Transport

• Introduction
• Limited use of cross-border public transport
• Projects at all territorial levels
• How to cope with the increase in cross-border flows?

Limited use of cross-border public transport

The average modal share of public transport in cross-border flows is around 7%. The limited use of public transport compared with that of the private car can be explained by a mismatch between a poorly adapted or insufficient transport supply and an unknown demand due to a lack of surveys and statistics.

Despite the growing need for cross-border public transport in Europe, cross-border transport provision retains an “experimental” character, and its development faces significant technical, institutional and political difficulties: 
– differences between systems and technical regulations on either side of borders (environmental requirements, electrical power supply, safety, training of personnel, etc).
– great diversity of levels of competence and working procedures between transport authorities on either side of borders (operator selection, fare-setting, funding sources, etc.) 

The organisation of a coherent cross-border transport network thus requires, in some states, the involvement of a large number of organising authorities in order to bring together the necessary competences, whereas in neighbouring countries, there may be a single competent authority with more substantial financial resources.