November 2005
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EUROPEAN METROPOLITAN TRANSPORT AUTHORITIES November 2005 - n° 22 Transport Policy and Urban Environment: News from Europe Europe at Crossroads G One step forward for the third railway package During the past months, the EU Commission has adopted the third railway package on 3 March 2004. price of crude oil continued to It contains measures to revitalise the European railways. The package consists rise and all economic forecasts of a Communication, four legislative measures and a working document expect an increasing trend on an extended impact assessment for the gradual opening up of the due to the growing demand market for international passenger services. One of the legislative measures editorial and the necessarily limited is the amendment of Directive 91/440/EEC on the development of the supply. The end of our era of Community's railways opening up by 2010 the market for international cheap fossil energy becomes passenger services by rail. more and more obvious for Georg Jarzembowski presented a report asking for more competition in the decision-makers and for all citizens. railways. On the basis of this report the MEPs Transport Committee proposed In the same time the dramatic climatic an amendment aiming at including national passenger services in the legislation events that occurred, particularly on the - and not just international ones as proposed in the package proposed by the Commission . It has been proposed to open up international passenger services American continent, reinforced the awareness to competition by 1 January 2008 and national passenger services by 1 January of climate change and the necessity to act 2012. The committee also demanded to let Member States opening up their urgently. The first meeting of the Parties to networks earlier if they so wish. This amendment has been adopted by the the Kyoto Protocol (MOP 1) that will take European Parliament. place in Montreal from 28 November to 9 December will have the difficult task to In this session, MEPs also voted in favour of the introduction of a compensation make proposals for further actions to be system for train travellers. This compensation should not only apply to undertaken after 2012. Europe has a key international rail passengers, as the Commission had proposed, but also to national ones. According to the amendment, the following minimum role to play as the major economic player compensation should be paid to passengers for delays no later than one month having ratified the Kyoto Protocol. after application has been made: An efficient transport policy is crucial to > 25% of the fare for a delay of one hour or more address these two challenges. Transport has actually a high dependence on fossil energy > 50% for a delay of 2 hours or more and contributes in a large scale to green- > 75% for a delay of 3 hours or more house effect gases emissions. In adopting a range of amendments, Parliament took the view that the right of This new framework has to be taken into persons with a reduced mobility should be fundamentally guaranteed. account in the mid-term review of the 2001 Therefore railway operators must guarantee accessibility of stations, platforms Transport Policy and the Thematic Strategy and means of transport by eliminating all obstacles to boarding, disembarkation on the Urban Environment, currently being and remaining on board. prepared by the EU Commission. Europe www.europarl.eu.int will then be able to promote and help the transformation of our cities into G EU Parliament supports road safety targets energy-efficient and low emission areas. Ari Vatanen, member of the European Parliament presented a report on road Achieving this objective will require safety in Europe, which points out that improvements in road safety come from efficient and reliable public transport a combination of safer drivers, safer cars and safer roads. According the networks, more co-ordination between European Commission's Community Road Accident Database (CARE) land-use and transport planning, higher 40,000 lives are lost and 1.7 million people are injured in road accidents incentives to use clean individual vehicles and every year across the EU. Direct and indirect costs are estimated € a promotion of smooth modes of transport. at 160 billion. A third of road fatalities occur in urban areas (33.8 % in 2002 for EU 15). Compliance with existing rules would have a tremendous effect on fatalities, Jonathan Goldberg Secretary General of EMTA reducing them by 60% but enforcement is an exclusive competency of Member States. At EU level, the report proposes to implement mutual recognition of financial penalties among Member States. It also calls for further progress in vehicle design, using technological developments as seat belt reminders, Don’t hesitate to contact electronic stability controls and speed limitation systems. Lastly, the document us if you want to receive this stresses the importance of safety improvements in the design, construction and operation of the road network. newsletter directly by e-mail: [email protected] The Parliament acknowledged the report largely adopted on 29 September a resolution targeting a reduction by 50% of road casualties by 2010. www.europarl.eu.int News from the cities G Rail services improvements G Stockholm about to experiment G Very short term rental of cycles foreseen in Switzerland congestion charging available in Lyon Swiss Federal Railways (SBB-CFF-FFS) are The Municipality of Stockholm will experiment Greater Lyon launched in May VeloV, currently working on the strategic planning a trial period for congestion charging for all an innovative service of cycle rental for of rail services for 2030: the Zukünftige private vehicles crossing the city border on very short duration. Rental spots are Entwicklung der Bahnprojekte (ZEB). weekdays. Car users will have to pay for spread across the cities of Lyon and Concrete measures will be announced in each crossing with a maximal daily fee of Villeurbanne, where about 600,000 2006, as required by the Parliament. about €6 per day and per car. The trial will people live and work. The network consists However, general guidelines of service take place from 3 January to 31 July 2006 of almost 200 stations, situated in strategic improvements have been exposed in and a referendum will be held in September locations and no more than five minutes September. The scope covers all types of rail 2006. away from any place in the city. services: freight, long distance transport, Three kinds of subscription are proposed, and local public transport. The program The modal split of public transport is with different prices and different billing focuses on infrastructure where absolutely expected to increase due to the charge. At options (pre-paid or post-paid). In any case, necessary and mainly on services where the the moment 73% of peak hours trips to the it is necessary to get a VeloV Card for supply is not matching the demand city centre are made by public transport. insurance purposes in case of damages or enough. The ZEB will enhance the services This figure should reach 80% during the liability. It is then possible to take a bike will improve the interconnections of mains trial period. In order to anticipate this modal from a station and to let it in any station of stations, that will become real transport shift, the transport authority SL increased its the network. The first 30 minutes of use are nodes, allowing smooth connections on the services from last August with 14 new bus free of charge, which encourages strongly hour and in some cases on the half hour. lines representing 200 buses and a light increase of rail services due to the limited the use for short trips. The TECELY public Three infrastructure projects are in the capacity of the track, that could be extended transport smartcard also gives access to the scope of the ZEB: the crossing of Zürich, the but only in a long term project. service. People using this type of card benefit missing link Tessin-Italy towards Milan and The project costs consist mainly of car from a 60 minutes period free of charge. the international express line CEVA between identification, fee collection system and On 1 September, 23,000 people have register Geneva and Annemasse (see below). additional public transport provision. The project and have access to the 2,000 cycles available. is 100% funded by the national government. ZEB funding from federal government has been The first inquiries showed that average trips Costs amount to €363 million, including €50 estimated about €4 billion (6-7 billion CHF). length was 2.8 kilometres for a duration of million for public transport provision. www.sbb.ch 20 minutes, with a massive use during peak www.stockholm.se G www.sl.se hours and near main train and metro stations, showing the complementarily with public G Works begin for the international G London uses fare policy to transport. An extension of the service to 400 link Geneva-Annemasse influence behaviours of travellers stations and 4,000 cycles is forecast for 2006. The surroundings of Geneva where In order to encourage the use of public € 910.000 people live and work are straddling The annual cost of operation is about 1,000 transport by young people, the Mayor of two countries: Switzerland and France. This per cycle including the rental electronic London - Ken Livingstone, through his agency € situation makes transport issues complex devices, i.e. 2 million for the whole fleet. Transport for London, has extended the age for public authorities in charge of it. The system is managed by JCDecaux and is limit for children eligible for free travel on Transport demand is expected to grow included in a global 13 years contract of bus and tram networks from those under significantly by 2020, due to the forecast street furniture funded by Greater Lyon.