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SUSTANCE – Sustainable public transport solutions and innovative governance schemes for improving connectivity in Central Europe

Project: 01.04.2023 – 31.03.2026

EUSDR Priority Area(s): PA 1b Rail-Road-Air Mobility, PA 10 Institutional Capacity & Cooperation

Submitted by: PA 1b

The SUSTANCE project helps to solve the lack of efficient and sustainable public transport in peripheral and cross-border areas of Central Europe (CE), which have registered an increased mobility, especially at cross-border level, in the last decade.

The lack of public passenger solutions is a challenge for citizens living in sparsely populated areas, leading to an increased dependency on individual mobility and private vehicles. To change this, cooperation is central. A coordinated and jointly developed approach between CE countries, regions and sector stakeholders could ensure that the passenger transport and mobility system benefits from the new technological and innovative approaches and from new cooperation schemes deriving from the transnational partnership.

To achieve this, the project approach will be based on an innovative methodology with Public Transport accessibility of rural, peripheral and cross-border areas being assessed to identify existing gaps and posing the ground for new innovative services.

Close monitoring, assessment and peer review methodology as well as the design, development and implementation of innovative pilot activities and derived joint solutions will lead to the validation of customised intervention action plans that will be developed in cooperation with relevant stakeholders in a bottom-up approach. A special focus will lie on the transferability and replicability of the achieved results.

Finally, cooperation with the Associated Partners will support the setting up of the SUSTANCE transnational cooperation network, with the final aim of promoting the sustainability of the tested initiatives even after the project lifetime.

SUSTANCE Pilot actions focus on:

a) new/enhanced train services

  • New direct passenger experimental train connection along the cross- border route Trieste Villa Opicina – Pivka – Šapjane – Rijeka
  • Experimental extension to Sopron (HU) of the cross border train service linking Neusiedl am See (AT) to Fertőszentmiklós (HU)
  • Feasibility study for improving passenger rail services along the cross-border route Divacča-Buzet-Pula and intermodality improvement in Istria Region (HR)

b) ICT tools to improve mobility of passenger

  • New ICTP booking service of DRT/Maas in Romagna Region (IT)
  • New ICT service for Maas Application (HR)
  • New IT tool for bike and rail in HR and neighbouring regions in SI & IT

Objectives

The SUSTANCE project aims at improving public transport connections in Central Europe by:

  • defining an innovative methodology for analysing public transport accessibility of specific regions or routes;
  • testing innovative passenger train services at cross border level, re-establishing and offering to citizens new/enhanced cross-border public transport solutions as well as exploiting the potential of ICT tools to design new on demand services dedicated to citizens living in peripheral and cross border regions (Demand Responsive Transport Application / Maas applications);
  • promoting institutional dialogue among public transport operators, public authorities responsible for public transport planning at regional and national level, associations, agencies and other transport stakeholders with the scope of designing a common vision and shared action plans aimed at improving public transport connectivity in the regions/routes addressed by SUSTANCE

Need and (expected) impact

The introduction of innovative public transport services and solutions to link peripheral regions to the main urban transport nodes and TEN-T hubs will reduce individual mobility and will guarantee positive impacts in terms of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and will positively impact on socio-economic development of the EUSDR Regions involved (Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia).

Macro-regional dimension
Representatives from five EUSDR countries are involved in the SUSTANCE project proposal: Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy and Slovenia.

Stakeholders involved

Project partners are the following:

    • IT – Central European Initiative -Executive Secretariat (Lead Partner)
    • IT – Eurac research
    • HU – Gyõr-Sopron-Ebenfurth Railway Corp.
    • HR – HZ Passenger Transport Ltd
    • HR – Istrian development agency – IDA ltd.
    • IT – Institute for Transport and Logistics Foundation
    • SI – Institut of Traffic and Transport Ljubljana l.l.c.
    • SI – Slovenian Railways-Passenger Transport, Ltd.

Associated partners are the following:

    • IT – EVTZ “Europaregion Tirol-Südtirol-Trentino” GECT “Euregio Tirolo-Alto Adige-Trentino”
    • IT – Abteilung Mobilität des Landes Südtirol Ripartizione mobilitá della Provincia autonoma di Bolzano
    • HR – Istarska županija
    • IT – AMR – Agenzia Mobilità Romagna
    • IT – Regione Emilia Romagna – Direzione Generale Cura del Territorio e dell’Ambiente
    • AT – Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region (VOR) GmbH
    • AT – Schieneninfrastruktur-Dienstleistungsgesellschaft mbH (SCHIG)
    • IT – Trenitalia – Direzione Regionale Friuli Venezia Giulia
    • SI – Ministrstvo za infrastrukturo
    • HU – Innovációs és Technológiai Minisztérium

Budget and Funding

Total Budget: 2.013.259 EUR (ERDF, co-financing rate 80%)

The project has been approved in the framework of the first call of the Interreg Central Europe Programme 2021-2027, Specific Objective 3.1.

The kick-off meeting took place in Trieste on 4-5 April 2023.

Further information

The SUSTANCE project capitalises and builds upon the successful results of the CONNECT2CE project, funded by the Interreg Central Europe Programme in the programming period 2014-2020:

Contact

Project Manager, Central European Initiative, Executive Secretariat Via Genova, 9 34121 Trieste, Mr. Paolo Dileno ()

 

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