Moia is expanding in Hamburg

The shared ride service Moia will expand significantly in Hamburg from 2023 onwards. The basis for this is the newly issued, so-called "line requirement concession", with which Moia goes into regular operation and is integrated into local public transport. The previous concession for Moia was linked to an experimentation clause.

From January, Moia will expand its service area by around a third to a total of 270 square kilometers and will in future also be present in western districts such as Osdorf and Lurup, in eastern ones such as Billbrook, Billstedt and Rahlstedt and in the south in Wilhelmsburg. At the same time, the company, which belongs to the Volkswagen Group, is introducing barrier-free minibuses – initially 15 – that can transport wheelchair users.

Moia's electric vehicles are based on the Transporter from Volkswagen's Crafter model range. Today, the company uses around 250 vehicles in Hamburg. The new concession is valid for the years 2023 to 2025 and for 450 vehicles.

Moia and the traffic authority will present the company's plans on Friday morning at the Veddel. “From 2023 onwards, we will also be increasingly entering socially disadvantaged areas. And we will then also be present south of the Elbe for the first time, on the Veddel and in Wilhelmsburg," said Moia boss Sascha Meyer of WELT in a joint conversation with Anjes Tjarks (Greens), Hamburg's Senator for Transport and Mobility Transition.

The new vehicles for transporting wheelchairs have a rear lift. The wheelchairs are then fixed to the floor of the vehicle with a safety system. “These vehicles can also carry four more passengers each. We will always use them inclusively, i.e. not in the exclusive transport of people who are dependent on wheelchairs, for example,” said Meyer.

Tjarks welcomed the transition of Moia, a so-called "ridepooling" provider, into regular operations. The company had been testing and fine-tuning its offers in Hamburg since 2019. The number of passengers is constantly growing. In 2020, Moia had a total of around 1.68 million passengers in the Hanseatic city - albeit also affected by the pandemic. This year, a total of around 1.76 million people used Moia in Hamburg by the end of November.

"With a future operational area of ​​270 square kilometers, Moia can potentially reach around two-thirds of Hamburg's population," said Tjarks. "This is very important because Moia will be an integral part of our promise to be able to offer all Hamburg residents public transport within five minutes with the Hamburg-Takt."

The city can only achieve the Hamburg cycle “that we are working towards if, in addition to the familiar offers of the Hochbahn, VHH and S-Bahn, we also use a large number of automated vehicles in on-demand traffic in the future. Moia contributes to the mobility turnaround in Hamburg.”

From the point of view of the Senate, the company should play a key role in the network of mobility providers in Hamburg in the long term. “As a city, we are also open to other ridepooling providers who should be networked with each other. However, it is desirable, especially in terms of rapid scaling, to have a central provider like Moia, who is driving the topic forward technologically and economically," said Tjarks.

He also referred to the highly praised example of public transport in Vienna - and its differences to Hamburg: "Hamburg is similar in size to Vienna, which operates a very successful public transport system. However, Vienna has a higher population density than Hamburg. We therefore have to differentiate our offer more in order to be able to reach the outskirts of the city with the planned five-minute service. That’s where Moia comes in again.”

The forthcoming start of autonomous driving in Hamburg should also significantly strengthen local public transport: "We plan to test autonomous driving in closed user groups with individual vehicles from the second quarter of 2023," said Meyer. “From 2025 onwards, we will be using autonomous vehicles commercially in ever greater numbers. We will continue to be on the road with a mixed fleet for a long time, but with more and more autonomous vehicles.”

The fleet of community vehicles in Hamburg could grow twentyfold in the coming years: “By 2030, up to 5,000 vehicles should be in use in Hamburg for on-demand traffic. We want to achieve as large a market share as possible. Moia will also cooperate with other providers who will probably also use vehicles from manufacturers other than Volkswagen.” For comparison: Today there are fewer than 3,000 taxis in Hamburg.

Moia currently employs around 1000 people in Hamburg, including 700 drivers and around 150 employees in software development. According to the company, there is an "intensive" search for staff, especially for the driver service. The foreseeable lack of drivers is one reason why Moia and the city are increasingly relying on autonomous driving.

Basically, three different systems are currently being tested for autonomous driving: vehicles remotely controlled by people, cars with electronic steering systems that are guided along the road by sensors, and vehicles with their own navigation electronics on board.

“Our vehicles will be able to navigate completely independently, without remote control and without sensors in the infrastructure. As a backup for the passengers, all vehicles are always connected to contacts at our headquarters," said Meyer. “Hamburg will be the first major German city to regularly use automated vehicles in the ridepooling service. For us, the fast scaling of this technology is economically decisive.”

From 2023 onwards, the Moia offer will be partially linked to the HVV tariff. "We don't yet know to what extent the possible introduction of a 49-euro ticket or a similar ticket at federal level will affect our calculations," said Meyer. The plan is currently: If you have an HVV subscription, you will receive a discount of one euro per booking with Moia. The company bears the costs for this. There is a further euro discount per booking for trips to or from one of the new Moia districts of Osdorf and Lurup, Billbrook and Billstedt as well as Wilhelmsburg.

This price reduction is financed from a federal fund to promote the Hamburg cycle. Severely disabled people who are entitled to free travel on local public transport can use Moia free of charge. You have been able to register for this since December 1st in the Moia integration office at the central bus station in Hamburg (ZOB).