Germany: Integrated federal-state transport plan of MWP
By Marco Mazouzi, Marian Cihon, Pawel Warszyck
According to § 6 of MWP’s transport law (see the policy above), the federal state is the responsible authority for rail transport and state-wide coordinated public transport. MWP is therefore obliged to create the integrated federal-state transport plan for its area of responsibility in order to provide a framework for the public transport’s further development for itself, public authorities and public transport operators in MWP. The current document has been published 16th February 2016 and its time horizon extends into the year 2030.
The plan faces three major challenges (a) demographic change in a sparsely populated area, (b) declining funding for transport infrastructure and (c) the need for a resource-efficient transport system. The policy contains statements on:
- The long-term state-wide planning for the services and infrastructure of public transport,
- Existence and future development of the rail PT offer,
- Stock and development of demand for rail PT services as well
- Financing and organization of public transport.
It is mentioned that existing funds shall be invested to make public transport more efficient and attractive. The overriding goal is an appropriate, economically and ecologically reasonable range of mobility services for all regions in the state. To achieve this, the ILVP M-V identifies the following priorities:
- Integrated mobility instead of individual transport services with better networking of trains and buses, easier transfer between modes, flexible modes of operation, etc.
- Strengthen main networks of rail but also bus traffic by improving passenger long-distance services; Expansion of the main rail network; modernization railway stations; Adjusting time tables, improving multimodality and elimination of barriers
- Improvement of interfaces between different means of transport: i.e. by providing parking facilities for bicycles and cars at public transport stops
- Application of an integrated tact schedule (clock-face scheduling or pulsed time table) as a basis for the coordination of different PT services
- Avoidance of inefficient parallel traffic between buses and trains
- Improvement of service and communication to increase attractiveness
- Increase of efficiency through target-oriented PT services and examination and development of a more incentive-based public road transport financing.
Relevance for INTERCONNECT may also be derived from other mentioned topics that can be further elaborated if necessary, such as: cycling, ship traffic (including the importance of ports and environmental friendliness), rural mobility, mobility of tourists (less cars / car-free tourism), alternative fuels including a development of a competence centre for electro mobility and a state-wide strategy, accessibility, traffic security, mobility management and the strengthening of cross-border PT between Poland and Germany.