(By Sandar Myint, Myanmar)
On 24th April of 2018, we visited the Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe AG (DVB) (Dresdner Transport Services). The EM41 participants guided by Ms. Angela Francke from the TU Dresden Institute of Transport Planning and Road Traffic, went together to the DVB Control Center of Public Transport.
After arrival, we were warmly welcomed by Mr. Winfried Oelmann. Before the lectures and discussions, the EM41 participants asked him curiously what they want to know and what they want to include as a part on DVB Public Transport such as air ventilation inside the Tram, and an E-ticket system. He answered all questions thoroughly and started his presentation about the institutional organization and strength of DVB. In General Figures of his presentation, there are seven types of vehicles which are “Low Floor Trams, Older Tatra Trams, Diesel Buses, Hybrid Buses, Battery Buses, Ferry Boats and Freight Tram”. About 160 million of passengers travelled in the year and DVB was one of Dresden’s key employers with 1,851 employees and 97 trainees.
The main responsibility of DVB is to operate the local public transportation in Dresden, the capital of Saxony and also responsible for planning, marketing, driving, traffic and product planning, communication, investing, sales, maintaining and training. Every year DVB had already surveyed the satisfactory status on DVB services and transportation types. According to 2017 DVB survey, it accounts for over 47 % of very satisfied status, 33.5% of satisfied status, 0.4% of unsatisfied status and others on DVB services and also 12% -on foot, 27% – bikes, 39% -cars and 22% -public transport on transportation types.
The ticket price in Dresden is low on behalf of the environment, people, and the livable cities. Furthermore there are several discounts; children under 14 years and handicapped people ride for free; 75% are to pay by pupils and apprentices, 80% discounts for students and also 50% of the monthly ticket prices and 75% of 4-trip tickets to pay by poor people.
The ticket revenues cannot cover the costs of public transportation in Dresden/Germany and DVB has an annual gap of Euro 40 million. In this case, ENSO and DREWAG, which are responsible for energy, network, supply of power, gas, water, grid operator got always profits and filled the gap of DVB as a consolidation of companies in the case of public transportation funding of Germany. Also Mr. Oelmann compared the pros and cons between the use of private cars and public transports in rush hours with regard to facts of carbon emission, costs and time.
After that, another lecture is given by Mr. Andre′ Schiller, who is an IT coordinator to perform both technical and administrative tasks to ensure functionality and efficiency of computer and telecom systems in DVB, on the topics of Information and control system of DVB. We knew that the operator systems need the online different units which are not as easy as using smart phones. Every night DVB transformed the scheduled data to passengers via online systems to know the real time for all routes.
After that, we moved to the main control room for Information Center of DVB in which there are 22 employees who were working with the assigned tasks. According to the explanation by Mr. Schiller and Ms. Francke, we knew that one was mainly responsible for social media and the other ones were responsible to control the computer and telecom systems of all DVB transport operations with 3 shifts in 24 hours. The operating trams in the tram lines could be seen by the specified colors such as yellow and green within the computer systems. To operate the tram lines, it needs much energy.
After that, we went outside from DVB Center and moved to place for the tram stops in order to know the structures and tasks of the trams next to the DVB building. Tram routes were arranged by the respective tram lines in that place. In this case, Mr. Schiller explained well the structures of trams and the tasks which operated daily. On the body of the tram, there was the trade mark which describes the produced year and the company to know where the tram was build up. Also, the structures of the tram include the special features for the handicapped people.
In this interesting excursion to Control Center of Public Transportation in Dresden, we had fun with this excursion and then we came back to CIPSEM Center. I would like to thank CIPSEM Teams and all facilitators for their warm reception and supports and for every schedules and arrangements of knowledgeable lectures and interesting excursions on behalf of our [EM41] participants.
UNEP/UNESCO/BMUV course program 