Munich central bus station (ZOB) to open Q2 2009

Today at the Hackerbrücke the foundation stone was laid for the new Munich Central bus station, or 'Zentralen Omnibusbahnhof' (ZOB).

With it's 29 bus stops, the station, designed by Munich architect Professor Fritz Auer, is expected to handle up to 30,000 departures annually.

As well as housing the bus station, the 25,000m[sup]2[/sup] construction will also contain shops, offices, food outlets and a nightclub.

The building, situated on ground previously used as a rail-freight depot and as home to the Nachtgalerie nightclub, is due to open Q2 2009.

More from architects archlab here, and from sueddeutsche.de here.

Despite the Sueddeutsche having a picture of a Munich no. 52 bus, as I understand it, this will principally be for coaches, not local buses (as indeed the site was a few years ago).

Incidentally, those coaches will have an exemption from the Umweltzone 'low-emissions' area within the Mittlerer Ring.

Edit: Not coaches, but mainly long-distance public buses.

I have often wondered why there's no bus station in Munich. I think it would make more sense to locate it at Hbf though, as part of the much-needed revamp.

It's a beautiful design they went for huh? ... I think if I had to design it, I'd have drawn a box too ...

There used to be one at Luisenstrasse behind the old Botanical Garden on the Hauptbahnhof side; the authorities removed it because it was derelict, dirty and difficult for buses to access.

It's at Frötmaning beside the U Bahn. It's where the Eurolines busses leave from.

Theres also a makeshift "private" bus park somewhere in the south of the city where a lot of private coach companies leave from, especially to the Balkans.
Wee süddeutsche article on the "private" bus station here : http://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/artikel/133/103030/

i disagree here. roads around hbf are small, congested and not suitable for more heavy bus traffic. where would you locate it?

But many of the bus routes go from Hbf anyway, and if you want integrated public transport then putting it anywhere else is illogical - like in most British towns, where the train station is at the edge of the town centre and the bus station ten minutes' walk away next to the shopping centre.

The only vague alternative would be Ostbahnhof, but most people arriving into Munich arrive straight in at Hbf.

But its not exactly far away from HBF now is it? Its within walking distance.

Was gonna say that meself. It's a stones' throw away really. I would guess they would have some easy walkway from the station to the err.. station.

Failing that, it's about a minute's walk from Hackerbrücke S-Bahn and the 16/17 tram stop.

A stone's throw it may be to a young person without luggage; to others it's a bloody long way. Lugging your bags down to the S-Bahn, travelling one stop and then lugging them back up again seems an unnecessary nuisance. Don't view this from a Munich perspective; most of the passengers would be arriving from outside of Munich and will thus be arriving at Hbf.

yes for an older person with luggage it's a long way, however building a bus station at HBf is not an option as there is NO money (as there is no money to rebuild the station), space or infrastructure (imo). Hackerbrücke seems like a good compromise.

Sounds like a typically British compromise; not what I would expect from Germany. They want their wretched Maglev train from the airport to arrive at Hbf, then expect everyone to traipse onto an S-Bahn for 600 metres so they can catch their onward bus. This is NOT integrated public transport. If they can afford a magnet train, they can afford a proper bus station. Thousands of them, in fact.

ach lads.
Its between Hbf and Hackerbrucke so you could lug your bags from Hbf out onto arnulfstr and then the 600 m to the bus station.

In the Paris metro, which is an integrated system, there are points where you have to walk over 600m between lines. Also there are feck all escalators on the paris metro which makes for lugging bags about a pain in the rear end altogether.
In Heathrow airport (or frankfurt) you are walking more than 600 m between connections. 600m is not a problem.

Heavy bags also are only a problem if you have old fashioned bags with a handle as opposed to a nice rolly bag, which 90% of people use nowadays anyways.