European Transport & Telematics Systems Ltd.

ETTS has extensive experience in both the transport industry and in the application of telematics (particularly Smart Cards) to transport. The firm has participated in numerous projects and activities and it is hoped that the following brief overview will provide you with an insight into our work domain.

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European Projects

CONCERT envisages the use of Smart Demand Management Tools to promote public modes of travel instead of car usage. The project builds on a previous successful pilot system - GAUDI. It consists of a co-ordinated European demonstrator across eight European cities and will test the strength of different techniques such as Smart Card Access/Payment and Multimedia Information technologies. These will be applied in innovative ways that reduce the environmental problems of mass car travel whilst achieving high levels of urban accessibility.

CONCERT is a partnership where city authority and service providers demand management aspirations are co-ordinated so as to fully contribute to the market development and transport policy interests of the European Commission Directorates.

For the city partners, the objective is to demonstrate emerging technologies in order to establish whether or not they work under real-life conditions (focusing on citizen acceptance and travel impacts) where:

• Successful outcomes can be readily converted to form part of the permanent operational mobility infrastructure
• European level synergy enables each city to learn from its peers and hence rapid-prototype other parts of the demand management tool box
• Collaboration can lead to economies of scale

The CONCERT cities have chosen each other as partners in mutual recognition of the experience and commitment each has to demonstrating the various elements of the smart demand management tool box.

The participating cities experience fierce competition for utilisation of their downtown vital network and need a better allocation of land, transport infrastructure and financial resources. The cities and the application areas in which they shall employ measures so as to achieve travel demand impacts can be grouped as follows:

• Bolgna, Dublin & Marseille: Multiservicing
• Barcelona, Bristol & Trondheim: Pricing Decision/Restraint
• Hanover & Thessaloniki: Multimedia Information

Within Dublin, the CONCERT sub-project CAROLAN - CARd bAsed Off-line Linked pAyment for transport Networks is responsible for designing and implementing an open integrated payment system which can deal with chained or linked transport fare products.

The Irish consortium is comprised of :

• ETTS as technical consultants and site managers
• Dublin Corporation , the local authority for Dublin as project co-ordinator and provider of on-street and off-street parking facilities
• Allied Irish Banks the provider of the transport specific electronic purse
• Dublin Bus the semi-state urban bus operator
• PAMBO the association of private bus owners
• Irish Rail the semi-state rail operator
• Interactions / BERC as evaluation consultants and
• NORCONTEL as telecommunications consultants

The main objective of the CAROLAN project is to design a framework for the integration of ticketing systems from different transport modes and operators and to demonstrate the manner in which the payment method can be used to integrate the transport modes more closely. In addition the project will demonstrate the manner in which combined or linked tickets can be implemented using the payment method.

The CAROLAN project will be based in Dublin city centre and in the suburb of Bray 25 km from the city. Within the demonstrator the transport applications include - off-street and on-street parking, bus feeder services to the suburban rail system, late night bus services and the possibility for park and ride at the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit - electrified rail system) station in Bray.

In order to demonstrate the possibilities of integration between different transport modes the CAROLAN project will use contact smart cards as the host for each of the individual transport applications and as a host for the chained or linked transport tickets. In addition the project will provide a transport related electronic purse which will allow for payment system integration using a single payment method.

ETTS have been actively involved in the development of the overall functional and technical specifications for the project and are currently developing three software applications which will support the parking, rail and bus ticketing systems to be implemented at the Dublin site.

Other applications are also being considered such as linking shopping and parking to offer shoppers in the city centre a discount or to allow the car park to apply a special rate for parking based on previous shopping transactions.

In total 2,500 users will be involved in the trial which is due to commence in September 1997. For more detailed information concerning any aspect of the CAROLAN/CONCERT trials please contact the CAROLAN Site Managers ETTS or visit the CONCERT Homepage.

The GAUDI Project (1992-94) encompassed 5 five major European Cities (Barcelona, Bologna, Dublin, Marseille and Trondheim) which faced the similar problems of congestion, pollution and access difficulties to the city centre. The overall objective was to define, experiment and appraise urban debiting applications both conceptually (specifications, standardization) and practically (experimentation, pilot projects, evaluation).

Each city developed and implemented a demand management project using automatic debiting technologies:

• Barcelona: Flexible control system for car access to resential areas designated as pedestrian priority zones in the La Ribera district
• Bologna: Automatic Debiting, Public Transport monitoring
• Dublin: Multi-servicing for Public Transport, Tolling, Car Parking & Telephone Services (concept of Integrated Payment)
• Marseille: Multi-servicing for Public Transport, Parking and Road Tolling
• Trondheim: Road Pricing

As part of the GAUDI project the objective of the experiment in Dublin was to assess the practicality of smart cards as a demand management tool in a multi service environment. The trial ran for 3 months from February to June 1994. The bus, toll and phone applications were then withdrawn and the results of the trial were evaluated. However the car parking application is still in operation for contract parking customers.

The smart card used in the Dublin trial was branded as the "DASH" card. The trial included 4 service providers : Dublin Bus, National Toll Roads, Irish Car Parks and Telecom Eireann.

Dublin Bus permitted the use of the smart card on all buses on one selected route, Route 39, which serves the suburb of Blanchardstown, located approximately 12 kilometres to the north west of the city centre. This route carries approximately 15,000 passengers per day.

Telecom Eireann adapted twenty of their existing synchronous IC phones near the route 39.

Irish Car Parks accepted the DASH card in one multi-storey car park in the city centre. The car park has a capacity of 500 cars.

National Toll Roads accepted the DASH card for toll payment on the West-link toll bridge which is located to the west of the city. The toll bridge is used by approximately 7,000 vehicles per day.

In addition four point of sale locations were established for the duration of the trial. These were located at : the Westlink toll plaza, the Telecom Eireann pay centre in the city centre, a newsagent in the Blanchardstown area and the Dublin Bus Head Office in the city centre.

Within Dublin, ETTS experts, developed the concepts, specifications and design of this pilot project and implemented the multi-service Smart Card which had both transportation (Dublin Bus, Toll Bridge, Car Park) and general payment (Telcom Eireann) functions.

The concept of the card and the various applications was fairly well understood by the DASH Card customer and users were happy with the combination of services available to them. There were elements of the card which were not user friendly and made it difficult to use but customers felt secure with the technical performance of the card. Many of the issues and problems that were encountered in the GAUDI pilot have been taken into account in the design of the CAROLAN Card.

The MIRO Project (1994-95) of the DRIVE Program brought together eight cities (Barcelona, Bologna, Cambridge, Dublin, Gothenburg, Marseille, Thessaloniki and Trondheim) to study user responses and opinions to different demand management techniques, such as public transport improvements and road pricing.

Following a detailed state-of-the-art review of demand management measures and experiences, a common survey was developed and implemented in each of the cities to measure user response to a range of management options.

Analysis was carried out at both European and city level. ETTS managed the Dublin consortium and directed the development of the survey structure. In Febuary 1995, ETTS organised an International Workshop in Dublin to report the project findings.

SAMPO is a European project which is developing high-quality public transport services for people in rural areas. The project is part of the Telematics for Transport program of the DGXIII of the EU, and takes place within the EU's Fourth Framework Program for Research and Development. The Ministry of Transport and Communications in Finland is the overall Co-ordinator of the project, and they have engaged ETTS of Dublin to carry out the project management.

The SAMPO project has a value of over 3 million ECU (about £2.5 million) and it brings together almost fifty partners from six European countries (Finland, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Sweden & UK). This makes it one of the larger projects in the Telematics program, and one of the largest dealing with public transport.

It is the only European project dealing specifically with issues of public transport in rural areas. The main focus of the project is to improve the mobility of citizens in rural and urban areas, to increase the viability of transport services, and to break down the isolation of rural communities.

This is being achieved using telematic technologies to provide Demand Responsive Transport Services (DRTS). Some technologies which have been developed and integrated include GPS positioning systems, GSM/NMT/Mobitex based communication facilities, Smart Cards for payment, GIS systems and EDI-message systems.

SAMPO is demonstrating innovative services in four countries, with the participation of the UK, for evaluation and assessment purposes. Work on the Irish site had to be halted due to difficulties with regards to funding and the required route licences for the Demonstration Routes.

Each test-site has developed specialised DRTS applications based on a common framework methodology which are compatible to their environs.

The sites are:

• Seinajoki and Tuusula-Kerava-Jarvenpaa, in Finland. This site has been in full demonstration stage since February 1997. It consists of one Travel Dispatch centre (TDC) which manages the DRTS in both geographical areas and also provides timetable information on line services. All the implemented software is working technically and the feedback from users has been very positive. The Ministry of Transport and Communications is sponsoring the two demonstration sites and buses, rail and taxi services are all being incoporated.
  
• Hasselt in Belgium. The regional operator De Lijn is improving existing flexible services through the addition of advanced technology. The services are in the rural area of East Flanders and receive financial support from the regional government. During January and Febuary the SAMPO-system has gradually being implemented within the TDC in Hasselt with the full demonstration up and running since March 1997.
  
• Florence and Campi, in Italy. The city transport authority of Florence are expanding their services for the disabled and elderly and adding new technology to improve the quality. In Sienna, the transport authority is improving services to allow sustainable tourism in the city. Both of these initiatives receive public support. The site entered the demonstration phase in June 1997.
  
• The City of Gothenburg in Sweden. This site has been in a demonstration stage since October 1996 and is enhancing publicly-supported Special Passenger Services for the disabled and elderly, whilst also achieving better operating efficiencies. The service is proceeding in a satisfactory manner with ridership increasingly steadily. It has recently included a new automated booking and trip notification function to increase system efficiency.
  
• The Kilkenny Region in Ireland. The Irish site had intended to focus upon the needs of special user categories in rural areas. However, as mentioned, the site experienced difficulties in securing funding and the required route operating licences from the Irish Department of Transport. These items were central to the Irish Demonstrator and have prevented the site in proceeding within the SAMPO two year timescale. The experience is a valuable lesson and highlights the need for a change in Irish rural transport policy.
  

The four active sites cover the spectrum of Demand Responsive Services through using different environments. They demonstrate public and private sectors in partnership (Finland and Italy), the integration of modes (Finland, Belgium and Italy), new services for rural areas (Finland) and services to assist marginalised groups (Sweden and Italy).

To date the following Deliverables have been produced by the SAMPO Project:

• D8.1 Evaluation Plan for the SAMPO project
• D3 Analysis of User Requirements for DRTS
• D4 System Architeture, Functional Specification and their Assessment Methodology for DRTS
• D5 Design and Integration Issues regarding the use of ATT for DRTS in the SAMPO Project [May 1997]
• D6 Report of the Verification Phase of SAMPO [June 1997]

The remaining Deliverables and their production dates are as follows:

• D7 Demonstration of DRTS at the SAMPO Sites [October 1997]
• D8.2 Results of the Evaluation of the SAMPO Demonstrations [December 1997]
• D9 Recommendations concerning the Market, Operation, Organisation and Business Case for DRTS [December 1997]

The project evaluation is now being undertaken, and the final report will be submitted by the end of 1997. For more detailed information concerning any aspect of the SAMPO trials please contact the SAMPO Managers ETTS or visit the SAMPO Homepage .

The TEDEBUS Project (1994-95) examined the organisation and requirements of bus fleets which provide rural and inter-urban services. It considered which functions could be best addressed through the use of Transport Telematics and identified emerging and available technologies. The project also investigated the tools needed to support the integration of services and the improvement of the operational and management quality of bus services.

ETTS undertook an analysis of technology requirements for inter-urban bus operators, specified suitable technologies and developed deployment and migration actions. The emphasis was on operators within Ireland and Greece, but consideration was also given to technologies which were not under examination in these countries.

The VADE MECUM design study (January 1996 - December 1996) investigated the potential integrated application of telematics to a multi-modal transportation corridor in Europe.

The corridor runs from Cork and Belfast through Dublin in Ireland, across the Irish Sea through North Wales, via Manchester across the Pennines in North England to Humberside, and through the North Sea to Rotterdam and Amsterdam with dispersal in the Netherlands to mainland Europe.

The Project focused on the need to solve challenging technical, institutional and socio-economic problems encountered within the corridor arising from user needs in Network Management, Traveller Information and Freight Operation.

It involved a consortium of 26 public and private sector organisations and looked at the opportunities for large scale ATT demonstration projects within the corridor.

The results of the VADE MECUM Project form a concrete basis from which further bids for EU or National funding can be made.

The study consisted of three distinct phases:

• A comprehensive user needs study involving 88 'intermediate' users along the corridor. Deliverable I 'Corridor Users Report'
• The identification of potentail ATT projects and sites based on the needs expressed by organisations and authorities within the user need analysis. Deliverable II 'Demonstrations Options Report'.
• The development of some of these options into specifications for demonstrations. Deliverable III 'VADE MECUM Design Study Results Report'

ETTS were the leaders for the Traveller Information strand of the study. As such, they conducted a comprehensive User Needs Assessment of Service Providers within this Domain. The results of this survey indicated the desire and requirement of Public Transport organisations to provide comprehensive, reliable and dynamic multi-modal traveller information and advice over a variety of computer platforms and networks to passengers using a number of transport modes.

Based on these needs, ETTS developed the EUROSPIN demonstrator concept which addresses the requirements for such an integrated traveller information system. The main aim of the proposal is to create a technical platform for an information flow structure between the various information providers and their patrons and develop the technologies which would be required to support such a network. This proposal is currently being evaluated by the European Commission for future funding under the EU Fourth Framework for Research & Development.

DECUB was a two year project (1994 - 1996) within the SAVE program of DGXVII of the EU, with Irish and Greek partners. The Irish element was led by ETTS. Its objective was to identify and demonstrate the potential for improved fuel efficiency through management measures.

An analysis of the energy usage within the bus companies of the cities of Patra (GR) and Cork (IE) was undertaken and a package for the energy efficent operation of bus organisations within medium-sized European Cities was developed.

ETTS developed and established a fuel consumption analysis suite for the national bus operator (Bus Eireann) at their Cork Depot during 1995. This enables the capture of substantial operational measurements which are subsequently analysed for data and management action.

The final product of the DECUB Project has been formulated in 7 Deliverables including system specification, training modules and results.

The INTRA2 Project (1993-94) was carried out under the FORCE Program of DGV of the EU. This project involved the development of training modules for the bus industry, to increase awareness of the potential of transport telematics and of how to apply and implement them.

ETTS combined with the Athens Consultancy Centre (Greece) to develop materials for training managers and experts in Transport Telematics. This included training modules for the deployment of transport telematics systems (payment, passenger information and control systems). ETTS also developed an integrated strategy to increase the skills level within the Irish Bus Industry (which includes individual operators, transport authorities and support service providers).

ETTS has contributed to three studies commissioned by DGVII of the EU. These are as follows:

• Research on Priorisation of Public Transport (1995), led by the University of Rome, Italy. ETTS reviewed methods of providing priority to Public Transport and generated case studies on practice in Ireland.
• Research on the impacts of Pricing and Finance on Urban Transport (1994-95), led by Halcrow Fox (UK). ETTS first provided a review of road pricing, demand management and the associated technologies within the DRIVE Program. It then identified the type of impacts these measures would have in terms of new functionality, the type of pricing strategies that can be adopted, the impact on travel patterns and costs of the transactions.
• Study of Policies of the EU Member States relating to Urban Public Transport (1993), led by Halcrow Fox (UK). ETTS reviewed the core policy issues of the Irish Government to urban transport with particular reference to public transport.

ETTS have participated in Task Forces and connected actions of the EU Research Program. This has included providing:

• a key participant to an expert group which was established to assess the ITS System Architecture (USA) and recommend a European response (1996).
  
  
• a key participant within the Transport Intermodality Task force of DGVII (1996).
  
  
• a key particpant within the VESCOS Task Force which developed European level specifications for vehicle location, scheduling and control systems. ETTS contributed sections on implementation scenarios and strategies to the main deliverable which was produced in September 1995.
  
  
• a member of the DRIVE mission to the IVHS America Program. The ETTS expert had responsibility to report on the Tolling, Demand Management and Public Transport activities in the USA (1994).

ETTS has provided support to the EU R&D program over the last seven years. The continuity through the planning and execution stage of successive programs means that we have a very detailed understanding of the projects, results, capabilities, and key players in the Telematics for Transport domain.

Among the supporting actions we have done for the Telematics program of DGXIII are :

• Provided the Area Chairman to the Area on Public Transport Management during 1992-5, and to the new Area on Traveller Intermodality and Public Transport during 1996-7
• Provided a National Delegate to the Working Party on Transport for the Telematics Management Committee in the period 1991-5
• Took part in the Program Integration Review in 1993 which determined the requirements for new projects to strengthen the program
• Participated in the planning exercise which developed the work program for the Fourth Framework program (the current one)
• Carried out project and on-site reviews in 1992-5, and took part in proposal evaluation process in 1997
• Led the public transport and demand management element of the Program Impact Assessment study in 1996
• Participated as an EU representative in the missions to the American ITS program in 1994 and the EU-China co-operation initiative on ITS in 1997

We have also supported the THERMIE initiative of DGXVII through participation in the Transport Marketing Group during the period 1993-5

In late 1995, the STOA Office of the European Parliament invited ETTS to carry out a major review of the field trials being conducted within the ATT/ITS Domain.

ETTS were supported by the University of Southampton in the development of this report.

Over twenty cities and regions that have implemented ATT were reviewed in detail.

ETTS assessed the sites on multiple criteria such as environment, efficiency and public transport quality. Based on the research and the collective experience of the partners two future scenarios were developed to illustrate the possible outcomes of widescale use of transport telematics in urban areas:

• The first deals with the Smart City which has a strong emphasis on public transport, teleservices and travel demand management policy.
• The second Smart Vehicles, Smart Roads accepts the growth in car use and provides a vision of how ATT might be increasingly deployed in cars and on roads over the next decade, providing solutions to maximise private transport efficiency in cities.

The main objective of the study was to provide policy options to European decision makers and the report was produced in mid-1996.

Mongolia is a vast country (about 20 times the size of Ireland) with a population of just two million people. Having established the largest empire ever known on earth, this unique country has spent the last three hundred years first under Chinese rule, and until 1990 was under the Soviet sphere of influence. It is now re-establishing its own identity, economy, and way of life.

The transition from the former Soviet system (although never actually part of the Soviet Union) has been extremely difficult, as it means changing from the centrally planned to the market economy in conditions of little available funds and few markets. Institutions, people, and cultures need to change, and this requires external assistance over these years.

The World Bank is one of a number of international agencies providing technical assistance and loans, and management of the public transportation is a priority area. Unlike Western countries, public transport is the key means of transportation for most citizens and is vital to the functioning of society. Without any investment in vehicles since 1989, and with the reduced relevance of the former administrative methods, public transport had deteriorated to poor service levels, life-expired, high levels of 'side-lined' vehicles, and high subsidy requirements. The World Bank provided a twin-track approach of investment in vehicles and spare parts, and reform of the sector to allow better ability to run the business in the changing society.

ETTS provided expertise to CIE Consult which was awarded the World Bank urban public transport reform project. This covered the capital city, Ulaanbaatar, which has a population of about 650,000 people. Public transport is provided through three publicly owned bus companies, and one publicly owned trolleybus company. An agency of the Municipality, Department of Urban Transport (DUT), plans the services and effectively controls the bus companies and all financial distributions. A flat fare system applies, and this has been increased in real terms to reduce subvention needs.

We spent a total of about five months on site over the period 1995-6, with a very wide range of tasks. The ETTS contribution to the project consisted of the following :

1. We developed a new insitutional framework for the urban public transport. This clearly defined the roles of the Ministry of Infrastructure Devleopment, the Municipality, the DUT, and the operating companies. It set out the relationships between them, recommending that the companies be corporatised and that all services should be operated on a route tendering or franchising basis. The mechanisms for planning and regulating the services were developed.
   
   
2. Restructuring plans for both the DUT and Bus Company 2 (the model company) were developed. This identified for each organisation the corporate mission objectives, functional requirements, organisational form, board and management measures, job specifications for key personnel, and implementation plan.
   
   
3. A deep analysis was carried out of the fare structure, the fare collection system and the revenue protection system. An integrated set of measures was developed to increase the efficiency and the collectable revenue. Workshops were held with the key personnel and pilot actions were implemented to demonstrate the impacts of the recommendations.
   
   
4. The route tendering mechanism was designed, and model route service contracts were developed. These took into account the operational requirements, achievable targets, reward and penalty systems, and other related matters.
   
   
5. An overall urban public transport strategy was developed in mid-1996 drawing together the individual elements into a comprehensive strategy that could not only be implemented, but also be financed.

Other team members developed new accounting and MIS systems for the companies, established and implemented new maintenance procedures, organised extensive training programs, and dealt with corporate governance in the trucking sector.

Many of the individual recommendations have already been implemented in full or in part, including the restructuring of the DUT and Bus Company 2. The main strategic elements are currently being reviewed by the relevant Mongolian ministries in discussion with the World Bank.

Team members included Barry Collins, Donie O'Brien, Ian Averill and Marian Wilson of CIE, Ian Barrett of IBIS, Vladimir Bourenkov and Patrick McLoughlin associated with CIE Consult, Lars Larssen and Tom Reid. Dr. D. Gotov was our lead Monoglian counterpart, and an invaluable team member.

This was an enjoyable project for those who can appreciate Mongolia as they find it. As an entry point to learning about Mongolia, www.bluemarble.net/~mitch/mong/mf/mf-5.html will give you some interesting links to pictures, country news, wildlife, culture, media etc.

Latvia is a little smaller than Ireland, has a population of 2.8 million people, of whom about 800,000 live in riga. The next city is Daugavpils (150,000) and there are 26 'counties' in Latvia. All in all, similar characteristics to Ireland. As the Soviet Union unravelled, the Baltic States asserted their independence, and as a result are more closely aligned to Europe than the other Republics. Due to their historic trading links, and their national characteristics, Latvia does not face the same cultural challenge to move towards the market economy. Nonetheless, the administrative, legal, financial and property legacy from the Soviet era has left many challenges to be overcome.

The PHARE program of the EU and the World Bank are both active in the public transport domain in Latvia. The PHARE program has particularly concentrated on the inter-urban sector, and engaged CIE Consult to develop a Master Plan for the Road Passenger Public Transport sector. ETTS provided assistance to the team. In Latvia, there are some 74 operators in the inter-urban or regional transport sector, although about eight of these operators account for the majority of the transport supply. These are mostly the former regional publicly-owned operators, many of whom are still in the public sector. There is no co-ordination or integration of services, although the Ministry of Transport does use their liberal licencing system to minimise conflicts. An upper ceiling applies to tariffs, which are distance related.

ETTS was on-site in late-96/early-97. The specific ETTS assistance included the following key tasks :

1. Development of the conceptual model, organisational structure, functional requirements, and operational mechanisms for a national inter-urban passenger transport planning agency. The agency was designed to both plan and procure the network of services.
   
   
2. Functional and technical specification of the customer and operational support systems, including traveller information, booking and reservation, ticketing, and operational control. This also included measures to protect revenue.
   
   
3. Development of model service contracts through which the new agency can procure the network routes.

The recommendations have been well received and are being assessed in detail at present by both the Ministry of Transport and the Latvian bus industry. It is expected that the implementation phase will commence in late-97 and carry though for two to three years.

Other members of the team inluded Ian Barrett of IBIS, Colm McGiolla R¡, Michael Carroll and Dick Mullin associated with CIE, and Alain Delmotte and Pierre van der Limput of Transurb.

To learn more about Latvia, and especially Riga, try linking to the 'Riga This Week' homepage which is the essential guide to the city.

Public transport is the main transportation mode both in Russian cities and for inter-urban travel. Most cities, even those around 200,000 people, will have a mix of bus, trolleybus and tram systems. As already experienced in Mongolia and Latvia (who have the same basic administrative and technical systems), there has been an almost total lack if investment in rolling stock or fixed infrastructure since about 1989. Naturally, the units are mostly life-expired (they planned for a 4-6 year life for buses) and this results in most vehicles being in poor physical repar with a high breakdown rate. Fleet availability is typically around 50-60% compared to a planned 87-89% in Western countries.

The poor condition of the Russian economy means that many workers are not being paid, so they cannot afford to pay the transport fares, and cities often do not honour the subsidy commitments. This means that transport companies are is a very poor financial positions, and have little possibility to generate funds for reinvestment.

The TACIS program of the EU has sponsored a project for public transport reform in 14 medium-sized Russian cities. This includes five cities of over one million inhabitants, and nine cities of under a half-million inhabitants. The reform program focuses on the business, information and management systems of the public transport sector, but does extend its remit to the adminsitrative environment in which it is operating. The project parallels a World Bank project which has provided capital loans for some bus purchases in the fourteen cities, most of which came on-stream in the first quarter of 1997.

ETTS supported the project leaders DHV and HTA of Netherlands during the early months of 1997. The key tasks for ETTS were :

1. Review in-depth and evaluate the tariff setting, fare collection and revenue protection systems, including the administrative basis and the categories of free travel persons. This identified structural weaknesses at national and local administration level, and within the transport operators. The difficulties in fare collection and the key sources of revenue leakage were identified.
   
   
2. Reform measures were developed at three layers :
   • national level actions to devolve decision taking and intitatives to local level
   • local level actions to accept devolved functions, and to initiate change
   • operator level actions to improve revenue collection and commercial viability
   
   
3. Project lines were developed for actions relating to fare collection systems. Functional and technical specifications were developed for a portable ticketing machine for conductors. The recommendations were presented to the Russian Ministry of Transport in February 1997 and are being assessed by both the Ministry and the PHARE program. The World Bank is also analysing the ticketing system recommendations for potential implementation funding.

ETTS has been involved in a number of other projects in East Europe and the CIS in association with CIE Consult. Three key projects include :

1. In 1992, expertise was provided to the RATB, the public transport operator of Bucharest, Romania. The fare collection system of the city's Metro was examined, and options were developed and costed. The specification for a magnetic card based system was provided to the operator, and has subsequently been implemented.
   
   
2. In 1994, ETTS provided assistance to CIE Consult for a World Bank investment appraisal project in the Ukraine, covering the cities of Kiev, L'viv and Krivoy Rog. We carried out an in-depth analysis of the fare collection and operational control systems of Kiev's transport modes. A comprehensive and integrated set of measures weer developed to cover the tariff structure, fare collection system, and revenue protection system. Terms of Reference were developed for the implementation phase.
   
   
3. In early 1995, ETTS provided assistance to Holland Transport Advising and to CIE Consult in relation to the public transport system on Tashkent, Uzbekistan, as part of a TACIS program project. As in Kiev, we carried out an in-depth analysis of the revenue and fare collection system. As well as the recommendations for reform and investment, we developed a detailed technical specification for the recommended fare colleciton system.

ETTS has carried out two keynote studies for the Irish Energy Centre at Forbairt, being part of the EU THERMIE program.

1. In 1993, we carried out the study "Energy Efficiency in Urban Public Transport in Ireland". In this project, we examined the public transport and traffic characteristics of Ireland's medium-sized cities (Dublin already being covered by the DTI). We considered the potential for energy saving at three levels:
   
   
   • the vehicle design and fuel type
   • influencing the operating environment through traffic management and bus priority
   • travel demand management and modal shift potential
   
   A practical project outline was developed for Cork city which included measures at all three levels. The report was published as part of the OPET/THERMIE information booklets.
   
   
2. In 1995, ETTS carried out the study "Energy Consumption Awareness for Fleet Operators". In this study, we examined a number of energy saving methods, devices, and practices which are applicable to the public transport and commercial fleets. We then carried out surveys to see whether the operators (owners, managers, dispatchers) were aware of these measures, and thus of the ability to save energy and reduce costs.

We found a very large variation in both (accurate) awareness of the measures and in their application in practice.We concluded that active promotion of existing methods is just as important as further research and development of further innovations.

The report was published as part of the OPET/THERMIE information booklets.

Other projects in which we have provided assistance in the public transport sector include :

1. in 1992/3 we worked with EPYPSA of Spain and CIE Consult to carry out an assessment of the magnetic-card based ticketing systems of Dublin and London, and to develop detailed functional and technical specifications for the integrated ticketing system for the city of Valencia. The specifications included coding specifications for the magnetic cards.
   
   
2. in 1995, ILPAP (the trolleybus operator in Athens) requested ETTS to evaluate their approach towards an Automatic Vehicle Monitoring system, and to make technical and implementation recommendations to allow them proceed with their proposal.

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