AI in Pub­lic Trans­port: Four In­sights from the Pub­lic Trans­port Fo­rum 2026

The Pub­lic Trans­port Fo­rum re­turned to In­no­Trans 2026 in Berlin. To­geth­er with our part­ners PBV Pla­nungs­büro für Verkehr and rms GmbH, we or­ga­nized a pro­gram ded­i­cat­ed to one ques­tion: How does ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence make pub­lic trans­port faster, smarter, and more ef­fi­cient? In three hours, sev­en speak­ers and two pan­el dis­cus­sions con­tributed. We take four in­sights with us.

1. AI is no longer a vision

Pre­dic­tions about de­lays and con­nec­tions, er­ror de­tec­tion in pas­sen­ger in­for­ma­tion, ob­sta­cle de­tec­tion in au­tonomous op­er­a­tions, vari­ant op­ti­miza­tion in plan­ning: All of this is cur­rent­ly op­er­a­tional. The ques­tion has thus shift­ed. It is no longer whether, but how well.

2. Everything stands and falls with the data

If the in­for­ma­tion is in­cor­rect, pas­sen­gers do not care where the er­ror orig­i­nat­ed. Cor­rect, cur­rent, and con­sis­tent data, co­or­di­nat­ed process­es, and clear re­spon­si­bil­i­ties come be­fore any mod­el. With­out this foun­da­tion, even the best method can­not pro­vide re­li­able re­sults.

3. A faster task is not a faster project

Pro­cess­ing doc­u­ments twice as fast does not halve the plan­ning and ap­proval pro­ce­dure. What tru­ly moves a project are the con­text and the sur­round­ing process. There­fore, those us­ing AI should con­sid­er the en­tire process, not just the in­di­vid­ual task.

4. The limits are rarely technical

Proof of com­pli­ance, data avail­abil­i­ty, and ap­proval de­ter­mine the pace. De­spite all au­toma­tion, eval­u­a­tion, con­sid­er­a­tion, and the fi­nal de­ci­sion re­main hu­man re­spon­si­bil­i­ties.

Thank you to all involved

We thank Prof. Knut Ringat for the mod­er­a­tion and Dr. Ste­fan Carsten, Frauke Janßen, Mario The­is, Clau­dia Hin­richs, Michael Richter, Björn Uhrig, and Michael Rüf­fer for their con­tri­bu­tions. We also thank PBV Pla­nungs­büro für Verkehr and rms GmbH for the joint or­ga­ni­za­tion.

Outlook

In­no­Trans takes place every two years. We look for­ward to see­ing you at the Pub­lic Trans­port Fo­rum 2028.