Eleven public transport organisations signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 8 April to ensure the interoperability of the tariff systems of urban, metropolitan, county and inter-county public transport operators in Romania.
The Memorandum was signed in Alba Iulia (Romania) during the fourth edition of the Forum for Sustainable Mobility and Metropolitan Development on 8 and 9 April. The Forum was organised by Club Metropolitan – the Association for Metropolitan Mobility (AMM), with the support of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP), AIDA, Alba Iulia Municipality, STP Alba Iulia and Oradea Metropolitan Area Association. The signatories of the MoU represent metropolitan transport authorities, public transport operators, together with UITP and AMM.
Modern technologies enable the integration into a single e-ticketing system of several transport modes and of several economic operators, thus bringing the passenger in front of a fluent transport system with reduced difficulty in shifting the transport network from the residence locality to one in a transit area or dedicated to temporary use.
Considering the need to make public transport systems as accessible to passengers as possible in order to ensure the increase of sustainable mobility and life quality, but also the need to increase transparency and tax collection levels in public transport to provide the sustainability of local and central public financial systems, it is necessary to enable the interoperability of e-ticketing systems in urban and metropolitan areas. We can also consider that the implementation of such an interoperable tariff system will help achieve the European objective of creating a national and European travel planner.
By signing the present memorandum, competent authorities and public transport operators seek to invest in e-ticketing systems, based on their own programmes and financing, but also as part of non-reimbursable financing programmes, including European financing. Sustainable urban development and public transport development objectives will be thus achieved.
The transport authorities and operators that signed the memorandum seek to develop a system and instruments to provide easy transfer for the users of the electronic ticketing system (e-ticketing) from one network to another. At the same time, the signatories aim to preserve the identity of each urban and metropolitan area and of each economic operator by promoting a cross-selling ticketing system. The aim of the memorandum is that the e-ticketing systems of the users of the transport networks involved would be acknowledged by the sale, validation and control systems of all operators included in the memorandum.
In order to achieve the objectives of the MoU, the signatories will seek to implement a series of measures among which: the implementation of a commercial interface that would enable the easy transfer of the user from one network to another bearing in mind the different contexts in which each operator works; establishing a joint working group to work on the harmonisation of interfaces, communications standards and e-ticketing design; preparing a calendar of implementing the interoperability of e-ticketing systems; integrating the interoperable e-ticketing system in the national and European travel planning systems; developing solutions to increase the attractiveness and use of this payment method for disabled people and increasing their mobility.
The actions resulted from the memorandum on the interoperability of tariff systems will be monitored by AMM and included in annual reports.
by Ştefan Roşeanu
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