After 12 years living on an island with no traffic lights, roundabouts, trains, trams, U- or S-Bahns, and with a bus service which was occasional, moving to Munich was always going to be a culture shock in terms of transport alone.
I was reasonably familiar with the U-Bahn network from my time here 25 years ago, but buses and trams? Not a clue.
So I was curious to see how the heavily-adertised MVG Fahrplan Info app could help me get around the city. I was not expecting too much, but perhaps some baic information to help me avoid getting lost.
The app (only in German I think, unless I missed the language button, is nicely arrange into information on connections (Verbindungen), departures (Abfahten - see above from Hauptbahnof), announcements (Meldungen), tickets and more.
While the convenience of ticket buying is nice, and timetables are available at all stations, the really amazing thing about the app for me is in the Verbindungen journey planner. Simply select the place you are (or a departure point) and the place you want to go, then confirm your departure time, and sit back and let your journey be mapped out for you. Using a combination of the trams, buses, U- and S-Bahns, as well as a little walking on occasion, the app can deliver you accurately to the minute to your destination. No more meetings dependent on S-Bahn connections or waiting for a bus whose departure time you don't know. Not sure if you want to leave immediately? The app gives you the flexibility to choose departure time, then gives you additionally the next departures and arrival times.
Sitting in an apartment in Taufkirchen and needing to go back to my temporary home near Trudering, I was curious to see if there was any alterntive to the walk back to the S-Bahn, into Ostbahnhof, then out to Trudering. I typed in the address of my street - Solalindenstr - as the destination, starting out from where I was sat finishing my beer.
And I could scarcely believe my luck, as my new tow told me that there was a bus stop just 46 metres from where I was sat, which would take me to Solalindenstr in exactly 40 minutes. Unbelievable.
And so I bid my farewells and hopped on the modern bus, which kept me fully informed on progress, until right on time, got off at a rather unfamiliar Solalindenstr, at which point I realised there were two Solalinden streets in Munich, and I had entered the wrong one! The app may be brilliant, but one can never account for human error, but at least by typing in my new destination, I was able to get home without too much trouble.
Journey planning in Munich just got a lot easier and less stressful. With more than 500,000 downloads so far, the app is hardly a secret, but there is very little information about it in English online, so I hope this helps a little.
You candownload the app, called MVG Fahrplan Info from the usual app outlets. A great timesaver.