CILT Logo Gradient1 The Scottish Region Website

Towards Passenger Intermodality in the EU by Stuart Turnbull, Jacobs Babtie.

Mr. Stuart Surnbull of Jacobs Babtie addressing the meeting.d

Mr. Stuart Surnbull of Jacobs Babtie addressing the meeting.


© John G. Fender 2011

Towards Passenger Intermodality in the EU is the title of a study that was commissioned by the European Commission DG TREN G 3 to provide the basis of future work in passenger intermodality. The aim was to identify areas for improvement to enable passenger journeys to be enhances, particularly with cross border travel and "the last urban mile".

It is the case that the "last mile" is often the most problematic part of a journey. For example, a passenger travels across Europe quite easily to arrive at an airport or railway station, and the final part of the journey can be the most difficult to undertake.

The study was undertaken by a partnership consisting of Jacobs Babtie from the UK (and also their Prague office), the Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development, Building and Construction of the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, ETT of Span and Langzaam Verkeer of Belgium. The study starting in February 2004, was divided into three main stages. Stage one analysed the key issues, stage two looked at "national inventories" and the third stage comprised the recommendations.

The first part of the study was to review the existing research that had been done on passenger intermodality and to identify the key issues. In all, some 39 different key issues were identifies covering such diverse areas as the market, political and policy frameworks, networks and interchanges and resources in addition to operations and co-ordination and co-operation. Having identified the issues and research, the study moved to the second part, that of examining the national inventory for each country and preparing a "country report".

The reports covered such topics as the politics of the country, the market and the legal and regulatory framework that apply. Each report also contained information on the networks, interchanges, ticketing, fares, booking systems and looked at how these were implemented in the country. For each topic that was looked at examples of "good practice" were identified or conclusions were drawn.

Looking at the regulatory framework, it is clear that there is more political awareness in metropolitan areas, but there are conflicts between polices at different levels of government within countries. Conflicts were also found with funding issues. The conclusion of the study was that each country needs an independent body at national level to promote and achieve passenger intermodality.

The study identified the need to improve interchange between networks together with better information provision and intermodal ticketing systems as areas that much needs to done with to provide seamless intermodal travel. Whilst there are some areas where there are good through ticketing schemes these are often only regional, not national and whilst some countries have good public transport integration, this does not cross national borders. The study concluded that standardisation would help in addressing some of these issues, and with the use of technology it would be possible for data relating to intermodal journeys to be exchanged throughout Europe.

The study also looked at funding for intermodality and found that within the existing structures, the funding of intermodal projects is difficult due to existing programmes focusing on networks and modes and are not conducive to integrated intermodal services. The study concluded that the rules, guidelines and priorities of existing EU funding programmes should be reviewed to improve the possibilities for funding projects. The study concluded that there were a number of measures that needed to be implemented, some sooner than others including the drawing up of new policy recommendations and undertaking additional research projects.

You can read the full report on the European Commission's Website (Click here).

The Scottish Region would like to thank Jacobs Babtie for hosting this event.

Report by John Fender.

 

The CILT Logo is a registered trademark of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport
Unless otherwise stated, site and contents © John G. Fender 1997 - 2024. All rights reserved.
Site designed & maintained by John G. Fender