CleverShuttle is now operating a new on-demand service called Knut in the north of Frankfurt with three Mercedes eVito Tourer e-minibuses. The new service is initially available in the four northern Frankfurt districts of Bonames, Harheim, Nieder-Erlenbach and Nieder-Eschbach.
CleverShuttle announced the launch of the offer in the north of Frankfurt in June. Knut is now the fourth offer that the company is implementing as part of the large on-demand project led by the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV), in which nine partners from the Rhein-Main area make a total of around 150 BEVs and FCEVs bookable want.
The on-demand shuttle service operates on behalf of the urban public transport company traffiQ and brings users to their destinations on demand. CleverShuttle is responsible for the operational implementation of the offer and can rely on a lot of experience from other cities. As is well known, the company is an electrical ridepooling service provider that is majority owned by Deutsche Bahn.
“For us, ‘Knut’ is a kind of comeback,” says CleverShuttle managing director and co-founder Bruno Ginnuth. “After we had to withdraw from the city of Frankfurt with our commercial ride pooling service in autumn 2019, we are now returning to the metropolis on the Main with a driving service that, as an integral part of the urban transport concept, seamlessly complements the existing public transport offer. Together with traffiQ, we bring the people of Frankfurt: inside a flexible public mobility offer that is both comfortable and affordable. “
The new on-demand offer is initially available in the four Frankfurt districts mentioned above. One of the three electric eVito tourers is barrier-free. The trio operates a dense network of around 600 virtual and physical breakpoints in an operational area of 21 square kilometers. Each shuttle offers space for up to six passengers. The vehicles are charged with electricity from renewable sources via a charging park newly built by CleverShuttle at Bad Vilbel train station.
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The operating time is daily from 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m., booking is made via the on-demand app of the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV) or by phone. “Between ten and a maximum of 15 minutes later, passengers are picked up by a shuttle and taken to their destination. If several passengers are traveling in the same direction, an intelligent algorithm combines their travel requests and transports them together, ”says an accompanying message. The price for the new service is integrated into the RMV tariff and lies between the single ticket for bus and train and the price for a taxi ride.
According to Tom Reinhold, managing director of the urban local transport company traffiQ, “Knut” complements the range of classic public transport – “for example at off-peak times or where there is no direct connection”.
As part of the above-mentioned RMV project “On-Demand Mobility for the Frankfurt / RheinMain Region”, “Knut” is the fourth transport project to go into operation. In addition to the service in the north of Frankfurt, CleverShuttle also operates “Hopper” in the Offenbach district (kvgOF), “HeinerLiner” in Darmstadt (HEAG mobilo) and “EMIL” in Taunusstein (RTV).
What is special about the project is that the RMV is the first transport association in Germany to coordinate an on-demand project across several districts and municipalities. It bundles information, booking and payment and provides customer service. In addition, the RMV is developing a tariff framework for the offers. The local partners are the transport companies of the cities of Frankfurt aM (traffiQ), Offenbach (KVG Offenbach), Hofheim (MTV), Kelsterbach (LNVG GG), Limburg an der Lahn (City of Limburg), Darmstadt-Dieburg (DADINA), Taunusstein (RTV ), Hanau (HSB) and Darmstadt (HEAG mobilo). The partners control and design the specific offer on site, such as the operating times or the orientation towards certain target groups. The Federal Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure is subsidizing the major project with 27 million euros.
clevershuttle.de
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