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EMTA members team up in the European project CAPRICE

CAPRICE aims at exchanging experience between public transport authorities (PTAs), local and/or regional authorities, and transport operators.

CAPRICE will identify and promote good practices, help transfer of knowledge and implement a pilot demonstration where the setting up of a new public transport authority or similar institution integrating public transport services is planned.

CAPRICE « CAPital Regions Integrating Collective transport for increased energy Efficiency » is a European project within the framework of the 2007-2013 INTERREG IV C Programme of European territorial co-operation. It was launched on 18 February 2009 in Berlin’s Town Hall when the five partners ZTM Warsaw (Poland), SP Vilnius (Lithuania), City of Bucharest (Romania), STIF Paris- Ile de France (France) and VBB Berlin-Brandenburg (Germany) decided over the objectives and different steps of the project. The total cost of the project amounts to 1,110,367.95 ¤ with an expected funding awarded by the European Regional Development Fund of 885,467.95 ¤.

Partners regularly meet in workshops, each of them hosting in turn. Three workshops already happened in 2009: on institutional issues, on contractual framework and on energy-efficient vehicles. Four workshops are planned for 2010, they should deal with the following topics: travel information, efficient procurement, fares and subsidies, and ticketing services.

With the exception of Bucharest, all CAPRICE partners are EMTA members. All along the 2009 meetings and workshops, they reinforced mutual links and came to share common vision on responsibilities and ways to handle the urban transport authority’s missions. Here is a short report on the work of the partners.

About organisation and financing of public transport Vilnius 3-5 June 2009 The workshop was the opportunity to exchange on the institutional framework for organisation, management, infrastructure development and financing of public transport services. Partners reached common thoughts on some main points.

• Partners think it is suitable that local and regional authorities endorse political and administrative responsibilities for integrated public transport services. Clear statements and explicit responsibilities at all levels, political, administrative, operational, as well as efficient decision-making processes, are crucial elements for an effective organisational framework.

• All modes (regional rail, underground, tram, buses and ferries) of public transport in a given region should be managed by one integrated authority that should define the framework in which one or more operators must operate the services. Key tasks like overall operational plan-ning, tariff setting, quality standard monitoring, sales and marketing, customer information, infrastructure planning have to be integrated. The authority should also control the operators’ performance with regard to the services required and the economical efficiency and monitor passenger expectations.

• Partners stress that sufficient and reliable compensation are needed. Public transport costs usually cannot be covered only by fare revenues. Therefore a stable and reliable public funding is desirable, and social fares where they exist, must be compensated to operators. Such specific mechanism like the “transport tax” (specific tax on employers) in France, is seen as an efficient and significant contribution to the coverage of the public transport costs.

• Partners also acknowledge the help Regulation 1370/2007 [1], that came into force December 2009, provides as a harmonised legal framework.

About tendering and contracting in passenger transport services, Warsaw 14-16 September 2009 Regulation 1370/2007 was precisely the topic of this workshop. The following observations have been shared.

• Competitive tendering and contracting have turned out to be an efficient instrument for raising the quality of public transport services and the related passenger satisfaction while reducing the amount of public subsidies needed.

• A strong and dedicated entity body that prepares the tenders, defines the level of service the passenger aims at, carries out the tendering procedure and controls the contracts, is desirable. This is especially the case in capital-regions where there is a long tradition of strong public operators (historical operators).

• Cities also have the possibility to directly award contracts to their own public operator. Even in the case of short term contracts directly awarded, it is suitable that clear and explicit definition of the authorities’ tasks and the operators’ ones are layed out and that complex quality control systems (bonus/malus mechanism for example) is provided, in order to put the pressure on the operators to deliver a high quality service.

About sustainable mobility, energy efficiency and implementation of clean fleets Bucharest 16-18 November 2009. A series of preliminary questions was raised about the use of low pollution vehicles. Then each partner was invited to share experience about the different aspects of a “green” public transport system, such as:

• Green strategies for energy efficient public transport: assessment of gas emissions, ecological aspects in decision making process, possible overall concepts and specific regulation for green transport, energy efficient driving, ecology and marketing issues, support to the modal shift from car to public transport.

• Green technologies for public transport fleets (bus, trolley bus, metro, regional railway and suburban trains) and future investment: experience in testing clean vehicles, strategies for alternative energies, fuels and power supply systems.

The workshop enabled partners to get an overview of what occurs in other countries in terms of innovative public transport solutions to fight against pollution and develop sustainable mobility».

Conclusion

Thanks to CAPRICE, issues even familiar to EMTA members, are analysed more in-depth, from a technical and practical point of view. Most of all CAPRICE enables a transfer of know-how between the project partners so that identified good practices may be implemented more easely. Extensive exchange across Europe, thanks to European Regional Development funding through the INTERREG IVC programme the partners think, should be encouraged.

More information at: www.caprice-project.info

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