Intermodality: Bike and train, tram & tube, bus, ferry, plane
Intermodality is the desire to make using more than one mode of transport during a single journey as easy as possible. This an increasingly important concept in urban planning, particularly as poorly thought-out transport interchanges can be a major deterrent to people using sustainable forms of transport.
A recent success story in this area has been the growing number of bicycle share schemes in cities across Europe.
What is the EU doing?
The EU acknowledges the importance of intermodality, at least in principle, and it is referred to on numerous occasions in the 2011 White Paper: Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area – Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system.
Unfortunately, the ECF considers that in practice the EU could be doing more to encourage intermodality, particularly in relation to bicycles being used in combination with public transport.
For example, at the moment, rail operators are only required to “enable passengers to bring bicycles on to the train, where appropriate for a fee, if they are easy to handle, if this does not adversely affect the specific rail service, and if the rolling-stock so permits” (Regulation (EC) No 1371/2007).
The provision of bikes on buses is also extremely scarce. The legislation at EU level which looks at the roadworthiness of vehicles and that of regulating the bus manufacturers (2007/46/EC) is confusing and needs to be updated.
ECF would like to see the EU be more proactive in encouraging intermodality.
What is ECF doing?
ECF lobbies on behalf of its members for legislation at the European level that does more to support intermodality. This is an important issue not just for daily commuters but also for cycling tourists, as it can be a significant obstacle for people wishing to take truly sustainable holidays.
In 2006, ECF commissioned a study on Bicycle Carriage on Long Distance Trains in the European Union, which was co-financed by the European Commission. This concluded that bicycle carriage should be seen as an opportunity and not a problem and identified two main needs, which are applicable to other forms of public transport as well:
- Standardisation of the offer
- Extension of the offer.
ECF will not only lobby the EU about meeting these needs but it will also to continue to work with the federations and organisations acting on behalf of the public transport providers at the international level (e.g. UITP, CER) to try and work in partnership, as it considers that there are mutual benefits of achieving true intermodality.