GERMANY: The transport operators in Dresden, Chemnitz and Leipzig have formed the SUMO alliance to facilitate co-operation to reduce their costs.
Plans for the Sächsische Unternehmensallianz Mobilität include joint efforts to reduce energy consumption, make infrastructure management more efficient, improve timetable and staff planning, offer more customer-oriented digital sales and undertake joint training and spare parts procurement.
Dresden’s DVB has saved 975 MWh/year through changing the way it stables trams overnight, and energy consumption is now taken into account when planning the replacement of worn track to remove temporary speed restrictions.
‘Saving energy has never been as important as it is today — not only from an ecological point of view, but also from an economic point of view’, said board member Andreas Hemmersbach on May 9. ‘International political crises in particular have recently caused enormous price increases for energy, raw materials, building materials and personnel.’
Lepizig’s LVB has lowered onboard temperatures and introduced request stops on the tram network, helping it to achieve a 15% energy saving in 2022. Depots are now being converted to LED lighting.
‘Co-operation improves our future prospects, especially in the current crisis, and helps to secure jobs’, said board member Ulf Middelberg. ‘We want to lower our costs and offer our customers better services.’
Juliane Kirste of Chemnitz’s CVAG said SUMO enables the operators to access confidential data and share practical experience, enabling the operators to make decisions on energy and operating strategies ’without doing everything three times’.
