Zentraler Omnibusbahnhof München (ZOB München, Central bus station Munich) is a central

bus station A bus station or a bus interchange is a structure where city or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. While the term bus depot can also be used to refer to a bus station, it generally refers to a bus garage. A bus station is l ...

located in Maxvorstadt,

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The terminal has an area of . The bus station was established on 11 September 2009 and is a major transportation hub for bus and train with national and international traffic. The bus station also has spacious offices and retail space for retailers that give it an airport-like character. The nearest S-Bahn station is Munich Hackerbrücke station.

Location and description

The central bus station was opened on 11 September 2009 and is located in the immediate vicinity of the Hackerbrücke S-Bahn station and not far from

Munich Central Station Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

. The

Hackerbrücke The Hackerbrücke (Hacker Bridge) is a road bridge across the main railway line in Munich immediately west of the town's central station. The first bridge was built at the beginning of the 1870s. In 1890-94 this was replaced by a new bridge, const ...

, which is located directly next door, is connected to the bus station building via two bridge bridges. Arnulfpark, a modern city quarter with residential and office buildings, cultural facilities and restaurants, is located in the immediate vicinity. The ZOB was designed as a multifunctional

property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...

with a floor area of around 25,000 m², seven storeys and various levels of use. The bus station, which is located below the ground floor, is accessible via ''Arnulfstraße'' and has 29 stops where national and international long-distance scheduled bus services as well as most of Munich's tourist bus services are operated.

Escalators An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the step tread horizo ...

or elevators take passengers to the first floor, where the shopping arcade with retail and catering areas is located, giving the ZOB an airport-like character.

Tenants A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold rights to real property, a l ...

of the upper floor include Lidl, dm-drogerie markt,

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

, TUI and Vapiano. On three further upper floors and an area of about 10,300 m² there are offices, a parking deck and a discotheque in the

basement A basement or cellar is one or more floors of a building that are completely or partly below the ground floor. It generally is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, ...

Architecture

After a

public tender Government procurement or public procurement is the procurement of goods, services and works on behalf of a public authority, such as a government agency. Amounting to 12 percent of global GDP in 2018, government procurement accounts for a subst ...

by the city of

in 2002, the contract for the design was awarded to the

architectural firm In the United States, an architectural firm or architecture firm is a business that employs one or more licensed architects and practices the profession of architecture; while in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark and other countri ...

Auer+Weber+Assoziierte Auer may refer to: People * Auer (surname) Places and rivers ; Germany: * Auer (Odenwald), a river in the Hessian Odenwald * Auer Bach, a river of North Rhine-Westphalia, tributary of the Wupper * Auer Mühlbach, a river in Bavaria, branch of t ...

''. The futuristic exterior façade is based on the shape of an ICE powerhead, which was to fit in with the redesign of Munich's main railway station discussed at the time. Almost 31 km of tubes were used for the aluminium tube design, which is unique in Germany.

Operation of the bus station

Owner

In 2014, the ZOB was acquired by the Munich issuing house WealthCap, previously owned by the project developer

Hochtief Hochtief AG is a German construction company based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.Bavarian Red Cross The German Red Cross (german: Deutsches Rotes Kreuz ; DRK) is the national Red Cross Society in Germany. With 4 million members, it is the third largest Red Cross society in the world. The German Red Cross offers a wide range of services within ...

User

The bus station is mainly used by numerous long-distance bus operators, but also by

tour operators A tour operator is a business that typically combines and organizes accommodations, meals, sightseeing and transportation components, in order to create a package tour. They advertise and produce brochures to promote their products, holidays and ...

. For example, buses operated by companies such as Flixbus or IC Bus, which offer national and international connections, regularly stop at the ZOB. Public buses are excluded, as the public transport connection is via

Munich S-Bahn The Munich S-Bahn (german: S-Bahn München) is an Railway electrification system, electric rail transit system in Munich, Germany. "S-Bahn" is the German abbreviation for ''Stadtschnellbahn'' (literally, "urban rapid rail"), and the Munich S-Bahn ...

and Munich tramway.

Fees

Buses stopping at the ZOB pay 6.00 euros for half an hour and 11.00 euros for a full hour's stay at the opening.Münchner Merkur
"Leere Schalter am neuen Busbahnhof"
31 August 2009, retrieved 2 May 2013. In 2018 the prices were 8.00 and 11.00 euros respectively. In addition, there are other price scales of up to 56.00 euros for the maximum permitted parking duration of 24 hours.

Criticism

The

premises Premises are land and buildings together considered as a property. This usage arose from property owners finding the word in their title deeds, where it originally correctly meant "the aforementioned; what this document is about", from Latin ''pra ...

located above the bus stops were criticised for several years due to their initial lack of attractiveness for

tenants A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold rights to real property, a l ...

. For the opening of the bus station, only six of the 17 rental spaces could be let. Due to the low customer frequency of only 1,500 persons per day compared to the planned 8,000 to 10,000, several tenants cut their payments to the project developer

Hochtief Hochtief AG is a German construction company based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.Hochtief Hochtief AG is a German construction company based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.lawsuit - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...

. The

Landgericht München I ''Landgericht'' may refer to: * Landgericht (Germany), a mid-level court in the present-day judicial system of Germany *: For example, ** Landgericht Berlin ** Landgericht Bremen * Landgericht (medieval) The ''Landgericht'' (plural: ''Landgerichte' ...

ruled in favour of a tenant in a first case in 2013.Süddeutsche
"Fahrt ins Leere"
24 January 2013, retrieved 2 May 2013. The

deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...

of the long-distance bus market in Germany led to a significant improvement in the use of the ZOB from the beginning of 2013.Abendzeitung
"Sparfüchse fahren jetzt Bus"
19 April 2013, retrieved 2 May 2013. Average arrivals and departures increased from 80 buses per day in 2010Münchner Merku

8 September 2010, retrieved 2 May 2013. to 135 per day in 2013. 42,000 buses per year, i.e. an average of 115 buses per day, were expected at the opening of the bus station.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zentraler Omnibusbahnhof Munchen Buildings and structures in Munich Bus stations in Germany Maxvorstadt Transport in Munich