Journey Planner – An opportunity for passenger and public transport companies

In the past, a public transportation transit would require a route map, perhaps a contact via telephone with the route operator, or even a visit from the operator's agency. For an intercity route, a prospective passenger would have to plan ahead, in order to successfully combine multiple tour operators, which made the transit process complicated. European Passengers Federation believes that the success of a JP platform based on the amount of included data, especially for cross borders. Also important is and the maintenance of the platform with updated data.

A new software package to automate train delay refund process

One of the biggest problems in railway industry comes from delays. Delays are a real headache for passengers and companies. In a co-modal route a delay means that the passenger will lose the next transport mean. From company side this is a difficult situation because it has to reimburse the angry passenger.

ESP Group’s Joyrneycall business and Barclays designed a new software package to serve this problem. DelayCheck software verifies the delay and refund the ticket to the passenger. This new app works in more than one operator and automatically finds the correct company and applies the appropriate policy.

Managing Director of Journeycall believes that this new app is going to help the costumers and reduce the operating cost of operators.

The presentation of DelayCheck has been attended by 30 representatives of rail industry. The app will be ready for the passengers from 1st of October.

Automatic Ticketing System in public transport

The president of OASA (Athens Urban Transport Organisation), Tassos Tastanis, has given an interesting interview regarding the “smart” cards that are expected to replace the regular paper tickets in public transport. The project “Automatic System for Ticket Validation” is expected to be implemented in all means of public transportation after the end of 2016.

The “smart” card will be personalized and will be loaded with an amount of money which will be decreased every time the passenger uses the card to the new validation devices. The new system will give the opportunity to issue a single ticket for all means of public transportation. It will be more fair since new charging policies will be applied depending on the travelling distance, while it is also expected to reduce the phenomenon of fare evasion.

For more information, click here.

Smart urban mobility: opportunities for cooperation and finance conference

Prague is hosting third 'Smart urban mobility: opportunities for cooperation and finance' conference which will be held on 22 September 2016.

This workshop is the last of a series of smart cities and mobility outreach events that were held in December 2015 in Gothenburg and in May 2016 in Genoa, which also included a mayors roundtable, interactive group discussions and practical demonstration activities. The aim of the event is to discuss how investments in electric mobility and in smart mobility services in European urban areas can be increased.

More information regarding the event you can find on European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities initiative official website where registration form is also available.

EU funds support sustainable public transport in Czech Republic

Czech Ministry for Regional Development (MMR) has ready 8,5 billion CZK from European funds to promote public transport. This amount is intended to be spent on building new transfer terminals, car parks or purchase low-emission vehicles. Applications shall be submitted through the Ministry for Regional Development (MMR) until 29th December 2017, minimum or maximum fund amount is not specified.

MMR announced two calls, both will encourage the construction and modernization of transfer terminals and autonomous parking systems, transport telematics (intelligent transport systems) for public transport, purchase of low-emission and zero-emission vehicles, reconstruction, modernization and construction of roads for pedestrians and cyclists.

Mobility alert for urban zones - Urban Mobility Plan Awards

The European Commission has launched the 5th edition of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMPs) Awards. Each year, the award highlights a different aspect of mobility planning. The 2013 award recognised successful territorial and policy integration, while the 2014 edition looked at monitoring implementation with an eye to making improvements.

Tram extension in Piraeus

Attica’s public transport network is enhanced by the tram’s extension. In specific, extension works take place from Neo Faliro to the centre and the port of Piraeus. Two tramways have already been completed across Mikras Asias and Grigoriou Labraki streets, while tramway constructions are being continued on other roads as well.

For more informatio, click here.

Where research, policy and practice in transport intersect – ETC 2016

The Association for European Transport hosts the 44th European Transport Conference in Barcelona in Spain from 5th to 7th of October and welcomes researchers to get challenged by policy makers and practitioners in the field of transport.

The Conference’s added value is the interface between research, policy and practice. Speakers are asked to draw out the policy implications of research – not to only concentrate on the design and operation of a model, for example. Equally, practitioners and policy makers are encouraged to relate their presentations to the research behind the implementation of schemes and policies.

The Conference programme covers supra-national issues, national and local policy, and the implementation of projects at a local level. Issues of key importance are picked out each year for special examination and will be introduced in daily plenary sessions.

For more information visit http://etcproceedings.org/.

CIVITAS INSIGHT 15: Linking intermodal services better

Intermodal transport has the potential to contribute to a cleaner, smarter and more sustainable transport, shifting the mobility of passengers and goods from the road, making the optimal use of infrastructure and reducing costs. This requires developing integrated solutions, linking vehicles and infrastructure, and creating an interface between users and multimodal services. Moreover, it requires promoting strategies for people and organisations to embrace the concept. This CIVITAS Insight focuses on intermodal passenger transport and emphasizes the need to make the interchange as seamless as possible, because switching transport modes can very often be a nuisance for travellers.

Intermodal passenger transport is often used to combine the strengths (and offset the weaknesses) of various transport options. A major goal of modern intermodal passenger transport is to reduce people’s dependence on cars as the major mode of ground transport and increase use of public transport. In CIVITAS insight 15 the reader can examine tools and support mechanisms for multimodal solutions.

Download the CIVITAS Insight 15 here: http://civitas.eu/sites/default/files/civitas_insight_15_linking_intermodal_services_better.pdf.

LDz and CZ Loko reconstructing a diesel locomotive so to work with hydrogen

The new trend for all transportation companies is to reduce oil and diesel consumption and replace it with “greener” one like electrical energy, biodiesel and hydrogen.
Now, good news comes from Latvian Railway –LDZ. LDZ, CZ Loko and Ballard Power Systems signed a memorandum of understanding for producing a hydrogen fuel cell locomotive using components from an old CME3 diesel shunting locomotive.

Beijing exploits re-generative power with ultra-capacitor usage

Lot of efforts have been given in rail braking power usage. Using re-generative power reduces the energy consumption of a train and the temperature inside the tunnels.

EU funding for urban mobility by Eltis

Eltis platform provides an overview and an explanation of all the key sources of EU funding for urban mobility. Public sector and local authorities, private sector and SMEs, research institutes and universities can examine their eligibility in funding sources such as the  EU Cohesion Policy, the European Investment Bank, LIFE, CEF (Connecting European Facility), Horizon 2020 and various other funds. Eltis provides links and guidance to all bodies interested to receive funding in favour of urban mobility.

Visit Eltis resources here http://www.eltis.org/resources/eu-funding.

Ministerial Conference on Water and the informal EU Environment Council in Bratislava (11 to 12/07/16)

Up to 70 million persons in EU are affected by water problems especially during the summer periods. Shortages are already being perceived in north states of EU, while the Baltic States are affected frequently by floods. Europe spends 5 billion Euros per year to deal with the consequences of floods and 3 billion Euros for drought damage.

Ministers agreed on the need to improve water recycling estimating that about 17% of water could be recovered and reused. EU

2016 European Strategy for low-emission mobility

The European commission recently published the EU strategy for low-emission mobility (Download the strategy here). The strategy sets clear and fair guiding principles to Member States to prepare for the future and shift to low-emission mobility in terms of carbon and air pollutants. 

The ambition is clear: by mid-century, greenhouse gas emissions from transport will need to be at least 60% lower than in 1990 and be firmly on the path towards zero. Emissions of air pollutants from transport that harm our health need to be drastically reduced without delay. 

The main elements of the Strategy are to:
increase the efficiency of the transport system,
speed up the deployment of low-emission alternative energy for transport, and
move towards zero-emission vehicles.  

For more information, visit http://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/strategies/news/2016-07-20-decarbonisation_en.htm

Extension of the trans-European Transport Network

The Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Networks, Mr. Christos Spirtzis has, along with six other ministers, signed a declaration for the Railway Freight Path ORIENT/EAST MED during the trans-European Transport Network session – TEN-T Days, that took place in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on June 20th-22nd, 2016.