Happy European Mobility Week!

I came across a very interesting article in today's Le Monde, which I will offer below in the form of an unlicensed, unsolicited and un-proofread translation. France and England made additional transportation news recently, as a Eurostar train ran the complete length of the newly-finished high-speed line between London-St. Pancras and the Channel Tunnel, then on to Paris. The trip took a shade over two hours, and will enter revenue service this November.

THE DREAM OF A CITY WITHOUT CARS
By Olivier Razemon, Le Monde, September 25^th Edition

In smaller cities and single-family-home neighborhoods, public transportation continues to suffer from a certain disorganization. Bus and train schedules do not necessarily coincide; tickets do not allow passage from one mode of transport to another. The cases of Ile-de-France [greater Paris] and metropolitan Nantes, where commuters benefit from a single fare structure, remain exceptions.

These difficulties constitute sufficient “intellectual barriers,” explains Isabelle Rovira, at the Association of authorities responsible for transport (Groupement des autorités responsables de transport, GART). “The more we make it easier to understand, the more we will incite people to use transit,” she adds.

For Michel Cornil, president of the Public Transit Union (UTP), networks will appear more attractive “If it were possible to park your car in a secure lot situated next to a bus stop, if intercity buses and urban buses converged towards the same bus terminals, and if you could inform yourself of all schedules in just one place.”

The agencies and operators were counting on Public Transit Day, organized on September 19^th, to attract a new clientele. One hundred and forty regional, departmental and urban networks which serve, together, 23 million inhabitants, participated in the event, co-organized by GART and the UTP. All tickets were, whatever the journey’s length, sold at the price of 1 euro [about $1.40].

The event, positioned within European Mobility Week, replaces “No Car Day,” which used to take place each September 22^nd since 1997. On that day, automobiles were forbidden inside city centers. Festively welcomed in its first year, the initiative ended up tiring out. Yet it currently remains in Quebec, where an “In the city, without my car” event took place in Montreal, Thursday September 20^th.

The organizers estimate that Public Transit Day was as successful as it needed to be. “The principle of a 1-euro fare was simple and visible,” explains Serge Morin, who directs the structure created to run the event. As such, Montpellier’s urban transit networks recorded, with 250,000 passengers, a never-attained peak in terms of use. In Brittany, regional trains, which transport 21,000 people daily, attracted 10,000 additional travelers, including younger riders, who took advantage of this windfall and of the good weather to head to the beach.

“Trains between Rennes and Saint-Malo were packed. We didn’t want to give this event too much publicity, to avoid overcrowding,” remarked Geranrd Lahellec, vice president of the Brittany regional council, charged with transportation.

FARE-BASED INCENTIVES

September 19^th must also serve as a valuable example for transportation companies. “The fare affected buses and trams as well as subways and regional commuter trains. That brings their operators closer together, and that’s most important of all,” says Michel Destot, president of GART and mayor of Grenoble.

Certain collectives have already taken this step. In Alpes-Maritimes, intercity and intra-city bus commuters will benefit, starting January 1^st 2008, from a single fare. A journey within the department will cost 1 euro, whether one travels within metropolitan Nice or along the 66 km distance that separates Cannes from Menton. “The bus trip will only cost a commuter 300 euros per year, versus 6,000 by car,” rejoices Louis Negre, vice president of the regional transportation council.

The department wishes to capitalize on the success of another formula, instituted January 1^st 2006. Since then, tickets for all voyages made by intercity coach buses have been sold at the single price of 1.30 euro. “On the line that links nice to the landlocked center of Sophia-Antipolis, we have marked a ridership increase of 100%,” notes Mr. Negre. “It is no longer only students and elderly ladies who take the bus, but also white-collared commuters.”

The majority of salaried employees continue nevertheless to commute to work by car. Looking to reverse this tendency, HSBC bank took advantage of Mobility Week to encourage their employees to leave their vehicles behind. In the Paris and Marseille branches, employees could take advantage of a “Personalized mode-of-transportation diagnostic,” relates Marine de Bazelaire, in charge of social responsibility at HSBC. Depending on the location, between 10 and 30 percent of employees took part in the game. “We ask people to specify the mode, the distance and the time of their journey, and we suggest some solutions,” she said.

The bank’s 15,000 salaried employees are already constrained to travel by rail rather than by airplane for business trips lasting under three hours in each direction. In addition, the enterprise reimburses their employees’ annual subscriptions to municipal bicycle services.