Strategies to link rural areas to European and national transport networks

¹ University of Žilina, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Univerzitná 8215/1, 010 26 Žilina, Slovakia
² University of Žilina, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Univerzitná 8215/1, 010 26 Žilina, Slovakia
³ Agency for mobility and local public transport Modena S.p.A., 41122 Modena, Strada Sant’Anna 210, Italy
⁴ Agency for mobility and local public transport Modena S.p.A., 41122 Modena, Strada Sant’Anna 210, Italy

^* Corresponding author: dasit@fstav.uniza.sk

Abstract

Transport capacity is very important indicator of country’s economic power reflecting its economic development. All means of transport must be efficient and able to transport goods and people as cheaply and quickly as possible. This requires constant upgrading of transport networks often with limited budget. This is a problem especially in rural areas, where population density is very low and there are difficulties in providing transport links between cities and rural communities. It is very expensive to upgrade transport network and also to ensure public transport services there. Individual car transport can diminish the problem, but some groups (the young, old or poor) will always require public transport service, moreover increasing car traffic put pressure especially on existing road transport. Public transport linking isolated rural regions to transport hubs towards the European and national transport networks play a crucial role in that regard. Paper presents some outputs of RUMOBIL project focusing on pilot actions testing a number of innovative applications during a period 2017-2018 how sparsely populated peripheral areas can be better linked to a primary, secondary or tertiary transport node by public transport.