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copyright 2002 by the ARTS Consortium. ARTS is a project within the fifth framework programme of the European Union - competitive and sustainal growth.
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Description of the demonstration in several languages
de | en | es | fi | gr | hu | sw
Place: Gotland, Sweden
PDF in Swedish Language
Syftet med projektet på Gotland är att undersöka om regler för kompletteringstrafik, färdtjänst och sjukresor kan göras mer likartade och
vilka effekter det får på trafiklösningar och resandestandard för olika grupper resenärer.
Projektet skall utarbeta nya regler för färdtjänst, sjukresor och kompletteringstrafik på Gotland. Reglerna skall anpassas till en mer likartad trafikstandard för alla tre trafikformerna vilket innebär att en ny trafiklösning utarbetas där trafikformerna integreras. För att få en rationell trafiklösning kommer en del av skolskjutstrafik som sker med taxi att beröras av den nya trafiklösningen.
Den viktigaste delen i projektet är en utvecklad anropsstyrd trafik för alla invånare utanför Visby. Försöket kommer att omfatta olika trafikstandard för olika delar av ön.
Kontaktpersoner för ARTS i Sverige är Lena Fredriksson Trivector
[] och för försöket på Gotland Per Arne Jonsson
[]
1. General description of the Demonstration
The demonstration of SAMKOM takes place on the island of Gotland, which is situated outside the east coast of Sweden. SAMKOM is the name for the demonstration project within ARTS. The local name of the actual service on Gotland is Plustrafik. The demonstration project consists of two main measures:
the integration of all public funded services and on-demand services, and the development of a unified legal framework for publicly funded services and on-demand services.
Main features of the demonstration:
- Integration of all public funded services (special services, healthcare services) and on- demand services and
- Development of a unified legal framework and a unified administrative sector for the public funded services and on-demand services
- Field studies, focus groups and interviews to evaluate the impact of measures (e.g. is there any changes in the effectiveness and attractiveness due to cooperation/unifying of the administrative sectors in municipalities, opinions of the users about new services)
- In-depth interviews to evaluate the possible cost savings or changes in cost effectiveness of producing transport services and to evaluate the impact of new services on other modes of public transport
Objectives and measures of the demonstration:
The main objective of the demonstration is to provide a high quality public transport service for the inhabitants in the rural areas on Gotland, i.e. outside the main city of Visby and other villages. To enable an increase of the service without an excessive increase of the subsidies the demonstration focuses on the integration of already existing and sometimes parallel services; on-demand, elderly /disabled transport (in this document labelled Special Transport Service) and health transport. To be able to integrate these groups the demonstration has dealt with two main issues:
1. the vehicles of the demonstration are easily accessible for all groups
2. the administration and budget of all services is within the same committee in the municipality and the transport rules/regulations for the different groups has been unified (fares, operational hours, etc)
2. Summarizing description of the service
The demonstration service is an on-demand service, which is co-ordinated with the regular public bus system as it at times is a feeder service to regular buses. The island is divided into a number of districts which has their individual timetable. The rural public transport service takes the passengers to the nearest village with basic service (post office, medical care service etc). On some tours the passenger has the opportunity in this villages to change to the regular bus line going to the main city of Visby. Sometimes the service goes directly to Visby. This is the case in the district, which is situated in direct connection to Visby, in the district where the service has daily departures and in the district with evening departures. The frequency of the service varies between the districts. Most of the districts have two departures/week (100% increase compared to former service). There are though one districts which has one departure/day. In one of the districts the demonstration focuses on the needs of young people. This district has one departure/week in the Friday evening additional to the two departures/week at daytime.
There are only stops at the bus stations in the main villages. In the districts you will be picked up or left at your door. It is only possible to travel to the main village ? no local trips in a district is possible.
3. Fares
The price for a single trip with Plustrafiken is the same as for an ordinary single trip with the buses on the island. (Fares on Gotland are based on the distance you travel.) There are different prices for adults, retired people, youth and children. Other discounted tickets, monthly passes etc are not valid in Plustrafiken. The fare for special services for disabled and elderly people is the regular public transport fare + a surcharge: ? 1,63 (SEK 15) plus the adult fee between 05.00 and 23.00. Between 23.00 and 05.00 the surcharge is ? 2,17 (SEK 20). For special medical trips there is a surcharge of ? 3,80 (SEK 35) to the ordinary public transport fee. - i.e. the fare system in Gotland is designed that way, that it?s always cheaper to go by regular public transport (incl. the on-demand Plustrafik).
4. Vehicles in use
Plustrafiken was awarded to 7 private contractors after competitive bidding. The characteristics of the vehicles in use are:
1 Audi (car)with 4 passenger seats, 3 Volkswagen Mercedes Vito (van) with 7-8 passenger seats, 2 minibuses (Iveco, Ford) with 19 passenger seats, and 1 Setra (bus) with 45 passenger seats.
5. Public Authorities
In the demo of SAMKOM the main public authority involved is the municipality of Gotland. The municipality officers in the transport committee chose the demonstration area and the level of supply, worked out the integrated fare system and the legal framework and chose the operators through tendering.
In general there isn?t just one committee in the municipality responsible for administrating all transport issues, but the responsibility is divided upon different committees depending on the travelling group (e.g. school children, elderly, disabled). The general public transport in Sweden is normally within the responsibility of the municipalities and the County Council in the county. In Gotland the circumstances are different as there is no county council. In Gotland one committee in the municipality has the responsibility for public transport.
Even though the transport organisation is unique on Gotland (as the responsibility for administrating all transport issues is within the municipality) there has been organisational barriers such as lack of co-operation between the different committees and their transport responsibilities: general public transport services, medical transport services and school/Special transport services. The legal and financial frameworks are dissimilar as well, which impedes the co-ordination of the transport services for the different groups.
Therefore one of the main tasks in the SAMKOM project was to integrate the responsibilities of the different committees in only one committee. Now almost all transport issues are within the transport committee, i.e. regular and on-demand public transport, special transport service and transport service for medical patients. School transport is not within the same committee due to administrational problems.
The integration consists of different parts: the officers from the different committees are now sitting and working together, there is only one budget for all integrated transport issues, the fares are homogenous (one basic fare and surcharges for special services) and the TDC is the same for all transport services. There has been a strong support for the integration from the politicians in the municipality.
6. Operator(s)
Plustrafiken is operated by 7 different operators (one vehicle each) contracted by the municipality after competitive bidding. (The regular (not on-demand) bus system is served by one of the biggest bus companies in Sweden; Swebus. Swebus is also contracted by the municipality.)
7. Users
The Plustrafik service is open for everyone in the demonstration area. Though, as the service in most of the areas isn?t offered daily the service can?t be used for education or commuting trips. The Plustrafik service is primarily aiming at bringing the inhabitants in the rural areas to the services in the villages or to Visby at daytime, i.e. the most frequent user group is elderly, disabled and inhabitants working at home. In one district the user group is young people as the Plustrafik service is being offered in the evening (Fridays).
8. On-demand services
Booking procedures and polices:
Trips with Plustrafiken shall be ordered by phone (only) at the latest at 12.00 the day before the departure. If the departure is full it is not possible to order it.
Travel Dispatch Centre (TDC):
The TDC is located in Visby. It is operated by ?SOS alarmering? and is financed as a part of the Samkom project by the municipality.
The TDC is responsible for all orders concerning trips with Plustrafiken, special services for elderly and handicapped as well as medical care trips to hospital. There are 5 persons at TDC which is open for calls between 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
There is no special software for booking and planning the trips.
The communication between TDC and operator (driver) is by fax to the operators office.
The three main problems that have been encountered during the set up initialisation of the demonstration are listed below:
· There is a lack of competition between operators as there are different legal frameworks for taxi operators and bus operators (e.g. different equipment in the vehicles and different training); this means they cannot take part in the same competitive bidding procedures in rural areas and therefore the number of competing operators is small.
· The flexibility of government and administration is unsatisfactory. There are
three different authorities in Sweden, which buy transport services from private operators (municipalities, County Councils and the County PT Companies). The success of any co-ordinated programme depends on the flexibility of the authorities involved. In the case of Gotland (because it is an island) the local and regional administration is a single body, but there are still problems with co-ordination and flexibility within the organisation.
· Lack of knowledge and experience within the administrations is a problem; for example, poor knowledge of the public transport supply for the disabled and elderly is a barrier for multipurpose transport. There is only limited exchange of experiences between the different administrations and operators.
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