Infrastructure is an important part of planning public transportation and will influence how people will travel. Other dimensions, such as urban-rural linkages and renewable energy are two areas that are also affected. The Blekinge County Transport Infrastructure Plan for 2014-2025 includes investments in the regional road network consisting of all roads except the E22. In addition to investments in the road network, Blekinge has signed an agreement with the Swedish Transport Administration on cofinancing capacity-enhancing measures on the Blekinge coastal railway.
The proposal for a national plan for the transport system 2018-2029 includes measures that represent an important step towards a modern and sustainable transport system. On August 31, 2017, the Swedish Transport Administration reported the draft national plan for the transport system for the period 2018-2029 to the government. The plan contains proposals for measures in the state infrastructure on roads, railways, sea and aviation.
The Baltic Sea is an inland sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the North Sea spanning over 377,500 km² forming “the world’s largest brackish-water body” (Björck 1995: 20) between Denmark in the South-West and Finland in the North East surrounded also by the other bordering countries of Sweden, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Germany (EC 2009: 2). The BSR is named a macro-region by the EC since 8 of these 9 states are EU members (all but Russia) that share common challenges and opportunities. The EC has thus decided to implement a single strategic approach represented by a strategy specifically for the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) – the EUSBSR. As the EC stated, EU membership provides several new opportunities that have “not yet been taken and the challenges facing the region have not yet been adequately addressed” (EC 2009: 2). In fact, the BSR is characterised by cultural, environmental and economic heterogeneity while the countries are shaped by interdependence and shared common resources. Because of that, the BSR is seen as being predestined to serve as a test-bed for “regional co-operation where new ideas and approaches can be tested and developed over time as best practice examples” (EC 2009: 2).
The White Paper on Transport’s third part outlines the strategy of what needs to be done in order to implement the vision. The strategy is composed of 4 parts: 1. A Single European Transport Area 2. Innovating for the future – technology and behaviour 3. Modern infrastructure, smart pricing and funding 4. The external dimension
The White Paper’s second part outlines the vision on a competitive and sustainable transport sector. It is divided into 5 parts:
1. “Growing Transport and supporting mobility while reaching the 60% emission reduction target” (EC 2011: 5) Since around 5% of the EU’s GDP and 10 million direct employments are accounted to the transport system, policy action has to be planned carefully taking into account market based mechanisms and coherence across the EU member states. A vision is to end the transport sector’s oil dependence by using energy more efficiently and from clean sources without restricting mobility. Applying information technology for traffic information and management will also help to make transport easier, more efficient and reliable. Action has to be undertaken quickly since Infrastructure planning, building and equipment, e.g. with vehicles, takes a lot of time - today’s decision shape the transport system in 2050. The EC describes that technological solutions are different per each of the three following segments: - Urban transport - Medium distance transport - Long distances transport
The White Paper on transport (EC 2011) “Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area – Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system” is currently one of the most important documents representing European policy on the future of transport with a time horizon until the year 2050. This document is divided into three parts: - Preparing The European Transport Area for the Future - A vision for a competitive and sustainable transport system - The Strategy – what needs to be done The White Paper’s first part outlines the current background of transport highlighting its importance.
Transport was one of the first common policy areas of the European Economic Community and has its roots in the Treaty of Rome 1957 since competitive transport systems are vital for Europe’s ability to compete in the world, for economic growth, job creation and for people’s everyday quality of life. Transport connections represent a main pillar of the EU’s economy by e.g. enabling supply chains and a European integration with an internal market. In 2014 the EU’s transport industry employed around 10 million people, accounting for 4.5 % of total employment creating about the same percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) (EC 2014 b).
By definition, public transport is “a system of vehicles such as buses and trains that operate at regular times on fixed routes and are used by the public”. The four basic aims of public transport operation include:
•provide access to employment, education, retail, health, recreational facilities, etc.
•ensuring the possibility to travel for all inhabitants who cannot or do not want to use private cars;
•providing travels compared to which the use of private car is ineffective for economic, time-based or ecological reasons;
Euroregion Baltic, one of Interconnect partners, has a new YouTube Channel! You will find all the projects, conferences, events and courses ERB organized or took part in, included Interconnect Project presentations!
All respondents taking part in the survey agreed that the solution which should be implemented in all partner regions within the project involves further integration of public transport. However, it was emphasized that the integration of public transport should occur not only within one means of transport (for example only within bus transport), but also in the whole public transport system. 95% of respondents indicated that in the regions the solutions related to marketing research should be replicated as an instrument for shaping public transport offer. 95% of respondents also specified that alternative fuels should be used in public transport in all regions. Whereby, some of the respondents underlined that from among all available technologies related to city buses alternative power supply, the decision makers should choose electric buses since they constitute the future of public transport.
During the seminar on September 6, 2018, entitled BENCHMARKS FOR THE CURRENT PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEMS – CONCLUSIONS, the proposed model features of public transport in the analysed regions, identified and presented in the report in section - SELECTED EXAMPLES OF BEST PRACTICES ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT SOLUTIONS - were elaborated and discussed.
ROSTOCK INTEGRATION OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT – experts agree that the integration of public transport should result in improving the quality of services and rationalizing the expenses from public funds incurred on public transport operations. The Region of Rostock has significant experience in this respect. The experience is especially valuable since public transport integration may also generate adverse effects. The integration of public transport may lead to market monopolization (decrease of competition). If competition between operators is decreased, the pressure to maintain or improve the quality of rendered services may cease to exist.
The first in nearly 40 years railway line in Poland built from scratch. When it was put into operation in 2015, the newly built railway line was 18 km in length and had eight stops and the most advancedrailway traffic control and safety systems in Poland. PKM line connected Gdansk and Gdynia with Lech Walesa Airport and the Kashubian region (Koscierzyna and Kartuzy), and facilitated traveling between the centres of the city and the outskirts. The project has been still under development. In December 2017, another two stops, Gdynia Karwiny and Gdynia Stadion were put into operation. Between 2020 and 2023, the electrification of PKM line is scheduled as well as the construction of another station, Gdansk Firoga.
New route-taxi service was launched on April 16th, 2018 together with new integrated e-ticketing system. Launching of this project finished service integration in Klaipeda, and started implementation of new e-ticketing system which will be finished in October, 2018.
