From 22 to 25 September 2026, Messe Berlin hosted the fifteenth edition of InnoTrans, the international trade fair for transport technology, which also celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. Pysae attended as a visitor, to meet operators and partners from across Europe and to follow the latest developments in the public transport segment.
A record edition
According to the preliminary figures published by the organiser, InnoTrans 2026 welcomed around 175,000 trade visitors from more than 120 countries and 3,190 exhibitors from 59 countries, including around 750 companies exhibiting for the first time. All 42 halls of the Berlin Exhibition Grounds were occupied, alongside the outdoor and track areas.
The fair is organised in five segments: Railway Technology, Railway Infrastructure, Public Transport, Interiors and Tunnel Construction. Rail remains the backbone of the event, but the public transport halls were busy throughout the day, with urban and regional operators, transit authorities and technology suppliers from many countries.
What we saw in the public transport halls
Walking through the public transport segment gives a clear picture of how the digital stack of a network is evolving. Several families of solutions stood out:
- Planning and scheduling tools, from timetable design to crew scheduling.
- Demand-responsive transport platforms, increasingly presented as a layer on top of the fixed network rather than a separate service.
- Ticketing and fare collection, with account-based and open-payment approaches now mainstream.
- Passenger information systems, on board, at stops and in apps, all fed by real-time vehicle data.
Artificial intelligence was the other strong theme of the edition. The AI Mobility Lab, introduced in 2024 as a themed area within the public transport segment, became a dedicated hall this year. Most use cases on display were operational: dispatch and regulation assistance, detection of inconsistencies between timetable versions, predictive maintenance and diagnostics. Cybersecurity and data protection were also present in many conversations.
What it means for operators
Three takeaways for bus and tram networks:
- Data quality comes first. Every AI promise seen in Berlin relies on reliable, as-run vehicle data. Without an accurate AVM feed, optimisation runs on theoretical timetables. We covered this in detail in how AI is changing bus network planning.
- Interoperability is becoming a selection criterion. Planning, operations, ticketing and passenger information are sold as separate modules, but operators expect them to exchange data through open standards. Our overview of the real-time data standard each European country requires is a good starting point.
- Multimodal networks need a shared view. With bus, tram and rail increasingly run under a single authority, supervision tools have to cover every mode from the same control room.
Thank you
A warm thank you to Messe Berlin for organising such a large edition, to the operators and transit authorities who took the time to talk with us, to our partners at Open Move, and to all the exhibitors of the public transport halls who shared their solutions and their view of the market.
The next InnoTrans will take place in Berlin in 2028. In the meantime, Pysae will exhibit at Logiterre in Casablanca (20 to 22 October 2026) and at Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona (3 to 5 November 2026).
You run a bus or tram network and want to see how a real-time AVM and passenger information platform fits your operations? The Pysae team will be happy to show you.