And then it happened! So far the morning has been quiet, here an escalator, there a little traffic jam, but sometimes not much has happened. And now, shortly before nine thirty: a broken switch near the U4 in Lehel. The episode can be seen on one of the huge screens over which green dots slide. Seven minutes late because of the switch.

The responsible employee in the operations center of the Münchner Verkehrsgesellschaft (MVG) is therefore quite busy, the drivers of the other trains call in, ask what should they do – wait or continue? And the woman dies behind the many monitors and telephones on her desk so that the individual trains are coordinated and the damage to operations and passengers remains as low as possible.

A central control center is particularly important for the underground, explains the head of the operations center, Jens Wagner: “Without us, the trains wouldn’t run at all.” Because people who die in the control center control the signal boxes, among other things. In addition, there is communication with passengers and drivers. If there is a disruption, as happened to a lesser extent with the U4, the employees at the control center ensure that the trains do not stay in the tunnel, but wait at the stations for their onward journey. A small first step that makes waiting more pleasant for the passengers. “None of us likes to stand in a tunnel at all times,” says Wagner.

If a college cannot come to work, the personnel dispatcher will take care of a replacement

In addition to eliminating the malfunction, it is also necessary to inform the passengers in such a case, which is also provided from the operations center. In addition, the mechanics in the field service has around 100 mechanics in the field service at the location of the nifty MVG location, which is available for coordination from the open-plan office in Munich (SWM) on Emmy-Noether-Straße. For the small everyday problems when & YOU can also find solutions here: If a colleague has a cold and cannot come to work, the personnel dispatcher will take care of a replacement.

All of these problems can be solved by talking to each other, explains Wagner: “Communication is our main tool.” And because that’s the case, a phone keeps ringing somewhere, a radio message rushes out of the loudspeakers, an employee speaks. It’s never quiet here either, but it’s still bearable because of the acoustics of the room.

It was a little different in the old rooms, which were closed off in an outbuilding. There was quite a hall there, recalls Wagner. This is one of the reasons why most of them were happy about the move. The war is also necessary, because in the past few years the technical possibilities and thus the security requirements have increased extremely. At some point there was a lack of resources in the old premises: a power cable tore there, it could be. that the overall control center was paralyzed. “We have everything twice in our new operations center,” explains Wagner. “Also: at least twice.”

And there is another innovation: Until now, the employees responsible for buses and trams were housed separately from the colleagues who kept an eye on the operation of the subway. But if, for example, a subway fails, the traffic shifts to the surface at breakneck speed. In order to cope with the demand, additional buses are sometimes required, which the control center has to request. Sometimes, however, the department responsible for buses and trams only found out about the disruption when the stops were full of annoyed passengers from the subway. Things are going much better now – since everyone works in one office, says Wagner: “That is also important, because sometimes a few minutes can be very, very important.”

Open detailed view

Since September 30, the Munich buses, trams and underground trains have been coordinated from the new office, and when moving, MVG also had the future in mind. Because politics wants people to ride more bikes and trains in the future, the number of passengers will rise in the next few years, and there will also be large projects such as the construction of the U9. And that’s why there are 34 workplaces in the operations center – with a full occupancy, only 26 people work there so far. “We already thought about it in perspective,” explains Wagner.

Speaking of perspective: the new control center also has a visitor room – but this will not open until spring at the earliest. The aim is to create as much transparency as possible with the necessary security precautions, says Jens Wagner. And maybe that contributes to that.