CAPRICE PROJECT

RESULTS

• CAPRICE Project’s Results

  

  (Date of publication: June 2011)

  CAPRICE - ‘CAPital Regions Integrating Collective transport for increased energy Efficiency’

  The project’s main aim is the exchange of experiences among local and regional authorities in Europe. It hereby promotes integrated public transport systems leading to improved energy usage. Therefore, workshops have been core element of the project in which the group and selected experts exchanged experiences on topics that concern public transport. CAPRICE has enabled all project partners to mutually enrich and strengthen one another.

  As result, CAPRICE identified good practices and defined recommendations for the national and European level. The project demonstrates all the benefits of promoting exchanges at the European level which provide excellent guidelines for developing a sustainable mobility policy.

  These exchanges have strengthened our conviction that the existence of strong authorities, which are responsible for public transport systems in European metropolitan areas, is essential . These authorities are better qualified to implement integrated and high-performance transport systems which focus on their users and respond to their needs.

  These outcomes of 2 years of constructive exchanges are collected in the Good Practice Guide ’A Decision Maker’s Guide’. With the Good Practice Guide, CAPRICE also animates to learn from those good practices and transfer them in the own European metropolitan region in order to improve the efficiency of our public transport systems and take up the urban mobility challenge.

  Besides identifying and promoting good practices, the CAPRICE project group helps to transfer knowledge. Two practical results are the set-up of the pilots to implement a public transport authority in Bucharest and the new travel planner for the Warsaw metropolitan region. All the results of the exchange of experience and the debates about it were discussed with high political representatives and managers in the field of public transport at the final conference in Paris.

  We would like to thank all public transport experts and interested people for their attention to CAPRICE and its work.

  The project ends on 30 June 2011 but its website will be available until 2016 (www.caprice-project.info). The coordinator is, of course, always open to answer questions and concerns of yours at caprice@vbbonline.de.

  Thank you,

  The CAPRICE team

  ZTM Warsaw (Poland), MESP Vilnius (Lithuania), PMB Municipality of Bucharest (Romania), STIF Paris Ile-de-France (France) and VBB Berlin-Brandenburg (Germany)

• CAPRICE Project’s Final Conference

  

  (Date of Publication: March 2011)

  The CAPRICE Project’s final conference took place in Paris on Thursday 17th March 2011. This European-wide event was opened by Mr. Jean-Vincent PLACÉ, Vice President of the Ile-de-France Regional Council in Charge of Transport and Mobility, Vice President of STIF (Syndicat des Transports d’Ile-de-France) who welcomed all participants and shared his views on urban transport facing the challenges of sustainable mobility.

  Then, Mr. Hans-Werner FRANZ, CAPRICE Lead Partner, Chief Executive Officer of Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg (VBB) and President of European Metropolitan Transport Authorities (EMTA), delivered a statement on CAPRICE from the authority’s point of view.

  The European dimension of metropolitan public transport was discussed with:

   Mr. Keir FITCH, Deputy Head of Cabinet of Mr. Siim KALLAS, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of transport

   Mrs. Silvia-Adriana ŢICĂU, Member of the European Parliament, Vice President of the European Parliament’s Transport and Tourism (TRAN) Committee

   Mr. Michael CRAMER, Member of the European Parliament, Member of the European Parliament’s Transport and Tourism (TRAN) Committee

  Question and answer session

  After that debate, Mrs. Erika FULGENZI, INTERREG IVC Project Officer, INTERREG IVC Joint Technical Secretariat, presented the INTERREG IVC programme’s state of play.

  To finish the morning session, the presentation of CAPRICE Good Practice Guide was made by Mr. Juergen ROSS, CAPRICE Project Manager, VBB Head of Planning and Customer Information Department.

  The afternoon was composed of 2 round tables.

  The first round table aimed at thinking about ‘How to set up sustainable urban mobility?’

  Professor Wojciech SUCHORZEWSKI from the Warsaw University of Technology was moderating:

   Mr. Gražvydas JAKUBAUSKAS, Lithuania’s Ministry of Transport and Communications, Acting Head of Development and Innovations Division

   Mrs. Monique Van WORTEL, Clean Urban Transport Unit, European Commission / DG MOVE

   Mr. Valentin ANTON, President of CODATU Romania

   Mrs. Laurence DEBRINCAT, STIF Head of Studies & Surveys Department (Syndicat des transports d’Ile-de-France)

   Mr. Mieczyslaw REKSNIS, Director of Road and Public Transportation Department, Warsaw City Hall

  Question and answer session

  The second round table was moderated by Mr. Hans-Werner FRANZ, CAPRICE Lead Partner, Chief Executive Officer of Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg (VBB) and President of European Metropolitan Transport Authorities (EMTA), on the topic ‘How to organise and finance sustainable mobility?’

  The following speakers were invited to deal with that issue:

   Mrs. Sophie MOUGARD, General Director of STIF (Syndicat des Transports d’Ile-de-France), Vice President of European Metropolitan Transport Authorities (EMTA)

   Mr. Ion DEDU, Executive Director – Transports, Roads and Traffic Planning, Department of Bucharest Municipality (PMB)

   Mr. Alain MEYERE, Director of Surveys of IAURIF (Institut d’Aménagement et d’Urbanisme d’Ile-de-France)

  Question and answer session

  Last but not least, Mr. Jean-Paul HUCHON, President of the Ile-de-France Regional Council, President of STIF (Syndicat des Transports d’Ile-de-France) closed that European event and highlighted the CAPRICE achievements as well as the successful and fruitful cooperation work between partners.

• CAPRICE Project’s Good Practice Guide

  

  (Date of Publication: March 2011)

  The continuous exchange of best practices between the CAPRICE partners resulted in the drawing up of a Good Practice Guide whose aim is to disseminate recommendations on the European level on how to set up an integrated public transport system in metropolitan areas.

  During seven combined workshops and site visits, the CAPRICE partners have drawn conclusions based on the following themes:

   the organisation and financing of public transport;
   the tendering and contracting of passenger transport services;
   sustainable energy and implementation of clean vehicles in public transport;
   integrated passenger information;
   integrated ticketing;
   public transport planning for integrated services of improved quality;
   accessibility for people with specific needs.

  All discussions related to the good practices in the different areas have been summed up in the Decision Maker’s Guide.

  CAPRICE project’s best practices are meant to be practical and effective. They should contribute to apply measures that match the major priorities identified in the urban mobility action plan issued by the European Commission on 30 September 2009.

• CAPRICE Project’s Final Conference in Paris, 17th March 2011

  

  (Date of publication: February 2011)

  The CAPRICE final conference will be held in Paris on 17th March. The results of CAPRICE co-operation will be presented and discussed with transport representatives from the European Commission, Parliament and other transport experts at a European Conference in Paris. They will discuss different approaches of organising public transport while reducing pollution, limiting traffic congestion and energy consumption, and improving the services for the citizens. The CAPRICE partners will also present the Good Practice Guide. More information at: www.capriceparis2011.eu (Login: caprice - Password: paris2011).

• CAPRICE met latest mobile experiences

  

  (Date of publication: June 2010)

  CAPRICE met the mobile experience meeting-group (MEM) on 27 and 28 April 2010 in Berlin as a result of the 4th thematic workshop of the project. Inspired by the experiences on travel information that were exchanged during the workshop in Berlin in March 2010, the three CAPRICE partners MESP (Vilnius), ZTM (Warsaw), and VBB (Berlin) decided to meet the mobile experience group. It originates from EU-Spirit (www.eu-spirit.com) and was established in 2007 when EU-Spirit providers detected the need for exchanging experiences on the latest developments, difficulties and trends. Today, the MEM group meets twice a year at one of the interested parties’ location. Experts from the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Germany attend regularly.

  Mobile passenger information is a very complex and dynamic field. No technology is subject of such strong influences like innovations as the mobile technology currently is. 2 years ago, the usage of mobile data rather was a characteristic of the premium customers. But today the costs for using these services decreased tremendously in European countries - according to the iPhone launch. But how should the service provider of transport information act on this market segment? An important role in order to form an opinion plays the exchange of experiences among partner institutions. The presentation of Oslo provides several approaches that are now discussed at VBB in Berlin also. The experiences Oslo made with bad weather during wintertime, for instance, resulted in the establishment of a coordination office which is responsible for the supply with mobile services and, thus, occupied 24/7. That is how Oslo ensures the continuous supply of mobile services and disturbances. Real time information services enjoy the customers’ high trust.

  Beside the content of information, the further development of technical possibilities for mobile devices and an appropriate user interface is essential for the usage of the services. This was demonstrated in the discussion on usability moderated by an external consultant. It is not about displaying the contents of the regular Internet services on mobile devices but to consider the specific user requirements and different basic requirements of mobile navigation behaviour.

  During the workshop, the experts were subject for a field trip (a test through Berlin) at which 3 different applications (mock-ups and programmes) for navigation in short-distance public transport were tested. The principle fact that speech-based services in this field are not helpful for the customer was the basic outcome of the test.

  Route planners were rated to be the best applications because it proved to be most useful for the customer. Anyway, the stationary signs on platforms and in stations were still valued as very useful by all subjects with regard to the customer’s orientation. Approaches to augment reality, which could support local routing very much, are still in its very early stage of development but will increase in importance in the long run. This topic will definitely be one to be discussed at the next mobile experience group meeting.

  MEM is always open for interested transport companies and authorities who like to join and exchange their experiences in this specific field. You can always contact the group via MEM@vbbonline.de. The next mobile experience group meeting will take place on 3 - 4 November in Copenhagen.

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