Event

Pub­lic Trans­port Fo­rum 2026

AI, data, and mea­sur­able im­pact for faster, more re­li­able pub­lic trans­port.

Tech­nol­o­gy in Tran­si­tion: Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence as an Ef­fi­cien­cy Dri­ver in Pub­lic Trans­port

To­geth­er with our part­ners PBV Planning Office for Traffic and rms we bring the Public Transport Forum back to In­no­Trans 2026. This year, it's all about the ques­tion:

How does Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence make pub­lic trans­port faster, smarter, and more ef­fi­cient?

Look for­ward to lead­ing fig­ures from as­so­ci­a­tions, trans­port com­pa­nies, in­dus­try, and con­sult­ing who demon­strate how data turns into con­crete de­ci­sions, more ef­fi­cient process­es, and bet­ter of­fer­ings for pas­sen­gers. A morn­ing full of in­sights, prac­ti­cal ex­am­ples, and dis­cus­sions on equal foot­ing.

Date: Thurs­day, 24 Sep­tem­ber 2026
Time: 10:00–13:00
Location: In­no­Trans, HUB27, Lev­el B, Room 8/9
Language: Ger­man, with English simultaneous translation
Moderator: Prof. Knut Ringat

Agen­da

10:00 - 11:30

Part 1: "Data-based Pub­lic Trans­port for More Ef­fi­cien­cy and Cus­tomer Ben­e­fit” 

Dr. Stefan Carsten, fu­tur­ist and ur­ban and mo­bil­i­ty ex­pert

AI without Hype: How Artificial Intelligence Improves Public Transport

Frauke Janßen, VDV Re­gion­al Group East

Digitalization and AI from the Perspective of Transport Companies

Mario Theis, Deutsche Bahn AG - Pas­sen­ger In­for­ma­tion

The Future of Passenger Information: Better Passenger Information in Rail Transport with Artificial Intelligence

Panel Discussion

 

11:40 - 13:00

Part 2: "More Val­ue from Ex­ist­ing As­sets: New Ap­proach­es for In­fra­struc­ture and As­set Man­age­ment in Pub­lic Trans­port”

Claudia Hinrichs, ISB En­gi­neer­ing Com­pa­ny for Se­cu­ri­ty Tech­nol­o­gy and Con­struc­tion mbH

Transformation of Planning Processes: The Future of Planning in Rail Transport in the Era of AI and Digitalization

Michael Richter, Schüßler-Plan GmbH

Mobility Projects 2030, Human or AI - How Project AIs Connect Planning, Approval, Construction, and Operation

Björn Uhrig, Siemens Mo­bil­i­ty GmbH

Autonomous Driving - S-Bahn - CBTC

Michael Rüffer, Stadler Rail AG

AI-based Smart Sensing for Rail Infrastructure Monitoring

Panel Discussion

Mod­er­a­tor

Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor and Chair­man of the Gen­er­al Man­age­ment · RMV GmbH

Prof. Knut Ringat

Prof. Knut Ringat is Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor and Chair­man of the Gen­er­al Man­age­ment of the Rhein Main Trans­port As­so­ci­a­tion (RMV) and has been ac­tive in lead­ing roles in pub­lic trans­port for many years. He is Vice Pres­i­dent of the VDV and Chair­man of the As­so­ci­a­tion and Task Bear­er Or­ga­ni­za­tions as well as an Hon­orary Pro­fes­sor at TU Dres­den. His per­spec­tive com­bines as­so­ci­a­tion prac­tice, as­so­ci­a­tion work, and strate­gic de­vel­op­ment of mo­bil­i­ty sys­tems.

Speak­er

Fu­tur­ist, ur­ban and mo­bil­i­ty ex­pert

Dr. Ste­fan Carsten

Dr. Ste­fan Carsten is a fu­tur­ist and one of the most promi­nent thought lead­ers in mo­bil­i­ty, ur­ban de­vel­op­ment, and so­ci­ety in the Ger­man-speak­ing area. In his Mo­bil­i­ty Re­port 2027, he de­scribes how ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence is chang­ing mo­bil­i­ty as a new op­er­at­ing sys­tem for trans­port and cities. His per­spec­tive com­bines tech­no­log­i­cal de­vel­op­ment with so­ci­etal is­sues and the com­mon good.

Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor · VDV Re­gion­al Group East

Frauke Janßen

Frauke Janßen has been the Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor of the VDV Re­gion­al Group East since July 2025, or­ga­niz­ing around 80 com­pa­nies of lo­cal pub­lic trans­port and rail freight trans­port in Berlin, Bran­den­burg, and Sax­ony-An­halt. Pre­vi­ous­ly, she was re­spon­si­ble for projects on the dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion of mu­nic­i­pal­i­ties at PD Ad­vi­sor of the Pub­lic Sec­tor and served as Dig­i­tal­iza­tion Of­fi­cer at the Ger­man As­so­ci­a­tion of Cities. She stud­ied at the uni­ver­si­ties of Jena, Pots­dam, and Bu­dapest.

Head of Pas­sen­ger In­for­ma­tion · Deutsche Bahn AG

Mario The­is

Mario The­is is Head of Pas­sen­ger In­for­ma­tion (FI.R) at Deutsche Bahn. Af­ter sev­er­al years in na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al trans­porta­tion projects at PwC, he joined DB In­fra­GO in 2006 and lat­er took on lead­er­ship roles at DB Re­gio in rev­enue man­age­ment, prod­uct in­no­va­tion, and mar­ket and in­no­va­tion. Since July 2024, he has been re­spon­si­ble for pas­sen­ger in­for­ma­tion in Deutsche Bah­n's cor­po­rate man­age­ment.

Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor · ISB En­gi­neer­ing Com­pa­ny

Clau­dia Hin­richs

Dipl Ing. Clau­dia Hin­richs is the Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor of ISB En­gi­neer­ing Com­pa­ny for Se­cu­ri­ty Tech­nol­o­gy and Con­struc­tion mbH and has long-stand­ing lead­er­ship ex­pe­ri­ence in the rail­way and trans­port world. She is in­volved in ex­pert com­mit­tees such as the DVWG and has been a board mem­ber of ISB Switzer­land AG since 2021. Her ca­reer also in­cludes lead­ing po­si­tions in con­sult­ing, acad­e­mia, and the in­no­va­tion en­vi­ron­ment of rail­way tech­nol­o­gy.

Mem­ber of the Ex­ec­u­tive Board · Schüßler Plan

Michael Richter

Michael Richter is a mem­ber of Schüßler Plan's ex­ec­u­tive board and is re­spon­si­ble for the ar­eas of dig­i­tal­iza­tion, AI, and in­no­va­tion. He has been in­volved in plan­ning and re­al­iz­ing com­plex in­fra­struc­ture projects for road and rail for over 20 years and has been dri­ving the in­tro­duc­tion and fur­ther de­vel­op­ment of dig­i­tal plan­ning and project process­es, in­clud­ing BIM, since 2016. His fo­cus is on or­ga­ni­za­tion­al de­vel­op­ment and the ap­pli­ca­tion of new tech­nolo­gies in in­fra­struc­ture projects.

Glob­al Port­fo­lio Own­er · Siemens Mo­bil­i­ty GmbH

Björn Uhrig

Björn Uhrig has more than 20 years of ex­pe­ri­ence in rail­way sig­nal tech­nol­o­gy. He has worked on in­ter­na­tion­al sig­nal tech­nol­o­gy projects as a Sys­tem De­sign Man­ag­er, As­sur­ance Man­ag­er, and Ap­proval Man­ag­er, among oth­ers, and for four years was the Sys­tem De­sign Man­ag­er for the S-Bahn CBTC project in Copen­hagen. To­day, he is the Glob­al Port­fo­lio Own­er for CBTC prod­ucts at Siemens Mo­bil­i­ty.

Head of Mar­ket De­vel­op­ment and In­no­va­tion · Stadler Sig­nalling GmbH Ger­many

Michael Rüf­fer

Dipl Ing (FH) Michael Rüf­fer leads mar­ket de­vel­op­ment and in­no­va­tion at Stadler Sig­nalling GmbH Ger­many and has been part of the rail in­dus­try for over 30 years. He brings ex­ten­sive prac­ti­cal ex­pe­ri­ence from op­er­a­tions and main­te­nance, in­clud­ing near­ly 25 years at the Frank­furt Trans­port Com­pa­ny in lead­ing po­si­tions up to gen­er­al man­age­ment of tech­nol­o­gy and op­er­a­tions. His fo­cus is on bring­ing to­geth­er tech­nol­o­gy, in­no­va­tion, and cus­tomer ben­e­fits.

Who is the Pub­lic Trans­port Fo­rum for?

The fo­rum is aimed at:

  • De­ci­sion-mak­ers in trans­port com­pa­nies and as­so­ci­a­tions

  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from pol­i­tics and ad­min­is­tra­tion

  • Ex­perts in plan­ning, op­er­a­tions, in­fra­struc­ture, and IT

  • Man­u­fac­tur­ers and ser­vice providers in the pub­lic trans­port en­vi­ron­ment

If you want to know how to specif­i­cal­ly ap­ply AI and data-based ap­proach­es in your com­pa­ny, from pas­sen­ger in­for­ma­tion to op­er­a­tional con­trol to in­fra­struc­ture man­age­ment, you are in the right place.

Or­ga­ni­za­tion & Part­ners

The Pub­lic Trans­port Fo­rum 2026 is joint­ly or­ga­nized by:

  • ETC Solutions

  • PBV Planungsbüro für Verkehr

  • rms GmbH (Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund Servicegesellschaft)

With sup­port from high-cal­iber speak­ers from acad­e­mia, in­dus­try, and prac­tice.

Par­tic­i­pa­tion & Reg­is­tra­tion

Par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Pub­lic Trans­port Fo­rum is free for In­no­Trans trade vis­i­tors. The spots are lim­it­ed.

Register here now

Ready to get on board?

Mo­bil­i­ty is be­com­ing more dig­i­tal, con­nect­ed and de­mand­ing. Let’s find out to­geth­er how your busi­ness can ben­e­fit. Our team will be hap­py to ad­vise you.