Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the 'Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee 'Developing the Citizens' Network - Why good local and regional passenger transport is important, and how the European Commission is helping to bring it about''
Date: 1999-03-11
Institutions: European Committee of the Regions
Subjects: carriage of passengers, regional transport, transport network

C 198/8

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

14.7.1999

consistently involve public and private players and should
be backed by effective systems for monitoring trends in CO2

emissions and compliance with commitments at national
and local level.

Brussels, 11 March 1999.

The President

of the Committee of the Regions

Manfred DAMMEYER

Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the ‘Communication from the Commission to the
Council, the European Parliament, the Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social
Committee “Developing the Citizens’ Network — Why good local and regional passenger
transport is important, and how the European Commission is helping to bring it about”’

(1999/C 198/03)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS,

having regard to the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the
Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee ‘Developing the Citizens’ Network
— Why good local and regional passenger transport is important, and how the European Commission is
helping to bring it about’ (COM(1998) 431 final);

having regard to the decision of the Commission of 13 July 1998, in accordance with the first paragraph
of Article 198c of the Treaty establishing the European Community, to consult the Committee on the
subject;

having regard to the bureau decision of 15 July 1998 to instruct Commission 3 for Trans-European
Networks, Transport and Information Society to draw up the relevant opinion;

having regard to the draft opinion (CdR 436/98 rev. 1) adopted by Commission 3 on 22 January 1999
(rapporteur: Mr Panettoni),

adopted the following opinion at its 28th plenary session of 10 and 11 March 1999 (meeting of
11 March).

1.

Introduction

1.1. The influence of local and regional passenger transport

The Committee of the Regions recognises that trans-
1.1.1.
port unquestionably plays a key role in the sustainable
development which the Amsterdam Treaty singles out as one
of the objectives of the European Union.

1.1.2.
The Committee believes that a local and regional
transport network meeting the highest standards of quality
and sustainability must be created if territorial economic
development plans are to be successfully implemented. A good
local and regional transport network is crucial for a properly
functioning national and European transport system. A system
of this kind has multiple effects, all of considerable economic,

environmental and social value. An efficient transport system
is a key structural component in economic development plans,
and hence in job-creation programmes. At the same time, it is
a vital element for sustainable development processes since it
helps to relieve traffic congestion, restore the environment, cut
energy consumption and reduce pollution, particularly CO2.
Efficient
is also an effective
instrument for containing and reducing the social exclusion of
the economically disadvantaged, the unemployed, the disabled
and the populations of peripheral and rural areas. In addition,
it reinforces the territorial cohesion of vulnerable areas.

local and regional

transport

1.1.3.
The Committee would highlight the basic fact that
although demand for mobility has been on the rise for several

14.7.1999

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 198/9

years, actual mobility is increasingly fragmented and patchy.
The answer is an ever more flexible system which banishes the
rigidity of present systems and creates integrated, highly
intermodal systems offering multiple alternatives.

The Committee welcomes the Commission’s decision
1.1.4.
to present an action plan for sustainable urban development,
but it must take care not to isolate sparsely-populated rural
areas, whose infrastructure is very often out of date. It stresses
that this approach to developing the citizens’ network offers
ways of meeting requirements which may ensure better air
quality, and calls for effective measures to support initiatives
of still broader scope such as more vigorous promotion of
alternative, environment-friendly forms of transport, including
effective support for transport technology innovation policies,
wider use of low-pollution vehicles with innovative power
systems, such as electricity or natural gas, or vehicles based on
fuel cell technology (hydrogen), the promotion and develop-
ment of transport systems separated from other traffic, and
support and development of urban freight transport systems.

Moreover, in line with opinion CdR 230/98, consideration
should be given to a coordinated approach to land-use
planning and price alterations so that sustainable transport
becomes cheaper and more attractive to users.

1.2. Opportunities for change

The Committee would emphasise that local and
1.2.1.
regional transport has gained in importance over the years:
local transport accounts for more than 75 % of journeys. The
Committee, however, urges the regional and local authorities
(a) to coordinate their activities and (b) to involve economic
operators and user associations in organising transport net-
works.

The Committee of the Regions would, however, emphasise the
need to step up efforts to make private cars more environment
friendly. Within the foreseeable future,
this will become
essential for many people in sparsely populated areas of the
EU where public transport is not viable.

The Committee hopes that each of

the parties
1.2.2.
concerned will
launch initiatives to make public transport
systems more sustainable, so as to reduce dependence on
individual transport. Local administrations must focus more
closely on how urban areas are arranged, halting the trend
towards the dispersal of residential areas, schools, businesses,
medical facilities, centres of production and leisure facilities.

This would reduce the need for travel and the current strong
demand for mobility. Well-thought out action also needs to be
taken on the organisation and staggering of working hours, in
order to achieve greater flexibility and break down demand,
which is currently over-concentrated and rigid. Moreover,
strategies governing spatial planning should treat transport as
an essential component which can help generate social
cohesion as well as economic development. Spatial planning
strategies should seek to optimise mobility management
systems in highly congested areas by establishing restricted
traffic areas and introducing parking restrictions and payments,
controlled access and, in some cases, road pricing schemes. To
offset these restrictions, the authorities should see that public
transport providers ensure high quality, easily accessible and
in particular highly flexible services to match changing public
demand. The final aim should be to create a door-to-door
transport system which is a real integrated citizens’ network.

firstly,

1.2.3.
The Committee fully endorses the Commission’s
approach to the principle of integrated transport services,
which is the key factor for successful public transport, basing
integration on efficient intermodal connections to prevent
breakdowns in the transport chain. There are two precon-
infrastructures must be designed
ditions for this:
with intermodal development
in mind, ensuring smooth
interconnection; and secondly, services must be organised with
coordinated timetables and with built-in flexibility able to
cope with the natural disruptions which frequently occur in
transport systems. Making the different modes of transport
easy to use by introducing integrated fares, and using innova-
tive technologies to simplify and improve ticketing arrange-
ments, is a further condition. Lastly, great care must be taken
in devising an information system which helps people to plan
their journeys in accordance with their needs, so that they can
justifiably see the public transport system as their own
network.

1.3. The role of the European Union

1.3.1.
The Committee believes that the European Union
can add significant value to local, regional and national action
by carrying out active monitoring, fostering the exchange of
best practice and benchmarking of service performance in
order to encourage emulation and an improvement in quality.
The Committee is also convinced that the European Union can
lend positive support to the achievement of key common
transport policy objectives, namely quality, efficiency and
sustainable mobility. These objectives can be achieved by
creating a policy and legal framework aimed at promoting

C 198/10

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

14.7.1999

better use of local and regional passenger transport systems,
and winning public support for policies encouraging alterna-
tives to travel by private car. Here, the Committee hopes that
EU financial instruments will be used effectively to support
investment in transport infrastructure, operational activity and
equipment in the local and regional transport sector, geared to
attaining key objectives such as growth, employment, econ-
omic and social cohesion, competitiveness, energy savings,
improved environmental standards, equal opportunities and
access for people with reduced mobility.

The four areas of intervention proposed under the Directive
(exchange of information, comparison of performance, cre-
ation of a political and legal framework, financial instruments)
would appear to be relevant. The COR nevertheless believes
that steps must be taken to ensure that the proposed action
does not lead to inflexibility or to constraints prejudicial to the
development of transport.

The subsidiarity principle should be observed in this context.
Above all, regional and local authorities must continue to have
a say in the supply of local passenger transport services so
that account can be taken of the structures and underlying
conditions in local areas.

2.1.2. B r i n g i n g k e y a c t o r s t o g e t h e r

The Commission intends to work with national governments
to organise round tables bringing together leading organis-
ations and key experts, in order to identify the obstacles to the
development of integrated passenger transport and formulate
practical solutions. This ambitious programme will be facili-
tated by the holding of an international conference to familiar-
ise local authorities and transport operators and users with all
those instruments currently at the development stage.

2.1.3.
The Committee proposes that networks of existing
European organisations, regional and local authority services
and business associations be set up to disseminate and
exchange technical and economic information on specific
national and local activities and on Community policies and
programmes. The Committee agrees that these networks could
be made accessible to the countries of central and eastern
Europe and to the Baltic states, which have experienced great
changes in travel patterns in recent years and are undertaking
substantial programmes to promote sustainable mobility and
improve public transport. The needs of the EU countries could
prove useful in terms of optimising the research programmes
involving these countries.

2. The work programme

2.2. Benchmarking to improve transport systems

2.1. Stimulating information exchange

In the Committee’s view, there is a strong case for setting up
an easily-accessible database covering all experiences in the
local and regional transport sector, bringing in data from both
public authorities and transport operators. The database
could also include the results of projects funded by national
governments and the EU, as well as accessibility data already
available in 1998.

2.2.1.
In the Committee’s view, service quality improve-
ments can be effectively driven by a process of benchmarking
carried out both by public bodies who contract services and
by service operators. The Committee considers that a healthy
injection of competition could help significantly improve
technical and economic results. Service contracts could include
incentives for meeting clearly defined performance standards,
which would trigger a series of beneficial effects on service
quality. Benchmarking would draw in users and the broader
community, with the positive side-effect of drawing attention
to local public transport even among non-user sectors of the
population.

2.1.1. T h e E u r o p e a n L o c a l T r a n s p o r t

I n f o r -

m a t i o n S e r v i c e

The Committee welcomes and supports the European Com-
mission’s move to set up ELTIS (European Local Transport
Information Service), with the help of the POLIS network of
cities and regions and the UITP (International Union of Public
Transport). The database will contain information on service
design and organisation, land-use planning, accessibility and
pricing systems. The Committee is particularly pleased to note
that the public will have electronic access to the service
through the World Wide Web.

2.2.2.
The Committee also supports the Commission’s plan
to develop a ‘self-assessment’ system. In particular, this would
enable operators to analyse the reasons for poor performance
using the quality-control techniques of manufacturing indus-
try, thereby helping to improve service production cycles.

2.2.3.
The Committee would suggest that the QUATTRO
(Quality Approach in Tendering/Contracting Urban Public
Transport Operations) project mentioned in the preceding
paragraph should be made as widely known as possible. The
basic aim of the project is to compile an inventory of quality
criteria and methodologies for quality management.

14.7.1999

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 198/11

2.2.4.
The Committee would however emphasise that in
order to provide a full picture, methods will have to be devised
for assessing local transport systems from all aspects. Here, the
Committee has in mind land-use planning projects and traffic
management schemes which are clearly not the responsibility
of operators, but of the public authorities. The Committee
thus views with great interest the pilot benchmarking project
which the Commission plans to carry out during 1998-1999
with a group of public authorities and transport operators.
The project will cover a number of key indicators such as the
degree of user satisfaction with the various types of transport,
the level of service efficiency, and the impact of transport
services on other sectors, especially the environment.

2.2.5.
The Committee particularly appreciates the Com-
mission’s initiative in implementing a standardisation process,
involving the adoption of standardised definitions. This will
help to establish uniform, comparable quality criteria, ending
the situation whereby varying parameters always stood in the
way of reliable comparison. The COR also approves the
move to publish a handbook on benchmarking local public
transport. The Committee recommends the introduction of
quality marks and prizes acknowledging the sector’s real
importance to quality of life in general.

2.3. Establishing the right policy framework

The communication underlines the close link between improv-
ing passenger transport and establishing the right policy
framework. This framework unquestionably influences the
level of demand for transport, decisions on where to live,
whether to use public or private transport, transport operator
behaviour and the level of quality they invest their services
with. The EU must clearly play a well-defined part in this.
However, an assessment must be made of the repercussions in
regard to territorial and social cohesion, and of the definition
of a new political framework for the most rural areas.

2.3.2.
The Committee views the Commission’s programme
to extend environmental impact assessment criteria as signifi-
cant. Present land-use planning assessment is restricted in
scope, and the Committee supports the draft directive requiring
environmental assessment of many transport and land-use
plans and programmes.
therefore welcomes the Com-
mission’s initiative to offer public authorities guidance on
including transport aspects in the land-use planning strand of
environmental assessment studies. This guidance should be
disseminated through handbooks and training workshops.

It

The Committee is pleased to note that more and
2.3.3.
more authorities and businesses are adopting mobility manage-
ment schemes as part of their green housekeeping plans,
thereby encouraging sustainable transport patterns. These
processes herald a major cultural shift in which environmental
improvements and easier access are conditions for new
building or development. This in turn saves money on parking
facilities, reduces car commuting, and so on. The post of
‘mobility manager’ has recently been recognised in Italian
law, bringing to the fore the issue of energy saving and
environmental improvement in the transport sector, which is
of clear relevance to the regional and local level.

2.3.4.
The Committee warmly welcomes the Commission’s
intention to establish a European Platform on Mobility Man-
agement, seeking partnerships with industry and users. The
purpose is to pool experience of mobility management and
introduce benchmarking in this area so as to identify the most
effective solutions for all the varying circumstances across the
EU. The COR would stress that, as spatial planners and in
many cases organising authorities, local authorities must have
their place alongside transport users and operators on the
European Platform on Mobility Management.

2.3.5. E n c o u r a g i n g t h e u s e o f n e w e n e r g i e s

( V N G - L P G e t c . )

2.3.1. L a n d - u s e p l a n n i n g a n d e n v i r o n m e n t a l

a s s e s s m e n t

The Committee proposes encouraging feasibility studies and
the development of prototype rail equipment using new
non-pollutant energy forms.

The Committee supports the guidelines for an integrated and
common approach to spatial planning at European Union
level established in the first official draft of the European
Spatial Development Perspective, which was endorsed at the
Noordwijk Ministers’ meeting in June 1997. The Committee
attaches great importance to the effects of land-use planning,
currently marked by a high level of dispersal resulting in
weaker public transport, at the expense of the less well-off.
The relevant EU instruments — such as the trans-European
transport network, regional and cohesion policy, and environ-
mental and tourism programmes — must be used synergically,
so that optimum transport-related land-use planning criteria
can be adopted.

2.4. Fair and efficient transport pricing

The Committee fully shares the Commission’s views on
the inconsistency of transport pricing, which is certainly
prejudicial to more sustainable transport. The charges made
for individual journeys are totally out of keeping with the real
costs, ranging from road infrastructure to the external costs of,
for example, pollution, congestion and accidents. The anomaly

C 198/12

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

14.7.1999

whereby car owners pay relatively high fixed costs and low
variable costs per kilometre — so there is no deterrent to using
private cars — must be put right. The Committee therefore
refers to the criteria set out in the Commission’s Green Paper
on fair and efficient pricing in transport, and recognises the
vital need for a new pricing framework which internalises
external costs. This should introduce the principle of differen-
tiated costs which accurately reflect, for each type of journey,
the costs in terms of the environment, congestion, accidents,
etc. The result should be to increase use of public transport as
an alternative to private cars, which would also benefit those
on lower incomes. However, account must also be taken of
sparsely populated areas where there is little public transport
and the individual is seriously affected if the variable cost
component is increased.

The Committee urges the Commission, when considering the
pricing system, to examine the effects of different internal-
isation strategies on the economy, society and the environ-
ment, including adequate examination of the effects of cost-
appropriate transport pricing on the freight haulage and
transport-based sector of the economy and the current state of
play in the EU.

2.4.1.
The Committee takes on board the Commission’s
view that road pricing may be one way of dealing with
urban congestion; however,
it remains sceptical as to the
practicability of such a measure as there are still a large number
of long outstanding legal, administrative and organisational
problems. The subsidiarity principle must also continue to be
observed in this case. How acceptable such a measure would
prove depends largely on how the revenue it generates is used.
Clear, consensual reinvestment in improvements to public
transport, and the creation of facilities for pedestrians and
cyclists, would be well received by the general public who
would see such schemes as steps towards a citizens’ network
which they could feel belonged to them. The Committee
stresses the far-reaching nature of the Commission’s plans to
cooperate with cross-national groups of urban or regional
authorities on road infrastructure pricing, as part of a coordi-
nated strategy to take full advantage of current research. The
Committee looks with great interest upon CAPRI (Concerted
Action for transport Pricing Research Integration), which sets
out to consolidate transport pricing research results and build
consensus on the transport policy implications. Awareness
and analysis of the factors influencing public acceptance of
such a policy will of course be extremely important.

2.5. Transport telematics

2.5.1.
The Committee believes that telematics applications
in the transport sector should be seen in the context of the
overall development of information processes, which are now
a basic prerequisite for business competitiveness and public
service quality. The Committee endorses the Commission’s
strategic plan, which harnesses the information and telecom-
munications technology mix to the aim of improving the
efficiency and quality of services, as well as facilitating
their integration. Consequently, the Committee attaches great
importance to telematics applications providing real-time
information which is available at work, at home, on the road,
at transport stops and in stations. This information should
cover every element of the mobility system, including time-
tables, routes, the level of road and motorway congestion and
parking availability. The public must be fully informed on all
aspects of the network they are using or intend to use, so they
can make the right choices.

The Committee recognises the danger that major investment
in telematics applications will make private car transport all
the more attractive; the EU’s funding instruments should
therefore regard public transport and connections to other
forms of environmentally-friendly transport as the key task of
telematics programmes.

2.5.2.
The Committee considers that it would be particu-
larly helpful to simplify and automate payment systems, by
introducing electronic ticketing arrangements and promoting
multi-use cards for the various services making up the overall
mobility system, ranging from all types of public transport to
parking spaces, entry to restricted-access areas and road
pricing.

In achieving higher service quality, the Committee
2.5.3.
believes it crucial
to develop telematics applications for
management purposes, such as vehicle fleet monitoring,
electrical and mechanical vehicle checks, traffic control, traffic-
light priorities, and centrally guided vehicles in call-systems for
the elderly or disabled. For these reasons, the Committee feels
that the ITS City Pioneers and CARISMA projects, designed by
the Commission to support the deployment of telematics
applications in cities and manage links with systems on the
trans-European transport network, deserve close attention and
should be properly implemented. These initiatives flow from
the view that policy objectives vary from city to city: they will
allow each city to adopt the most appropriate telematics
solution.

The Committee would stress that the problem of charging for
the use of infrastructure by different modes of transport is a
particularly complex one necessitating difficult political choic-
es that will have to leave a certain amount of freedom to local
authorities and not jeopardise the equilibrium achieved locally
in the field of public transport.

2.6. Vehicle and environmental standards

2.6.1.
The Committee hopes that technical standards for
vehicles will be harmonised, and is pleased to note that

14.7.1999

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 198/13

the Commission has proposed a directive concerning the
manufacture of new buses. The directive sets common stan-
dards, for accessibility in particular, and should come into
force on 1 October 1999. The Committee is keen to see the
conclusions of
the work carried out by CEN (European
Committee for Standardisation) and CENELEC (European
Committee for Electrotechnical Standards) on the setting of
reference standards in the framework of the public procure-
ment utilities directive.

2.7.4.
The Committee points out that although Community
law requires transport services financed by the public auth-
orities to be defined through service contracts, it exempts
regional and local passenger transport from these obligations.
This is a field which needs to be brought up to date. The COR
advocates legislative measures which clearly establish service
requirements and financial compensation in service contracts
between the authorities and service providers.

Similarly,

the Committee would urge UITP and
2.6.2.
UNIFE (the European association of railway rolling stock
manufacturers) to press ahead with establishing technical
specifications for light railways and unmanned shuttles. The
Committee notes that the environmental standards applicable
to road transport vehicles, which date back to the 1970s, are
now obsolete and urgently need updating. The Committee also
hopes that directives will be adopted as soon as possible to
incorporate standards for vehicle emissions, fuel quality and
the control and maintenance programmes previously submit-
ted by the Commission on the basis of the results of the
Auto/Oil programme, run in cooperation with the car and oil
industries. The progress of the Auto/Oil II programme should
be closely monitored as, alongside vehicle and fuel issues, it is
assessing how coherent public transport and pricing policies
can improve the environment.

2.7. Public services and competition in local and regional passenger

transport

The Committee highlights the entirely beneficial
2.7.1.
function of public transport for the environment, economic
growth and social cohesion. It follows that the social demand
for public transport services is certainly greater than would be
provided on the basis of purely commercial criteria. This
means that transport services are a public service.

The Committee must stress that it is for the public
2.7.2.
authorities to issue authorisations for the provision of public
services and, where necessary, to help pay for them, regardless
of whether operators belong to the public or private sectors.

2.7.3.
The Committee draws attention to the requirement
for integrated services, which has already been identified as a
basic need. Since the presence of several operators with
competing services cannot always guarantee this, the best way
of achieving integration is probably, by a periodic public
tender procedure, to grant a single operator exclusive rights to
operate a given mode of transport service within a given
geographical area, prompting the operator to invest in infra-
structure, vehicles and technologies, and setting rules which
create incentives.

2.7.5.
The Committee is convinced that tendering pro-
cedures, introducing an element of competition, would make
it possible to improve services and to achieve or maintain a
suitable cost/benefit ratio. A number of countries have achiev-
ed encouraging results through such procedures, with cost
reductions of between 10 and 35 %, together with enhanced
operating efficiency, particularly in urban transport. The
Committee notes with satisfaction that the ISOTOPE study
(Improved Structure and Organisation for urban Transport
Operations of Passengers in Europe) has concluded that
arrangements
involving competition and tendering have
improved services and reduced costs. The Committee notes,
however, that services need to be regulated and networks
integrated. Similarly positive results have been achieved in the
rail sector, although incentives proved necessary in order to
promote the sizeable investments required. This has all-round
beneficial effects: service quality improves; use increases;
the cost/benefit ratio improves;
investment resources are
generated; and public transport services expand and improve.

2.7.6.
The Committee fully backs the Commission’s aim,
declared in its Green Paper on the Citizens’ Network, of
updating the regulatory framework for local and regional
transport, but would point out that it is very important to
maintain the subsidiarity idea in this context.

The Committee considers that new competition and market
rules are vital for a more efficient transport system. The
rationale for this innovation varies from country to country.
The Committee asks the Commission to encourage the sharing
of experience of competition to take place. In particular, the
Committee asks the Commission to note that in the light of
UK experience, deregulation and the advent of open market
competition has not been universally advantageous. Open
competition may lead to a cheap network but it will not
necessarily lead to a transport system which fits consumer
needs, provides customer services and is cognisant of the
environmental impact. There must be caveats in the system
and it cannot be assumed that the market will directly provide
the best and most efficient system. Moreover, the experience of
many EU countries which have not implemented deregulation
programmes shows that state-owned transport companies
do not necessarily pursue public goals. Consequently, the
Committee considers that efforts must focus principally on
regulatory issues by public institutions. It is essential that
quality standards are provided within the service contract
which include user benefits such as customer care. There must

C 198/14

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

14.7.1999

also be compliance with social requirements such as wage
levels and working conditions. The Committee urges the
Commission to consider competition within the context
of environmental, customer, local and regional authorities’
concerns as well as operators’ concerns.

2.7.7.
The Committee points out that in framing contracts
for exclusive rights, proper account should be taken of local
and regional responsibilities,
the exclusive
right, the duration of contracts, their financial structure and,
especially, the nature and scale of risk. The Committee also
emphasises that the public authorities must retain the right to
implement
their own strategies and rely on free market
procedures.

the nature of

2.8. Transport for people with reduced mobility

2.8.1.
In the Committee’s view, it should be made clearer
that the category of ‘people with reduced mobility’ in relation
to public transport use extends not only to the disabled, but
also to those carrying luggage, pushing a pram or travelling
with children. Accessibility is clearly the key factor for all these
people. The Committee stresses that vehicle accessibility
requirements, equipment such as self-opening doors, targeted
information, low-floor buses with street-level access, and bus
stops redesigned to be more accessible, while aimed at
facilitating travel within the EU for the disabled or people with
reduced mobility, will also greatly improve the quality and
attractiveness of the service for other users.

3. Using the European Union’s financial

instruments

effectively

3.1.
The Committee agrees with the principle that local and
regional authorities should be responsible for administering
public financial support for local and regional transport where
it also agrees with the
such support is needed. However,
Commission that in cases where sustainable local and regional
passenger transport has a decisive part to play in delivering
the objectives embodied in EU programmes — for example,
proper links between a trans-European network with local
transport networks in order to make optimal use of develop-
ment programmes financed by the Structural Funds — it may
receive financial support. The Committee woiuld point out
in this connection that the meagre resources avialable for
promoting the trans-European networks should be focused on
transport projects and infrastructure projects which give
priority to improving long-distance links. For this reason, the
Committee cannot endorse the Commission proposal
to
include the interfaces between the trans-European networks
and local/regional transport infrastructures in the TEN guide-
lines, thereby making general support possible. Similarly, the
Committee supports the principle that the Commission should
consider support measures for the countries of central and
eastern Europe and the more peripheral areas of the EU, where
is to complement
the role of sustainable local transport
improvements in long distance transport and regional develop-
ment policy.

The COR also urges the Commission to give special con-
sidertion to those ultra-peripheral EU regions whose intrinsic
features (particularly difficult terrain or extreme dispersion of
their population) pose extra problems for local and regional
transport networks in addition to those arising from their
geographical position.

2.8.2. M o d e r n i s i n g p u b l i c t r a n s p o r t m o d e sˆ

a n d o p e r a t i n g s y s t e m s

3.2. The trans-European transport network

The Committee proposes modernising public transport modes
and operating systems, inter alia in rural areas, in order to
minimise the operating costs of such networks.

2.9. Car sharing

The Committee of the Regions sees car sharing as an important
complement to conventional public transport services.
In
particular, the combination of public transport and car-sharing
would go a considerable way towards solving urban traffic
problems in an ecologically, socially and economically accept-
able way. The Committee therefore recommends incorporating
organised car sharing into Citizens’ Networks.

3.2.1.
It is the Committee’s view that particular attention
should be focused on the development of the trans-European
transport network (TEN-T) and on its connection to regional
and local transport networks. The trans-European network,
which is to provide interconnections and interoperability
between national transport networks and ensure access to
them, will require at least ECU 400 billion up to 2010.

3.2.2.
The Committee consequently advocates investment
in the trans-European network and supports the priorities for
action identified by the European Parliament and the Council
concerning infrastructure for network access, the establish-
ment and improvement of interchanges, traffic management
systems, positioning and navigation systems and the deploy-
ment of applied telematics services. In this regard, the COR
urges the Commission to decide in favour of
including
intermodal passenger terminals in the TEN-T guidelines,
and to examine the case for including local and regional
infrastructure links in the network.

14.7.1999

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 198/15

3.3. The research, technological development and demonstration

programmes

The need for investment in urban transport, with sustainability
paramount, flows from this.

ˆ

3.3.1.
The Committee highlights the need to continue
research activity, especially that geared to devising technologi-
cal innovations and organisational insights; at the same time,
large scale demonstration projects are needed. It therefore
recommends the broadest possible dissemination among the
EU Member States of the Fifth Framework Programme, to be
launched in 1999 or 2000, and supports the actions proposed
by the Commission, four of which are of specific relevance to
the Citizens’ Network: ‘Sustainable mobility and intermodality’,
‘Land transport and marine technologies’, ‘The city of tomor-
row and cultural heritage’ and ‘Systems and services for the
citizen’.

3.4. Regional development and the Structural Funds

3.4.1.
The Committee also supports measures within the
sector to help reduce social exclusion, believing that targeted
improvements in public transport, particularly in densely
populated areas, or conversely in sparsely populated areas, are
vital for the success of training schemes, job creation initiatives
and the regeneration of run-down inner cities and suburbs.

The Committee further recommends that special
3.4.2.
attention be given to rural areas, devising development strate-
gies which help rural economies diversify — although this can
also bring in more traffic — and counter the almost total
reliance on cars in such areas.

The Committee considers that new lines of funding must be
created to enable public transport to operate in those regions
that are depressed or where the population is so scattered that
such services are not viable when run on a strictly commercial
basis.

The Committee also proposes setting up a programme to
study the problems of transport in areas of low traffic levels,
analysing both supply and demand.

3.5. Providing information about European Union funding

The Committee calls for the publication and wide distribution
of a guide explaining all the funding programmes and the
procedures determining eligibility for financial support.

Brussels, 11 March 1999.

The President

of the Committee of the Regions

Manfred DAMMEYER