Integrated Ticketing for Air and Rail Transport How to coordinate with urban public transport?

摘要

In summer 2008 the European Commission (EC) launched a consultation on the "Development of Integrated Ticketing for Air and Rail Transport", with the objective of examining the organizational and technical opportunities related to the introduction of integrated ticketing as an important factor to generate demand for intermodal air-rail services.rnAccording to UITP, the EC approach is representative of the inappropriate way in which the European Union is developing measures addressing local public transport: these measures are not regarded as priority ones but as potential extensions of measures adopted for long distance travel. Contrary to the EC statement that "In a second stage, it would also be advisable to ensure the continuity oj the whole journey by adding public transport (buses, underground railway, train) which serve the urban centres ", the technical solution proposed for integrated air-rail ticketing cannot be extended to public transport services connected to airports. Air passengers are very few in number compared with public transport passengers. As an example, the total yearly 80 million air passengers of the biggest region in Europe in terms of air traffic - the Ile-de-France Region - has to be compared with the 3.6 billion public transport passengers (RATP+SNCF+OPTILE): public transport carries around 44 times more passengers than air. This example illustrates that it is impossible - and totally inappropriate - to extend to local public transport - especially for "closed" systems -solutions which have been developed for long distance air - or rail - transport.