Improvement of Rural Mobility in European Regions Affected by Demographic Change

Paper presents some of the specific mid-term results of RUMOBIL project. RUMOBIL is project funded by INTERREG CENTRAL EUROPE program. The main objective of RUMOBIL is to improve public transport in rural areas by better connecting them to the national and European transport networks. Project supports transnational cooperation between eight public authorities from Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia and Italy, and their transport entities. These are confronted with a similar challenge to respond to pressures on regional public transport systems caused by demographic change in peripheral areas. Working together provide them with a platform to exchange knowledge, to generate learning through launching pilot applications of state-of-the art tools and solutions, and to revise their transport policies to better suit changing mobility needs. Quicker and more comfortable access by public transport positively contributes to the quality of life in rural areas and supports business activities there. To that aim, a set of evidence-based policy recommendations will be elaborated at the end of the project to improve the capacities of local and regional decision-makers responsible for the design and coordination of public passenger transport in Central European regions affected by demographic change. These recommendations will be presented in the form of the RUMOBIL Model which provides insights in already proven good practices and novel solutions. Main outputs of RUMOBIL project are pilot actions, the elaboration of a RUMOBIL strategy, and policy-decisions to implement this strategy in the eight partner regions through an improvement of their transport plans. Pilot actions allow testing a number of innovative applications during a period 2017-2018 how sparsely populated peripheral areas can be better linked to a primary, secondary or tertiary transport node (access to European and national passenger transport networks)