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 Maxvorstadt (Central Bavarian: ''Maxvorstod'') is a central borough of Munich, Bavaria, Germany and forms the Stadtbezirk (borough) 3 Maxvorstadt. Since 1992, this borough comprises the former boroughs 5, 6 and 7 (Maxvorstadt-Universität, Maxvor ...

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 Munich Hackerbrücke station is a station opened in 1972 on the Munich S-Bahn network below Hackerbrücke (Hacker bridge) that is close to Munich Central Station (german: Hauptbahnhof). It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 3 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, 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 In architecture, construction, and real estate, floor area, floor space, or floorspace is the area (measured as square feet or square metres) taken up by a building or part of it. The ways of defining "floor area" depend on what factors of the buil ...

of around 25,000 m², seven

storeys A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK) and ''stories'' (US). Th ...

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 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 of the upper floor include Lidl, dm-drogerie markt, McDonald's, TUI AG, 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.

Architecture

After a public tender by the city of

in 2002, the contract for the design was awarded to the architectural firm ''Auer+Weber+Assoziierte''. The futuristic exterior façade is based on the shape of an Intercity-Express, ICE powerhead, which was to fit in with the redesign of München Hauptbahnhof, 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. The bus station is operated by the Bavarian Red Cross.

User

The bus station is mainly used by numerous long-distance bus operators, but also by tour operators. 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 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 located above the bus stops were criticised for several years due to their initial lack of attractiveness for tenants. 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 in 2011, whereupon Hochtief filed a lawsuit. The court, Landgericht München I 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 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