Intermodality Promotion and Rail Renaissance in Adriatic – Ionian Region

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Lagging behind Central&Northern Europe in terms of growth and economic development, ADRION’s countries should stimulate the take up of innovative strategies and smart solutions so as to reach sustainability goals. Improving Region’s accessibility as indicated in EUSAIR strategy can be a decisive drive towards this objective. What is mainly missing, as proven by the failure past stories, is the capacity of key players & different decision making levels (local, national, transnational) to establish strong cooperation schemes able to enable the desired growth in a territory consisting of countries presenting great differentiations. Based on the principles of smart specialization, that is built on regional strengths, competitive advantages and cooperation, and following a well-defined forward-looking agenda towards passengers’ intermodality promotion and rail revitalization, transportation negative effects can be handled and environmental performance in the Region can be improved. ADRION should invest on passengers’ intermodality to revitalise itself; the unrelenting strong competition from the road sector should be balanced by the respective promotion of combined sea - rail alternatives. Building on the knowledge of previous projects, especially in RAIL4SEE, while drawing inspiration from ongoing innovative initiatives (e.g. North Adriatic Ports Association), Inter-Connect project seeks new solutions tailored to ADRION’s specificities for the promotion of intermodal transport and guides the respective actors on how to turn connectivity plans into reality. Hubs clustering, identification of current and future trip generating poles, user surveys for mobility needs and expectations understanding, mapping of drivers, cooperation schemes establishment, soft mobility measures (e.g. integrated ticketing, harmonized timetables&procedures)&funding opportunities examination, roadmap formulation constitute Inter-Connect approach. Summing up, Inter-Connect project is estimated to boost intermodal PuT based (rail-sea) passenger transport in ADRION through; - The identification of key players in mobility planning and the creation of a cooperation environment (Inter-Connect Transnational cooperation network) where experience and knowledge exchange will take place; - The development of common understanding of area’s needs, challenges, opportunities and treats and the reaching of an agreement among stakeholders for the direction towards which mobility planning should focus (Action Plan on ADRION intermodality arising from real needs understanding and flows analysis, Detailed Action Plan based on Inter-Connect cases examination outputs); - The formulation of a strategic framework for enhancing intermodality in the area and the respective authorities training on how to implement and finance measures able to add on ADRION sustainability (Inter-Connect Strategy-Roadmap with measures in a hierarchical order).

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