InnoTrans director expects autonomous public transport to gain ground

InnoTrans 2026 will host more than 3,100 exhibitors, up from 172 in 1996, as director Kerstin Schulz forecasts growing importance for autonomous public transport in coming years.

Schulz, who has led the Berlin trade fair since 2013, made the forecast in an interview with the Romanian rail news outlet Club Feroviar published on 17 September, five days before the 30th-anniversary edition opens on 22 September. Asked to pick a technology on show this year whose impact could grow over the following five to ten years, she chose autonomous public transport. She also sees robotics as promising, both for factories and for the day-to-day running of public transport.

Autonomous vehicles and AI on the show floor

Messe Berlin, which organises InnoTrans, says 414 exhibitors will take part in the Public Transport segment across about 20,000 square metres of gross space, and 62% of them come from outside Germany. The Mobility+ area brings together 25 companies, 14 of them first-time exhibitors. MOIA is presenting its outlook for autonomous, on-demand public transport, while RailEvo is showing on-demand autonomous rail taxis intended to run around the clock.

The AI Mobility Lab hosts 47 exhibitors working on artificial intelligence, automation, cybersecurity and robotics, and 28 of them are first-time InnoTrans exhibitors. OTIV uses AI to run rail vehicles autonomously and to automate train operation, and Scout Robotics is demonstrating autonomous inspection.

In an organiser statement on 1 September, Schulz tied these technologies to the future of passenger services:

“Public transportation is in the midst of a technological transformation.”

First robotics tours and an AI hackathon

This year the fair is running guided robotics tours for the first time: two routes, each with around ten stops and lasting roughly 90 minutes. The number of AI tours has doubled to two. The Club Feroviar interview describes the new themed tours as covering both autonomous transport and robotics, but the organiser’s programme does not list a separate tour on autonomous transport.

The AI on Track hackathon, also new, runs from 23 to 25 September on the exhibition grounds, with Alstom, Wabtec and Siemens Mobility as main sponsors and prize money of up to €5,000 for the winning teams. Schulz told Club Feroviar that over 50 programmers from different countries would take part; when the format was announced in April, the organiser expected 60 to 80 participants.

The organiser’s World Innovation Guide counts 180 world premieres at this year’s show. Knorr-Bremse says its LEADER Flow driver assistance system, which draws on real-time data from trains running ahead, saved more than 10% of energy on average in tests. CRRC is exhibiting a 2,000 kW hydrogen fuel cell hybrid locomotive with a deep-learning driving platform.

The robotics tours run on all four show days, while the hackathon runs from 23 to 25 September and the infrastructure and anniversary events are concentrated on 23 and 24 September. Sources: Messe Berlin — Robotics Tours, AI on Track hackathon announcement, infrastructure and ENIM release, 30th anniversary programme.

How far InnoTrans has grown since 1996

When the first InnoTrans opened in October 1996, 172 companies took part, and the rolling stock stood at the Wilmersdorf freight yard, eight kilometres from the exhibition grounds. The 2024 edition had 2,946 exhibitors from 59 countries; 1,918 of them, or 65.1%, came from outside Germany.

Schulz told Club Feroviar that most exhibitors and visitors are still European, but said that alone does not show who sets the industry’s technological direction, since she sees innovation being pushed forward by companies from many countries.

Between the first edition and 2024, the number of exhibitors rose about 17-fold and trade visitor numbers about 28-fold (Railway Supply calculation: 2,946 ÷ 172 and 169,214 ÷ 6,000, rounded). The 1996 visitor figure is approximate. Sources: Messe Berlin — 30 years of ‘unique growth’, Facts & Figures, April 2026 release describing 2024 visitors as trade visitors, World Innovation Guide release.

Infrastructure exhibitors up 5% on 2024

Rail infrastructure is growing alongside the digital topics. Nearly 600 Railway Infrastructure and Tunnel Construction exhibitors have booked more than 32,000 square metres, a 5% rise in exhibitor numbers compared with InnoTrans 2024. The Club Feroviar interview gave the space as more than 30,000 square metres; the organiser’s July figure is higher. The European Network of Infrastructure Managers (ENIM), a new association of rail infrastructure managers, will hold its launch event at the show on 23 September.

Ten Ukrainian companies in the national pavilion

Ukraine is exhibiting with a national pavilion in Hall 4.2, Stand 410, where 10 companies from railway engineering and public transport will present their products. The Ukrainian state institution Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion Office organises the pavilion with support from the Embassy of Ukraine in Germany, and Railway Supply is its media partner.

This year’s exhibitors are A.T.O.R, DDAP-RAX, UCI Group, Dnipropetrovs’ky Strilotchny Zavod, RWA, RIST, Poltava Locomotive Repair Plant, Stryy Avto, Ukrainian Scale Company and Motorimpex. Their range covers AI-powered control systems, hydraulic equipment for railways, weighing and measuring technology, switches, axles and freight wagons, plus seats and other interior and exterior parts for passenger vehicles.

After the Berlin show

InnoTrans 2026 runs until 25 September. On 24 September, the organiser holds an invitation-only Anniversary Night themed around Asia, ahead of the first InnoTrans Asia, which Messe Berlin will stage at the Singapore EXPO from 7 to 9 September 2027.