Experts evaluated the project results

Members of the whole, international Business Advisory Group met to discuss together the project results at the InnoTrans fair in Berlin on September 19, 2012.

Business Advisory Group found the USEmobility survey very interesting and relevant. The relevance of the change in the life situation if approaching new customers has been stressed. Such changes in life circumstances relevant to the choice of transport mode do happen frequently. Over half of participants in the survey stated that personal reasons were the motivation for their reorientation. The top ranked reasons in terms of frequency and relevance are: changing jobs and moving home whether to another town or within the same town. In most cases, a cause for change already existed that motivated the user to think about shifting to another transport mode. This could have been moving home or a new phase in their working life, from starting the first job to retiring altogether. In such situations, the survey participants thought about whether they were satisfied with their previous choice and looked to see if there were any better alternatives available.

This insight offers providers of transport services a good opportunity to attract new customers to public transport. After these insights were presented in the meeting of the Austrian part of the Business Advisory Group in November 2011 in Vienna Mr. Klaus Garstenauer from the Austrian company ÖBB-Personenverkehr AG decided to introduce, in cooperation with the region Salzburg and the house-building company Salzburg Wohnbau a “ÖBB-Welcome package” to people newly moved into the region: tenants or owners of new residential properties along the train. Mrs. Adelheid Byttebier from the largest Belgian urban public transport company STIB appreciated the results of USEmobility survey too and saw this as a confirmation of the STIB-policy that introduced a welcome package recently. This instrument was considered as promising in attracting new customers.

The members stressed, among others, the importance of a sufficient and stable funding of public transport and a change in taxation systems in order to stop preferring company cars that are seen now as one of the main obstacles for the use of public transport. An interesting instrument that was introduced in Belgium was mentioned by Mrs. Adelheid Byttebier: in Belgium companies with more than 250 employees are obliged to have transport plans for their employees and to report about their implementation.

Also the importance of an appropriate communication and local branding was stressed. This can be clearly seen if analysing the results from the regions and comparing them with the countries results.

Mr. Dr. Andreas Geißler from the Allianz pro Schiene outlined the first drafts for strategic recommendations to be elaborated in the next months of the project. They will address political decision makers including public transport authorities, transport service providers, the European Commission and the Civil Society Organisations in Europe.

The change of mobility behaviour towards more eco-friendly mobility can be achieved by changing:
• the user-related factors like attitudes, personal life situation etc.
• the offer-related factors: ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ factors, ‘pull-in’ factors (satisfaction with the transport mode) and ‘push-out’ factors (dissatisfaction with the transport mode)
• the policy-related factors like funding, urban/spatial planning etc.

Therefore the identified areas of action for recommendations should be: transport consumers (travellers), offered services and policy framework.

The members of the Business Advisory Group agreed with the presented approach and expressed their willingness to give feedback on more progressed drafts for strategic recommendations. It would be important to prioritise: Which areas of action and measures are most effective in supporting and promoting people’s choice for eco-friendly multimodal transport? Which measures could realistically be implemented until 2020 (mid-term) and which until 2050 (long-term)? Which factors impede the implementation of the measures?

The dialogue with the members of the Business Advisory Group will be continued.

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International Trade Fair for Transport Technology
- Innovative Components, Vehicles, Systems -

With a large number of reference projects and over 220 transport technology firms, Berlin is the main focus of Germany's transport engineering industry and an ideal venue for InnoTrans, an international platform for buyers and sellers of passenger and freight transport technology. InnoTrans has become established as an international industry showplace focusing on Railway Technology. A full range of rail vehicles are presented in static displays on the Messe Berlin tracks located outside the exhibition halls. Other key InnoTrans features include Railway Infrastructure, Interiors, Public Transport and Tunnel Construction.

Date of the Advisory Group Meeting: September 19, 2012

Participants:

The following members of the Business Advisory Group attended the meeting:
From Austria:
Mr. Klaus Garstenauer, the Head Local and Regional Transport of the ÖBB-Personenverkehr AG
From Belgium:
Mrs. Adelheid Byttebier, the Chairwoman of Société des Transports Intercommunaux de Bruxelles (STIB)
Mr. Stefan Stynen, the Chairman of TreinTramBus
From Germany:
Mr. Hans Leister, Managing Director of SNCF Voyages Deutschland GmbH
From Hungary:
Mr. Imre Perger from the Department of Service Development of MÁV Zrt. (Hungarian Railways)
From the international organisations:
Mrs. Brigitte Ollier, Director UITP Euro Team
Mr. Matthias Knobloch, Secretary General of the European Automobile Clubs.

The Coordinator of USEmobility, Allianz pro Schiene, and representatives of the project partners BSL Transportation, Quotas, European Passengers’ Federation and Savez za Zeljeznicu attended the meeting too.