EUROPEAN METROPOLITAN TRANSPORT AUTHORITIES ... - EMTA

SA/2012-020
Mrs Daniela ROSCA
Head of Clean transport and Sustainable
Urban Mobility
DG-MOVE
European Commission
DM28
B – 1049 Brussels
Belgium
A number of consultations or reviews have been launched by the European Commission DG-MOVE
these past months or weeks pursuing the actions foreseen of the Action Plan on Urban mobility
(2009). Among those:
Passenger Rights review on implementation
4 th Railway Package revisiting
ITS installation of Expert at EC level
Clean vehicles / Review on implementation of Dir 2009/33/EC promotion of clean and
energy efficient road transport vehicles
Data on Urban Transport
Social fares- Reviewing practices
It appears most of the time that the Transport Authorities have been left out of the consultations
or the reviewing process by the various consultancies assigned by DG-MOVE to help doing the task,
in general they go from Member States representative to transport operators ignoring the level of
local Transport Authorities yet relevant.
And yet several subjects have been studied in some way or another by EMTA in the past years,
sometimes leading to position papers forwarded to the European Institutions, on passenger rights,
on data collection, on social fares for example.
I believe EMTA should bring forward to DG-MOVE some elements of response even if not
exhaustive but in order to make the point that none of these studies can oversee the point of view
of key actors of the metropolitan mobility system such as the Transport Authorities.
Sabine Avril
Secretary General of EMTA
EUROPEAN METROPOLITAN TRANSPORT AUTHORITIES
c/o S.T.I.F 41, rue de Châteaudun F-75009 Paris, FRANCE
Tel : +33 (0) 1 53 59 21 00 – Fax : + 33 (0) 1 53 59 21 33 – e-mail : contact@emta.com
http://www.emta.com
1

On Passenger Rights
Background:
DG-MOVE launched a study on passenger rights in urban public transport early this year running
until September 2012. The contracted consultancy firm Grimaldi E Associati is investigating the
state-of-the-art in the field as well as the possible charters and/or service guaranties that public
transport systems offer.
A questionnaire has been drafted. Thanks to UITP EuroTeam, the information has been circulated.
UITP also drafted a response. The questionnaire targeted two sectors: the transport operators and
the transport users’ association.
EMTA thinks that some key actors have been overlooked in the process and namely the Transport
Authorities. The subject of Passenger Rights in Urban Transport is an on-going concern for EMTA
who organised in the Spring 2010 in Budapest a hearing with the participation of the European
Passenger Federation EPF and the European Centre of Employers and Enterprises providing public
services CEEP.
The conclusions of the debate have been published and sent to the European Parliament TRAN
Committee and the European Commission DG-MOVE in May 2010.
EMTA is pleased to share again with DG-MOVE and the Consultancy firm Grimaldi E Associati “The
Conclusions after passenger rights hearing15-16 April 2010” (see Annex I)
************
On Revisiting the 4 th railway package with possible impact on Regulation 1370/2007
Background:
The European Commission (EC) DG-MOVE organized a Conference on the PSO Regulation
1370/2007 last November 14 2011 presenting the results of a survey conducted by the
Consultancy firm DLA-Piper through the years 2010-2011 on the implementation of the
Regulation.
The survey pointed out several difficulties assorted with remarks and possible ways of solving.
Following this Conference, and the conclusions of the survey, and taking advantage of preparing
the ground for the revision of the 4th Railway Package tentatively scheduled to be issued in the
Autumn 2012 and including several regulatory issues, DG-MOVE is considering including revisiting
the PSO 1370/2007 Regulation, and to start with, Article 5.6 (see below) that defines the
awarding scheme for railway transport contracts (Article 5.6 concerns regional and suburban
trains. Metro and tram contracts are excluded).
EMTA is organising a round table during its Spring 2012 General Assembly in Prague 24-25 May
with the participation of the DG-MOVE Unit A5 Infringements and Legal matters to debate on the
impact of the review of he 4 th Railway package on the implementation of the Regulation
1370/2007.
The conclusions of the round table will be drafted and forwarded to the DG-MOVE and the
European parliament TRAN Committee.
************
EUROPEAN METROPOLITAN TRANSPORT AUTHORITIES
c/o S.T.I.F 41, rue de Châteaudun F-75009 Paris, FRANCE
Tel : +33 (0) 1 53 59 21 00 – Fax : + 33 (0) 1 53 59 21 33 – e-mail : contact@emta.com
http://www.emta.com
2

On ITS installation of Experts at EC level.
Background
Persuant to Directive 2010/40/EU and in line with 2009 Action Plan, a new legal framework was
adopted on 7 July 2010 to accelerate the deployment of innovative transport technologies.
“Under this Directive, The European Commission has to adopt within the next seven years
specifications (functional, technical, organisational or services provisions) to address the
compatibility, interoperability and continuity of ITS solutions across the EU.”
The new European ITS Advisory Group was created on 27 January 2012.
The task of the European ITS advisory Group is to advise the Commission on business and
technical aspects of the deployment and use of ITS in the European Union. The group is composed
of 25 members from relevant ITS services providers, associations of users, transport and facilities
operators, manufacturing industry, social partners, professional associations, local authorities and
other relevant fora.
All members of this group can be found here at :
http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regexpert/detailGroup.cfm?groupID=2736
However, EMTA shares the point of view of its colleagues from Vienna VOR the Transport Authority
when saying “the great majority of the members of the advisory group (20 out of 25) come from
the car, road and telecom industries. Positive exceptions are only the cities/regions of Warsaw,
Lyon, London, the Swedish transport ministry and the Community of European railways. Intermodality
is drastically underrepresented in this group. Yet we believe, that the ITS Advisory Group
could bring valuable stimuli for a comprehensive ITS architecture in Europe”.
But we think that the group as it has been established will lack this positive effect on inter-modality
and EMTA wants to draw DG-MOVE attention on this misfortune and ask how could it be solved?
************
On the review on implementation of Directive 2009/33/EC “Promotion of clean and
energy efficient road transport vehicles”
With a view to prepare a monitoring report on the above Directive, DG-MOVE has commissioned
the consultancy firms AEA and Transport and Environmental Policy Research TEPR to carry out a
review on the (so far) early stages of implementation of Directive 2009/33/EC.
A questionnaire has been elaborated and sent out to a wide range of stakeholders along with a call
for city-case-studies on a volunteering basis.
Although the questionnaire enquires some specific topics more related to the industrial sector,
there are some answers or comments relevant for transport Authorities.
Therefore EMTA is very pleased, thanks to Mr Ian Skinner from TEPR initiative, to share some data
collected on the use of various type of fuels in the bus fleets across Europe. See chart Annex II
with data from 2009.
Hopefully some members of the network will be able to complete the TEPR questionnaire.
Besides EMTA is pleased to announce the fore-coming workshop on “Metropolitan regions and their
vehicles- how can EMTA network help achieving the EU climate goals?” to be held in Berlin Monday
17 September in Berlin at the kind invitation of the Transport Authority VBB Berlin-Brandenburg.
(Draft agenda will be sent by end of June).
************
EUROPEAN METROPOLITAN TRANSPORT AUTHORITIES
c/o S.T.I.F 41, rue de Châteaudun F-75009 Paris, FRANCE
Tel : +33 (0) 1 53 59 21 00 – Fax : + 33 (0) 1 53 59 21 33 – e-mail : contact@emta.com
http://www.emta.com
3

On collecting data and statistics on urban transport
Background
The University of Leuven (KUL) and UITP have been commissioned by the EC DG-MOVE to carry
out a study on “the harmonized collection of European data and statistics in the field of urban
transport and mobility”.
In this context, interviews with local authorities are conducted by UITP and KUL to explore more
deeply the availability of and need for statistical data on urban transport. Information collected
from international and national organisations will complement the interviews and be part of a final
report with recommendations for EU level actions.
EMTA Secretariat General has been interviewed by UITP in the Autumn 2011. The interview was
based on the “Barometer” 1 outcomes a one of a sort publication EMTA has been issuing regularly
since 2000.
The aim of the Barometer is to present the most important figures of the socio-economic and
transport contexts in the largest metropolitan areas across Europe.
In spite of the methodological difficulties, by the way largely debated with UITP, related to
differences across Europe in the cultural approach of defining indicators or providing access to the
data on the one hand and trying to compare local circumstances by essence unique to each place,
the report enables the reader to make comparisons and set out ratios thus providing a useful
source of information.
EMTA is pleased to announce the new edition of the Barometer (data 2009) will be issued by the
Summer 2012.
Previous editions of the Barometer are available at : http://www.emta.com/spip.php?article267
************
On social fares, reviewing practices.
Background
Following a Question posed at the European Parliament, the European Commission has been
enquiring recently on the concessionary fare practices across Europe.
The information has been relayed by UITP with some direct questions they put to selected
transport authorities among which some EMTA members.
The subject of tariff policy practices had been explored among EMTA network, particularly in 2010
following the first consequences of the economic downturn, the document “Survey on social
policies in transport fare systems” compared the practices of 14 Transport Authorities of the largest
European capitals. It concluded that Concessionary fares were universal practices targeting various
segment of the population (older people, youngsters and persons on low income) although the
criteria to apply could vary significantly as well as the amount of rebate offered. It also pointed out
that legal requirement to offer concessionary fares didn’t belong to the Transport Authorities which
had no choice but to cover it and the arbitrage among equally relevant concessionary schemes
(young people, persons on low income, older people) could be difficult and hamper a sound
transport strategy.
A European project AENEAS which came to a close in the spring 2011 AENEAS Attaining ENergy
Efficient mobility in Ageing Society has explored with success the specific topic of mobility of the
older segment of the populations across Europe. Besides inventorying various successful practices
of alternatives to the use of private cars it also touched upon the pricing strategy of Public
1 EMTA Barometer see http://www.emta.com/spip.php?article267
EUROPEAN METROPOLITAN TRANSPORT AUTHORITIES
c/o S.T.I.F 41, rue de Châteaudun F-75009 Paris, FRANCE
Tel : +33 (0) 1 53 59 21 00 – Fax : + 33 (0) 1 53 59 21 33 – e-mail : contact@emta.com
http://www.emta.com
4

Transport and how it impacts on older people’s choice. The article has been published by EMTA in
the 2010 newsletter of the AENEAS project
EMTA is pleased to forward
- the synthesis of the survey see Annex III
- the article “About tariff policy and older passengers in public transport see Annex IV
************
EUROPEAN METROPOLITAN TRANSPORT AUTHORITIES
c/o S.T.I.F 41, rue de Châteaudun F-75009 Paris, FRANCE
Tel : +33 (0) 1 53 59 21 00 – Fax : + 33 (0) 1 53 59 21 33 – e-mail : contact@emta.com
http://www.emta.com
5