Complete mobility from Siemens

Demographic change, urbanization and climate change are all impacting society and they pose increasingly complex global challenges. The world's population is growing all the time – as are life expectancies. According to the latest estimates, 9.2 billion people will be living on this planet by the year 2050 (at present, the world's population is 6.6 billion). This increase in population is accompanied by the other trend toward urbanization. Half of the world's population is already living in major urban areas. There is evidence of yet another trend: latest research shows that 90 percent of future population growth will occur in our cities. As a direct consequence of these developments, global trade volumes will rise along with the need for personal mobility – and, therefore, the demand for transportation capacity.

The unabated use of fossil fuels is affecting the world's climate and drastically increasing the rate of climate change and global warming. A further 1.9 billion metric tons of CO2 will be released into the atmosphere as a result of motorization in emerging economies by the year 2030. Global passenger and freight volumes are set to rise as a direct result of population growth and the increasing number of people living in conurbations: an increase of 1.6% per annum is forecast for passenger traffic by 2030, while freight traffic is expected to rise on the order of 2.5%. There is evidence already of ever greater demands for mobility in cities and interurban areas. It is obvious from these developments and figures that safeguarding mobility is one of the big challenges to sustainable growth.

Quick and intelligent solutions are required – at least the key success factor is integration. So let’s take a moment to imagine a business trip in the near future: You make your booking from the comfort of your home computer, the optimized rail and air itinerary is displayed on-screen. You select with a click of the mouse, and seconds later your cell phone shows your ticket confirmation – you’re ready to go. The traffic-guidance system reliably calculates the fastest route to the nearest mass-transit station. The departure time of the metro is shown on the cell phone’s display. The automated metro system provides for extremely short cycle times of the metro lines to the airport or central train station. Since a dense high-speed rail network has been established for medium-distance routes of up to 800 kilometers, an increasing number of passengers travel by train instead of plane. This is despite the fact that air travel times have been reduced, as long lines no longer form at the check-in and passport control points. Since the introduction of scanners, passengers are automatically identified at the entrance to the gate area and this data is checked against their cell-phone ticket. The rental car at the destination can be unlocked and started by fingerprint, and the route to the hotel is already programmed in the navigation system. If the traffic gets too heavy, the GPS comes up with a suggested alternative route on its own. From door to door, your journey time is half what it used to be.

Is this an illusion, or someone’s bold vision for the future? Not at all! All these systems already exist today. Route planners, online booking, traffic guidance and passenger information systems were invented long ago. Metros run automatically, and trains such as the Velaro in Spain run at speeds of more than 400 kilometers an hour. Electronic tickets and 3-D face and fingerprint scanners are currently being tested or are already in use. Navigation systems are available even for small cars. Furthermore, the development of electronic clearing systems has made substantial progress in recent years. Splitting the prices of combined tickets among multiple transport companies is no longer a problem. Everything is in place – what is still missing is the integration into an overall system.

Integrated mobility solutions can only be achieved by means of technical innovations, such as those developed by Siemens over the past 160 years. No other company in the world offers such a wide spectrum of mobility solutions for so many different fields, or such highly developed expertise in combining different transport systems into a new, user-oriented complete solution. And mobility is not limited to allowing people to travel individually in comfort: future-oriented transport and logistics concepts for goods and baggage are integral parts too. It is time to coordinate the many individual solutions intelligently, so that every transportation system can play to its own strengths. The rejection of individual modes of transport, whether for ideological or political reasons, will not move us forward. Each means of transport, including trains, automobiles, planes and ships, has its specific strengths, and they must be combined seamlessly so as to complement each other perfectly. This is the only way to meet the challenges of the future. When it comes down to it, the integrated whole is more effective than the sum of the individual systems. This is why Siemens is offering “Complete mobility” solutions for safe, cost-effective and environment-friendly passenger and freight services. For Siemens has the necessary competence to provide everything from infrastructure systems for railways and roadways to solutions for rolling stock, airport logistics and postal automation, all under one roof.

The Mobility Division (Erlangen, Germany) is the internationally leading provider of transportation and logistics solutions. With its "Complete mobility" approach, the Division is focused on networking the various modes of transportation in order to ensure the efficient transport of people and goods. “Complete mobility” combines the company's competence in operations control systems for railways and traffic control systems for roadways together with solutions for airport logistics, postal automation, traction power supplies and rolling stock for mass transit, regional and mainline services, as well as forward-looking service concepts.

www.siemens.com/mobility