Raue advises Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe AöR (BVG) on the tender and approval of the new digital call-bus sharing service for Berlin. BVG has now awarded the contract to the Via company for a service in eastern parts of the city.

Accordingly, the Rufbus is to be deployed from summer in an area of over 60 square kilometers in the eastern part of the city in fare zone B and will be available around the clock via an app booking. The Rufbus is intended both as a shuttle service for local public transport and for direct rides. The new Rufbus is to be integrated more strongly into the public transport fare.

The Via company is also taking over the newly created "Alternative Barrier-Free Transportation (ABB)" service on behalf of BVG. This is intended to create a mobility guarantee for passengers who are required to be barrier-free on the Underground, the Suburban railway and regional trains. ABB is used primarily at stations that are not yet barrier-free or where the elevator is currently out of order or being modernized. In a pilot project, the U8, parts of the U5 and the Marienfelde Suburban railway station will initially be connected.

Raue provided comprehensive advice to Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe AöR (BVG), Germany's largest public transport company, on the Europe-wide tender procedure for the introduction of an app-based call-bus sharing service as a supplement to the existing public transport service. In addition to issues of public procurement law, the advice also covers the examination of the German Passenger Transport Act (PbefG) licensing requirements and the licensing procedure. This is the first large-scale project in Germany in which a call bus sharing service is to be ordered via the public transport authority and integrated into the public transport concept.

Raue has advised Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe AöR (BVG) for many years, including on public procurement law, real estate and corporate law, M&A transactions and public law issues in the transport sector.

Advisor to Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe AöR (BVG):

Raue, Berlin: Dr. Bettina Tugendreich (Partner, Public Procurement), Dr. Wolfram Hertel (Partner, Public Law, Transport) (both Lead), Dr. Markus Plesser (Partner, IP/IT), Dr. Hans Heller (Partner, Public Law), Dr. Arne Dittloff (Counsel, Public Law, Transport), Amelia Düwel (Associate, Public Law, Transport), Maxim Horvath (Associate, Public Procurement).

Raue is a Berlin-based law firm with international reach advising clients, mostly companies and government entities, on investment activities, transactions, regulatory issues and in litigation. Further information is available at www.raue.com.