Commuter and Regional Train Services II

Project description

There are several facts to take into account nowadays to explain why the exchange of best practices and the relationship with other actors (authorities, industry, etc.) is necessary in order to improve governance and consequently financing mechanisms and better services to communities:

• Mobility is increasing dramatically in urban and suburban areas
• Railway is an efficient tool to develop territory management
• Multimodality with other transport modes is a key issue for a sustainable development
• Intercity & HSR services need mass transport as complement to absorb and disseminate traffic in the best possible conditions.

Given the fact that 80% of railway passengers in the world are commuters, and most countries offer these systems as a public service, CRTS can be seen as a worldwide project that can help operators and infrastructure managers to provide a better service.

The purpose of CRTS is to obtain a continuous best-practice overview of operating passenger railways in regional and metropolitan areas, how to manage huge passenger flows and to satisfy customer expectations and how to manage cross-border services. Moreover, consideration shall be given to financing and investment practices as well as on different forms of relationships between service providers / transport undertakings on the one side and public authorities / client bodies on the other.

The members consider that the group should be enlarged and new subjects must be delved into in the future, in order to provide a better service.