Rail Urban Projects: A Way For Improving Public Transport Patronage

摘要

Motorised mobility has increased in a significant way in last years in European cities, and thisudhas brought too much congestion in urban areas, which has deteriorated city centres’ liveableudconditions. For that reason, there is a need of effective and flexible transport systems in orderudto improve this situation in favour of public transport.udThe investment on design and innovation of competitive public transport is necessary in orderudto improve its modal share. Nevertheless, there exists other aspects, also very important,udwhich make public transport more attractive. In the last years, many cities have implementedudrail urban projects (tram, metros and light rail systems) as they have been considered theudoptimal option to foster public transport patronage and also for getting a sustainable mobilityudfor the growing urban population.udThese kind of projects provide fast, regular, safe and comfortable services with medium-highudcapacity. At the same time, they provide a modern image of the city. Those characteristics areudessential for a competitive public transport in contemporary cities, although they require largeudinvestments for its construction.udThis paper will present a comparison between different rail urban projects running inudEuropean cities since, at least, ten years ago. There will be described how they have increasedudmodal share of public transport in different cities contexts..