Bucharest needs a Metropolitan Transport Authority because without this body other authorities (the Municipality or the Ministry of Transport) are responsible for the operators, the long-term activity planning is achieved separately, with limited results, and the public transport integration plan is affected. The authorities want to implement national projects for the supply of public transport integrated services, in order to support the use of this transport system to the detriment of private means of transport.
For the organisation of public transport both at local, regional and national level, Bucharest Municipality leads a number of discussions on the correlation of projects and plans between different responsible authorities. Projects exist at the level of the capital and in the outskirts and the integration of public transport system and the assessment of the increase of passenger number are underway, the Transport Authority having an important role in the implementation of projects for efficient public transport services.
The objectives of the Master Plan on urban transport consist in estimating the impact that the implementation of priority projects and the development of strategies have on the transport system considering each scenario, package of projects or mea-sures for the development of an efficient transport in two phases: 2013 and 2027. “ For each of these phases, four scenarios have been considered, each of them focusing on the social and economic development of Bucharest, of the Metropolitan Area and of th country, and they stipulate the implementation of public transport projects, including the underground transport, as well as other specific strategies and measures to encourage public transport and the reduction of the number of private vehicles”, declared during the Railway Days Summit, Ion Dedu, Executive Director of Transport, Roads and Traffic Systematization Directorate within Bucharest Municipality.
For project development, the mathematical model for the transport system based on private vehicles and public transport was elaborated and 80 areas have been taken into account for the administrative area of Bucharest, 32 areas around the capital, the schedule for the transport requirement being completed. “But the traffic management system is necesary as it provides us with a basis for a regional transport system”, pointed out Dedu.
For encouraging the use of public transport, the payment system is important for passengers, and “RATB and Metrorex agreed to use the same payment system. This system is modular, allowing the introduction into the system of other operators such as railway or operators providing transport services outside Bucharest. We have the basis for the completion of an integrated payment system, providing the future authority with the possibility to accomplish a regional payment so that we could have a single system so that passengers will not have to pay each time they use a means of transport. It is a much more attractive system , used in all large cities of EU”, concluded Dedu.
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