Brussels, 06/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - European Commission Vice-President with responsibility for Transport Siim Kallas, speaking at the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) conference in Lyons on Monday 6 June, issued a challenge to industry to design a truly European journey planner that includes all countries and transport modes. More than 100 journey planners may already exist, but there is not one yet that allows users to find information or book a ticket for a journey within Europe regardless of the number of countries or transport modes involved.
Kallas said he could not understand why there is such a variety of journey planners when there is supposed to be one European market. “I want to travel through Europe, switching from air to rail or sea, to urban or road transport with a single ticket planned and bought online”, he said, pointing out that “the technology already exists”. He added: “We just need to get things started so that millions of Europeans are able to plan their journey with just a few simple clicks.” The commissioner noted that multimodal travel - where different types of transport are taken for one journey - is part of the answer to the many issues related to transport, such as climate change, increasing congestion, and higher fuel costs. Multimodal travel would not only be better for the environment, it may also be easier on our wallets, he said.
The challenge to come up with a truly European journey planner is open to everyone. The public will be able to vote on the journey planners that have been submitted and are already up and running, while a professional jury will evaluate ideas for a new multimodal planner. The winners will receive help from the European Commission to promote their ideas. People have until 9 September 2011 to submit their ideas. From 15 October to 15 November 2011 all operational planners that have been submitted and preselected will be put to a public vote on the website of the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport. Meanwhile, a professional jury will evaluate ideas for new journey planners.
At the conference Kallas unveiled the challenge webpage eujourneyplanner.eu featuring, in addition to all details on the challenge, a selection of existing national journey planners on a clickable map of Europe. He also opened the 8th ITS European Congress in Lyons on 6 June. The congress is dedicated to “Intelligent mobility - ITS for sustainable transport of persons and goods in urban regions”. (O.L./transl.rt)