Needs and efforts of cross-border regions between TEN-T corridors
This work package focuses on problems and needs of existing passenger transport services in the border regions and will be the baseline for further investigations in the involved border regions. The primary objective is first to describe and assess the quality of existing passenger transport services, to localise obstacles and to exchange information and experiences between regions and partners.
At the beginning it is important to gain an overview of existing concepts and results of research on cross-border transport in Central Europe. Our basic investigations will be regional analyses describing the problems and needs of cross-border public transportation between Saxony and Lower Silesia, Saxony and Liberec region, Lower Silesia and Liberec region and Carinthia and Koroska. The project regions of intervention will be investigated in general aspects, for example demography, tourism, labour market and transport as well as in terms of existing cross-border links of public transport and the conditions of the infrastructure, the connections to the nearest TEN-T nodes and the organization and the legal framework of public transport in the individual regions.
Crucial for the acceptance of the following outputs is the involvement of stakeholders and decision makers and of the executing transport associations already during this development phase. The comprehensive analyses of problems and needs are necessary to get reliable results from the pilots of the project based on the status quo so that progress can be measured. The results of the analysis will highlight major obstacles and provide an overview of the status quo in each cross-border region.
One concept of TRANS-BORDERS´ way of working is not to reinvent everything, but to learn from other peripheral regions with existing good solutions and links to TEN-T corridors. As best practice solution we got to know the MICOTRA, a cross-border train connection between Austria (Villach) and Italy (Udine), created by the state of Carinthia together with the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia.
During a second best practice workshop in Liberec, primarily aimed at stakeholders, decision makers and passenger transport providers, we discussed trends and themes related specific problems in cross-border regions, especially in the border-triangle Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. As a result, a best practice review on public transport services in border regions will be developed as a knowledge management tool of reducing barriers of public passenger services far from TEN-T corridors.
The work package will conclude in a transnational strategy with detailed measurements and options to reduce barriers of cross-border passenger transport for better cross-border connections for peripheral border regions to the TEN-T network. The strategy includes a guideline states institutional, organizational and technical activity to establish sustainable cross-border solutions for high-quality public transport services.
