Exploitable results
The strategic phase of the 'Vehicle for mobility - advancing public passenger transport in Europe' (Voyager) project started with the analysis of external megatrends that are likely to have an impact on the transport sector. Considering the future situation and the barriers from the previous phase, key challenges were identified and analysed that the public transport (PT) sector has to meet until 2020. These were the foundation for development of policy and research recommendations for the future development of public transport.
The state-of-the-art review identified a large number of problems for the public transport sector:
- public transport often does not respond adequately to the changing activity patterns of customers,
- limited financial resources are available for improving and maintaining PT infrastructure,
- the development of integrated customer-oriented services is getting more difficult,
- the low level of integration of operations management systems into overall company management systems,
- the lack of financial resources for training and human resources management and development,
- the potential benefits that a comprehensive marketing strategy can have on the development of PT use are not fully appreciated,
- the lack of reliable and sustainable operational financing models,
- a great need to upgrade the ageing rolling stock and existing infrastructure to modern standards, especially in central and eastern European (CEE) countries,
- PT must be improved in terms of its availability, accessibility and attractiveness,
- insufficient frequency and capacity of the services that affect the availability of public transport,
- access difficulties in existing vehicles, buildings and the pedestrian environment and inadequate provision of traveller information are identified as obstacles toward more accessible public transport systems,
- the need for more examples of attractive and user-friendly design of rolling stock and infrastructure,
- environmental impacts of PT resulting from traffic noise and air pollution,
- the fragmentation of efforts and the lack of integrated mobility planning in the area of land use policies that curb urban sprawl and promote higher densities,
- considerable scope for improvement of road safety in dense urban areas, particularly with regard to groups of the population such as children, pedestrians and users of non-motorised transport.
The key challenges to public transport as identified by the Voyager project touch upon several business areas (administration, communication, planning and operation) and include the following:
- along with sector transition into a more or less open market, operators will be forced to reconsider their management structure;
- a genuine customer-oriented approach needs to be adopted by all staff members;
- the scarcity of public funds will also prompt the need for a search for innovative investment and financing solutions;
- changing overall travel behaviour leads to new customer expectations that need to be tackled;
- public transport has to be considered as an element within the overall mobility chain.
Policy and research recommendations as drawn up during the Voyager project target all relevant stakeholders and call for concerted effort to stabilise and improve the position of public transport within the transport market.
These recommendations can be summarised as follows:
- responding better to customer needs/expectations,
- improvement of stakeholder interactions,
- strengthening public transport sector image,
- improvement of public transport system efficiency,
- improvement of funding and financing balances,
- improvement of public transport's attractiveness as employer,
- improvement of safety and security,
- improvement of environmental performance.
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