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The European Commission proposes new rules to increase the legal certainty of services of general economic interest
Following the Altmark judgement of the European Court of Justice in July 2003 (see EMTA News n° 14), and the Green Paper on Services of General Interest, the Commission (DG Competition) has started consultations to set out clear criteria for the assessment of compensations paid by Member States to undertakings providing services of general interest.
From the second to the third “Rail Package”
The second railway package, that aims to accelerate the opening to competition of the rail freight markets in Europe (see EMTA News n° 13) was still being debated by the Conciliation Committee between the Council of Ministers of Transport and the European Parliament as this issue of EMTA News went to press. The Ministers and
Towards a European strategy for sustainable urban environment
The European Commission adopted on 11 January a Communication (COM(2004)60) setting out its ideas for the Thematic Strategy on the Urban Environment due in summer 2005. In this document, that is being submitted to a widespread consultation, the Communication sets out the problems and challenges facing Europe’s urban areas, focusing on 4 priority themes :
Carris : reduced financial losses and transfer to the cityof Lisbon in the pipe
Carris, the state-owned company operating the bus, tramways and funiculars of the Portuguese capital city expects losses of €6 million in 2003, after a record deficit of €90 million in 2002. The company plans to cut 1,200 jobs, out of a total of 4,000, by 2005, so as to curb its deficits, and thus its
GTT : a new public transport company for Turin
GTT (Gruppo Torinese Trasporti), the new transport company of the metropolitan area of Turin (1.5m inhab) was founded in January 2003 by the merger of ATM, the former municipal transport company of Turin, and SATTI, a company operating inter-urban lines. The new company, which employes 5,000 staff members, has a turnover of €800 million. It
RATP : first contracts outside Paris
RATP, the French state-owned company operating public transport systems in the central part of the Paris metropolitan area (turnover of €2.9 billion, 42,000 employees) won over the past months several contracts, the first ones outside its core territory. It was awarded, last Autumn, a three-year contract to assist the operation of the regional railways in
Fare integration leads to increased patronage in Barcelona
Since the beginning of the implementation of fare integration in the metropolitan area of Barcelona (4.5m inhab) in 2001 by ATM, the public transport authority, passenger traffic has grown by 17.4%. In 2003 alone, 30 million additional passengers used public transport, that is to say an increase by 3.7% vs 2002. The strongest increase occurred
Introduction of electronic ticketing in Bilbao
BARIK (meaning « without » in Basque language), as is called the new electronic ticketing project for the metropolitan area of Bilbao (1m inhab.), was launched in February in the context of a pilot scheme. 4 metro stations, and 3 bus lines are used for this experiment that aims to check during 6 months that
Loans granted by the European Investment Bank to support public transport development in Brussels, Dublin, and Stockhom
The European Investment Bank announced over the past months that it will grant loans to support the development of public transport systems in the following cities : – Brussels: a long-term loan of €250 million has been granted to STIB, the public transport company of the Belgian capital city, so as to modernise tramway infrastructures
Directory of public transport in the European Metropolitan Areas
EMTA released in January its first Directory of public transport in the European metropolitan areas. This 100 page document presents some general information about the current issues and stakes of public transport in the European largest cities, as well as a precise description of the organisation, funding, supply and demand of the public transport systems
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