ioki extends in Hamburg

Since July 2018, there has been a joint on-demand project by Verkehrsbetriebe Hamburg Holstein (VHH) and ioki, which was awarded the German Mobility Prize in 2019. The 20 electric shuttles used in this project (LEVC TX5 with range extenders) are operated by VHH, while the software is provided by DB subsidiary ioki. Passengers in the districts of Osdorf, Lurup, and Billbrook are transported to their destinations without fixed schedules or routes. In December 2020, in cooperation with the city of Ahrensburg and the district of Stormarn, ioki Hamburg services were extended to Ahrensburg and the Brunsbek/Lütjensee/Trittau area. The project is expected to continue at least until December 2022.

“We see the extension of all four services as a confirmation of the path we have chosen. On-demand services like ioki Hamburg, which are designed to complement public transport, are not competition but a valuable addition for the first and last mile,” says Toralf Müller, Managing Director of Verkehrsbetriebe Hamburg-Holstein GmbH (VHH), which is responsible for operating the shuttles.

Success Story

The facts speak for themselves – the small on-demand electric vehicles have covered 2.6 million passenger kilometers in the past three and a half years and have transported over 580,000 passengers to their destinations around the clock on flexible routes. More than half of the trips were booked on demand – with an upward trend, according to VHH.

The electric on-demand service is well received by users – this is proven by a survey commissioned by the transport companies and ioki. About 72% of the passengers use ioki Hamburg to get to a larger public transport stop to continue their journey, and more than 88% of ioki Hamburg passengers have an HVV season ticket. Even respondents who have not yet used the service themselves consider the on-demand shuttle to be a useful addition to public transport.

Heavily Used Even During the Pandemic

A recent study by the Technical University of Hamburg, which has been scientifically monitoring the on-demand project from the beginning, revealed that 52% of regular passengers remained loyal to the service even during the COVID-19 pandemic with lockdowns, home office, and curfews, while 28% use the shuttles even more frequently than before the pandemic, according to VHH.