Rail Urban Projects: A Way For Improving Public Transport Patronage

Abstract

Motorised mobility has increased in a significant way in last years in European cities, and this has brought too much congestion in urban areas, which has deteriorated city centres’ liveable conditions. For that reason, there is a need of effective and flexible transport systems in order to improve this situation in favour of public transport. The investment on design and innovation of competitive public transport is necessary in order to improve its modal share. Nevertheless, there exists other aspects, also very important, which make public transport more attractive. In the last years, many cities have implemented rail urban projects (tram, metros and light rail systems) as they have been considered the optimal option to foster public transport patronage and also for getting a sustainable mobility for the growing urban population. These kind of projects provide fast, regular, safe and comfortable services with medium-high capacity. At the same time, they provide a modern image of the city. Those characteristics are essential for a competitive public transport in contemporary cities, although they require large investments for its construction. This paper will present a comparison between different rail urban projects running in European cities since, at least, ten years ago. There will be described how they have increased modal share of public transport in different cities contexts..