Project description
PROJECT SUMMARY
Project aims at developing railway infrastructure and services provided in order to improve public passenger transport in CBC area through enhancement of sustainable integrated public transport system, intermodal rail transport system and by reducing bottlenecks in border transport operations. It will contribute to the increased frequency and capacity of the environment friendly railway transport lines for cross-border public passenger and freight transport by developing integrated public transportation system, preparing the documentation for intermodal transport solutions in three logistic centres by designing feasibility studies, technical plans, project conceptual solutions and ideas for Kiskunhalas, Subotica and Novi Sad (in compliance with EU standards for intermodal transport) and creation of conditions for the decrease of bottlenecks – simplification of procedures on border crossing and introduction of smart solutions in logistics and transport. Project is in line with the strategic project on the reconstruction of 350 km Budapest-Belgrade railway line. Project will bring benefits primarily to the public passenger transport and economic sector – companies and logistic operators, local governments and districts Bacs Kiskun, Bačka and Srem, as well as the whole CBC area. Project has significantly innovative character that relies on introduction of smart information technologies in transport, system of two-layer networks and value added logistic services. The possibility of integrated public transport, decreasing travel time of passengers and better utilisation of the track availability thus enabling the high-speed transportation capacities and growth of freight traffic, all of this provide for sustainability and replication of project activities. Capitalization of the project will be assured through integration of the project outputs into future projects investments in construction and further improvement of public passenger transport system and LC.
1. Background
The governments of Hungary and Serbia have agreed on projects for the modernization of railway traffic:
-Construction of a duble truck railway line Belgrade – Budapest,
-Modernization of the Subotica – Szeged railway line,
-Construction of the Subotica – Baja railway line.
The realization of these investments creates the preconditions for increasing mobility in the cross-border area.
Previous studies co-financed by the IPA HU-SRB CBC Program in 2012 (Creation o TPT System between Subotica and Szeged and the Tourism Development Strategy of the Szeged-Subotica Macro-Region) have shown that there is a significant flow of passengers in the CBC area between Serbia and Hungary, but so far nothing has been done to raise the quality, frequency and speed of transportation. Based on passenger surveys, complaints about public transport (road and rail) highlight the three most important: 27% refer to low frequency, 24% to long duration of border formalities and 16% to length of travel – that is, 2/3 of complaints about cross-border public transport take on these three remarks.
The current daily flow of 8500 passengers is realized 94% by cars, 5% by buses and 1% by rail, indicating that the system of public cross-border passenger transport is organized in the least economical and cost-effective way – by private cars.
Full effect on passenger traffic is to be achieved after the improvement of railway infrastructure and the modernization of trains, which could shift 70% of passenger traffic onto rail. It is necessary to work on the quality of services, i.e. on the integration of rail passenger traffic with road, increasing the capacity of rail traffic by moving cargo handling and customs formalities to logistics centers, as well as by solving bottlenecks at the border, which will contribute to the speed and efficiency of transport.
All these activities will enable quality mobility in cross-border transport, with the aim of meeting business, tourist, health and family visits.
2. Problem, challenge to be addressed
A previous study of the Formation of a Cross-border public Traffic System between Subotica and Szeged (2012), showed that there is a significant flow of passengers in the CBR between Serbia and Hungary. Regional passenger traffic is steadily increasing and, according to statistics, is growing at a rate of 8% p.a. on the most frequent route Subotica – Szeged.
Issues that hamper and slow down population mobility in the cross border region are related to traffic and transport, which is reflected in particular in:
-lack of integrated passenger traffic; the mismatch of the carrier’s driving schedules leads to longer waiting times, loss of connections in the event of a changeover, which significantly extends the travel time and the loss of available time, travel planning information is not provided in one place and by a unique process;
– there is no single and mutually harmonized tariff system so that passengers are forced to buy and pay for multiple tickets with different conditions of use, there is no possibility of using a single ticket that would be valid for different carriers or transport modes,
– there is no information system that would uniquely and easily provide users with the required volume and detail information on planed transportation in a real-time.
– border formalities significantly slow down the speed of travel and waiting times at crossings are many hours, especially during the holidays and summer season.
In the transportation of goods, there are no information systems for timely announcement and distribution of electronic accompanying documents of goods, as well as railway logistic transport centers, where concentration of certain goods manipulations for different users of transport services and different modes of transport would be carried out, which often requires additional maneuvering at the railway stations, affects the throughput of railway infrastructure and limits both freight and passenger traffic.
3. Target groups
The direct beneficiaries of the project are two public railway infrastructure managing companies, interested railway and bus carriers from Serbia and Hungary operating in the CBC area, operators of logistics transport centers as well as freight forwarding organizations, local self-governments and competent state authorities – police, customs and others. public services (phytopathological, radiological, sanitary, epidemiological, financial, etc.). These entities are directly responsible for creating the conditions for organized and safe public transport and are responsible for the organization and/or realization of the total transport.
The indirect beneficiaries of the project are all regional travelers, especially those who travel daily (workers, students, pupils) or occasionally (for trade, tourism, health and rehabilitation, business activities,family visits etc.). The average daily migration of regional cross-border passengers now using different modes of transport is around 8500.This number will be increasing in line with the increase of GDP in Hungary and Serbia,
A specific target group of indirect users is tourists (agroturism, hunting, health, recreational, cultural). The quality and increasing level of service in significant tourist sites on both sides of the border will surely make the number of tourists regionally higher. In this domain, indirect users will also be a significant number of those who will be oriented towards logistics centers, who do not appear in the flow of passengers in the current conditions, and this number will be increasing even more when Serbia becomes an EU member.
An indirect beneficiary of the project is the Bach-Kiskun Regional Government, which is responsible for adopting and implementing the Regional Economic Development Strategy, which will be developed within the project.
4. Expected outputs, results; durability of results
The main problems addressed by INPUTRANS project is the lack of coordination of different modes of cbc public transport and insufficient frequency of passenger traffic due to poor capacity of railway infrastructure and bottlenecks at border crossings due to long border procedures. All expected outputs are planned to address this issue.
Study on the the enhancement of the cross-border public transport will analyse current situation in cb public transport and comes with proposals about the cooperation of the railway and bus services in the border region with estimation of effects on residents and companies in the border region. A Working group will be established out of 20 interested members of the target group, they will meet twice and provide inputs and suggestion to guide the process of research and recommendations. Integrated management tool will elaborate IT solutions and specific tools and applications for the functioning of organizing an integrated system of passenger transport in cross-border traffic. Development of technical documentation for LC Novi Sad, Technical plan for LC Subotica and Preparation of design documentation for Intermodal Logistics Center in Kiskunhalas will be elaborated in order to enable establishment of logistic centers chain that will shift the maniplation of the freigh from railway lines. Economiy development strategy will set the frameowrkfor the development of the regional economy in the geographic proximity of the Kiskunhalas logistic center. A midterm conference will be organized for experts to exchange know-how and experience on the cutting edge technologies for LC.
Analysis of the bottlenecks in cross-border public transport will make use of focus groups that will be organized in Hungary and Serbia to give in-depth insight in the problems at border crossings. Innovative solution and action plan will be elaborated using also the results of discussion on the round table that will be organized with 30 participants.
5. Benefits of the project
The creation of an enhanced system of cross-border transport enables transport service providers to plan their resources in a better way, optimizing cost / income ratio of the transport service, ie increase their efficiency and effectiveness.
Operators involved in the enhanced cross-border passenger transport system have significant benefits because the system enables them to constantly monitor the flows and passengers requirements for the transport service – which is directly related to the transport service development and development of the carrier.
This system will provide cross-border passengers with a higher quality transport service, which is reflected in the ability to choose the most advantageous variant of transportation through the modern IT system and the use of the Internet and web portals, in terms of time (minimizing waiting) and price, which will significantly reduce travel time, i.e. increase the commercial speed of travel will directly affect the increase of people mobility.
Increasing the travel frequency will be made possible by increasing the speeds and throughput of the lines, which will be achieved by the designing and construction of logistics centers in Novi SAD, Subotica and Kishkalas that will free-up space for passenger transportation and harmonization of procedures and regulations in a cross-border public transport. Harmonization is a significant positive effect of the project, because it enables standardization and simplification of procedures in passenger and freight transport, which reduces costs and increases the work efficiency of and the quality of transport services.
In cross-border passenger transport, it is essential to harmonize procedure of passengers control on trains, with the primary objective of organizing joint in depth control in order to reduce border crossing stoppage and thus direct border services efficiency and increase service quality and commercial speed.