{"id":8485,"date":"2024-10-17T18:30:03","date_gmt":"2024-10-17T18:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/big-challenges-tight-budgets\/"},"modified":"2024-10-17T18:30:03","modified_gmt":"2024-10-17T18:30:03","slug":"big-challenges-tight-budgets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/big-challenges-tight-budgets\/","title":{"rendered":"Big challenges, tight budgets"},"content":{"rendered":"
The European Mobility Expo<\/em> revealed that our continental neighbours face similar challenges<\/h5>\n

\u00a0
\nFiona Guthrie (left) and fellow Talent in Mobility winners<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0
\nIf you like trams you\u2019ll LOVE Strasbourg. With a population of 860,000 across the conurbation, France\u2019s eighth largest city is criss-crossed by multiple light rail and BRT lines. Visitors from UK cities can\u2019t avoid wondering what might have been if our leaders had shown similar vision and boldness.<\/p>\n

The city was selected as the venue for the eleventh edition of European Mobility Expo<\/em> (EuMo Expo<\/em>), which was held on October 1-3 and attracted 11,000 visitors. The event\u2019s traditional venue is Paris but the show\u2019s organisers wanted to sidestep any potential issues with hosting major events in the Paris region in the wake of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Strasbourg was regarded as the obvious choice.<\/p>\n

Speaking in the run-up to the show, Louis N\u00e8gre, president of the group which represents France\u2019s transport authorities (GART) hailed the city as \u201ca real showcase for public transport\u201d.<\/p>\n

The transport network [in Strasbourg] is among the best in France and a source of inspiration for professionals both nationally and across Europe as a whole<\/p>\n

\u201cThe transport network there is among the best in France and a source of inspiration for professionals both nationally and across Europe as a whole,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This is a pan-European show with a distinctly French flavour. As you might expect, decarbonisation was a major talking point \u2013 and the exhibition featured many electric buses and associated technology. Excluding the populous \u00cele-de-France region, the French equivalent of Greater London, the French Senate has estimated that transport authorities need some \u20ac60bn (\u00a350bn) between now and 2030 to decarbonise their transport networks.<\/p>\n

While new investments can be partly financed by loans, GART supports the idea that urban and regional mobility authorities should benefit from additional resources to ensure their mobility policies are financially sustainable.Public transport in France is still structurally fragile and struggles to obtain funding from national government, and GART recognises the need explore innovative funding solutions. Options include reallocating some of the tax revenue from road transport to mobility.<\/p>\n

French national government now needs to ensure the sustainability of the business models of all mobility operators outside \u00cele-de-France \u2026 as a matter of urgency<\/p>\n

N\u00e8gre warned: \u201cFrench national government now needs to ensure the sustainability of the business models of all mobility operators outside \u00cele-de-France (be they urban, regional, metropolitan or in France\u2019s overseas departments and territories) as a matter of urgency.<\/p>\n

The show\u2019s final day saw N\u00e8gre given the chance to quiz French transport minister Fran\u00e7ois Durovray. The hour-long the session was genial, but the core message from the minister was uncompromising: creativity and collaborative working will be required to maintain and improve transport systems because there is little or no scope to increase funding from the government.<\/p>\n

Another major talking point at the show was French ambitions for the \u2018single ticket system\u2019. It means everyone can access mobility offerings without having to cope with a plethora of different tickets specific to each transport network. The idea is just one of GART\u2019s proposals for the 2022-2027 French presidential mandate, now taken up by national government and entering the experimental phase. This innovation is gradually taking shape and will start to become a reality on French transport networks in the coming months. In July, Syndicat des mobilit\u00e9s de Touraine, which provides transport services in a region surrounding the city of Tours, became the first mobility authority to sign the single ticket experiment agreement.<\/p>\n

Whether its greater collaboration or innovation, it all hangs on the talents of those working in the transport sector \u2013 and the biennial Talent in Mobility awards seek to honour women and men who are playing their part in developing public transport and sustainable mobility across Europe. A jury of journalists from the European trade press, including Passenger Transport editor Robert Jack chooses the winners.<\/p>\n

Among this year\u2019s winners was Fiona Guthrie, HR director and deputy managing director at RATP Dev Transit London. Guthrie was named joint winner of the Best Project Manager award after running the \u2018Garage Life\u2019 programme, an innovative training initiative for bus drivers that significantly reduced dropout rates by creating a greater sense of comradeship in the workplace.<\/p>\n

The challenge of recruiting and retaining staff for public transport operations is one that is shared across Europe and the jury were impressed by this straightforward but effective initiative. <\/p>\n

\u00a0
\nThis article appears in the latest issue of\u00a0Passenger Transport<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

DON\u2019T MISS OUT \u2013 GET YOUR COPY! \u2013\u00a0click here to subscribe!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The post Big challenges, tight budgets<\/a> first appeared on Passenger Transport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u200b\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The European Mobility Expo revealed that our continental neighbours face similar challenges \u00a0 Fiona Guthrie (left) and fellow Talent in Mobility winners \u00a0 If you like trams you\u2019ll LOVE Strasbourg. With a population of 860,000 across the conurbation, France\u2019s eighth largest city is criss-crossed by multiple light rail and BRT lines. Visitors from UK cities can\u2019t avoid wondering what might…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-camcab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8485"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}