosting the local public transport system in Hamburg. With positive results: more than 400,000 passengers used the individual shuttle service in the districts of Lurup, Osdorf and Billbrook in the past two and a half years. The 20 emission-free electric shuttles take passengers to their destinations around the clock every day on flexible routes and have travelled 1.4 million kilometers so far. The successful model has now been extended for another year until December 2021.

« Innovative mobility offers like ioki Hamburg are helping to ensure that more people switch to public transport and avoid using their own car. We are delighted that we can continue to offer this flexible shuttle service to passengers in Lurup, Osdorf and Billbrook, » explains Toralf Müller, Managing Director of VHH.

« ioki Hamburg has become an integral part of the public transport system and is contributing significantly to climate protection: The environmentally friendly e-shuttles have already been saving more than 250 tons of CO2, » explains Michael Barillère-Scholz, Managing Director of ioki.

Five facts about ioki Hamburg:

1. Over 400,000 passengers used the ioki Hamburg shuttle service in the past two and a half years. Around 40,000 people are registered users.
2. Roughly 50 percent of all passengers use ioki Hamburg to get to a bigger public transport station. They are usually not alone, but rather share a vehicle with other passengers.
3. More than 85 percent of all passengers of ioki Hamburg use the shuttle service on a regular basis.
4. The emission free offer saved more than 250 tons of CO2.
5. The barrier-free on-demand service also makes everyday life easier for people in wheelchairs: They have already booked 20,000 trips.

The succeeding model from Hamburg will also strengthen public transport in the surrounding area in the future: As part of the « RealLabHH » funding project, ioki shuttle fleets will be launched in mid-December 2020 in Ahrensburg, Stormarn and Winsen. More rural regions will also benefit from the on-demand service: The sustainable traffic concept will reduce road congestion and offer people a flexible and environmentally friendly mobility alternative to the car. They also benefit from better connections to Hamburg.

Here’s how ioki Hamburg works
The ioki Hamburg on-demand service is a new public transport system with no fixed timetable or lines, which is fully integrated into the tariff of the Hamburger Verkehrsverbund (HVV). VHH is rolling out the new service together with ioki, the Deutsche Bahn subsidiary for intelligent on-demand mobility. Passengers with similar routes are automatically bundled into carpools and transported together using a sophisticated algorithm.  Additional stopping points were set up in the service area at intervals of no more than 200 meters. In this way, the area is optimally covered and the existing public transport system is supplemented in a suitable way. The innovative on-demand service was awarded the German Mobility Prize in 2019.