Project Details

Project goal

VOYAGER was a Thematic Network on Public Passenger Transport in Europe, which was funded by the European Union's 5th Framework Thematic Programme "Competitive and Sustainable Growth".

The VOYAGER project created a platform for exchange of experience, widespread dissemination and consensus building in support of a more efficient, sustainable, customer-oriented and safe public transport throughout Europe.

To this end VOYAGER established, in consensus with all key actors in the public transport sector in Europe, a comprehensive vision of public passenger transport systems required in the future and developed in the context of competitive markets and the changing mobility needs of citizens.

The project started from a "today's" perspective, analysing then current problems in the public transport sector and existing solutions. It highlighted the potentials and limits to their transferability in order to establish the current scope of action for stakeholders. Furthermore, VOYAGER addressed the key urban and regional transport challenges (including congestion, pollution, accidents and economic inefficiency as well as changing mobility patterns, increasing urbanisation and urban sprawl) and developped recommendations for future research and policy agendas.

Results

The purpose of VOYAGER was to create an open European Network of key actors of local and regional public transport (PT) for experience exchange, dissemination and consensus building. VOYAGER established a platform where PT stakeholders (operators, suppliers, authorities, researchers and users) aired their views, gave input on current and planned actions and ultimately provided recommendations to improve PT environment. More particularly, VOYAGER aimed to:

• analyse the state of the art of local and regional PT
• select and develop "good practice" case studies
• identify key barriers and challenges for implementing competitive and attractive public transport systems at local and regional level
• develop specific guidelines and policy recommendations for all public transport stakeholders on the needed actions to realise efficient, safe and customer-orientated public transport systems
• widely disseminate the key outcomes of the project

After three years analysing future megatrends and the new challenges the sector will have to face, the VOYAGER project consortium, led by the International Association of Public Transport (UITP), provided a coherent set of eight recommendations to be included into future policy agendas and future management strategies of all European operators.

These recommendations are supposed to help decision makers and operators to develop strategic actions for the implementation of attractive, clean, safe, accessible, effective, efficient and financeable European local and regional public transport systems for the year 2020.

Project partners

• UITP - International Association of Public Transport, Brussels, Belgium
• Polis, European Cities and Regions Networking for Innovative Transport Solutions, Brussels, Belgium
• Socialdata - Institut für Verkehrs- und Infrastrukturforschung, Munich, Germany
• CERTU - Centre d’études sur les réseaux, les transports, l’urbanisme et les constructions publiques, Lyon, France
• TIS PT, Consultores em Transportes, Inovação e Sistemas, S.A., Lisboa, Portugal
• Rupprecht Consult GmbH, Cologne, Germany
• Azienda Mobilità e Trasporti S.p.A. (AMT), Genoa, Italy
• Bureau Zuidema, Leusden, Netherlands
• Babtie spol. s.r.o., Part of the Jacobs Engineering Group, Prague, Czech Republic
• University of West England - UWE, Bristol, United Kingdom