It will travel at shorter intervals, use less energy and, with regard to safety, compare favorably in every way to conventional subways – Germany’s first automatic subway, the new U3 Line in Nuremberg. The project, which also contains the gradual conversion of the existing U2 Line, provides diverse savings opportunities for VAG and unique opportunities for metropolitan region of Nuremberg as a home of railway technology. Only the citizens of Nuremberg themselves, that is, the future passengers on the U3, are skeptical about the project – and that is a challenge not only for VAG.

To meet this challenge, VAG turned to gernBotschaft with its expertise in the areas of design, event management, and creation. The solution: A new name (intelligent subway), a new logo (iU), and a coherent event concept. Until operation begins in the spring of 2006, thematic events will take place at regular intervals at the iU stations – for example, on the safety and family-friendliness of the trains or on the opportunities for the Middle Franconia economy. Within the framework of these events, a train will be christened each time in the name of a famous Franconian personality, by a sponsor, who, like the patron whose name is used in the christening, is a perfect match for the theme of the respective event.

Workshop event with christening

Within the framework of the first event at the end of April, there was an information session with a podium discussion followed by a get-together for some 80 top-flight press and media representatives in the Nuremberg subway workshop. Naturally, the guests traveled to the event location on the intelligent subway. The group included Herbert Dombrowsky (N-ERGIE), Rainer Müller (VAG), Hans M. Schabert (Siemens TS) and the Nuremberg mayor, Ulrich Maly, who also acted as the sponsor for the first train christening. And, by the way, the first iU was christened with the name of Johannes Scharrer, the founder of the Städtische Sparkasse and the Bayerische Ludwigsbahn, the first German railroad.