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