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copyright 2002 by the ARTS Consortium. ARTS is a project within the fifth framework programme of the European Union - competitive and sustainal growth.
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Description of the demonstration in several languages
de | en | es | fi | gr | hu | sw
Place: Leppävirta, Finland
Within the Finnish Demonstration project 'Leppävirta service lines' in the municipality of Leppävirta in eastern Finland, a demand-responsive service is developed including the introduction of a multipurpose vehicle and taxis supported by the existing travel dispatch centre in the neighbouring city of Kuopio.
Demand-activated transport services ? connecting Leppavirta centre with all other parts of the municipality - have been started on the 3rd of June 2002. The services are open for everybody, but most of the passengers will probably be elderly people living in minor villages or individual houses in countryside. These transport services are tailor-made to complete the other public transport services ? mainly fixed route buses and special school transport.
Main 'features' of this demonstration:
- Utilization of the technology and software of the existing Travel Dispatch Center (TDC)in Kuopio,
- Introduction of a new multipurpose vehicle and taxis operating under the control of TDC,
- Transport services introduced cover almost every part of the municipality,
- Field studies and interviews to check the impact of measures (e.g. is there any changes in travelling, opinions of the users about new services),
- In-depth surveys in the effectiveness of new transport services.
The demo consists of two parts, a main part (minibus-service) and additional services (taxi-services):
Main part of the demo:
- Minibus, 14 seats for passengers, room for 1-2 wheelchairs, on board
data terminal for communication with TDC
- Operating from Monday to Friday during 7-16 o'clock,
- Operating in five different areas and in the centre of Leppävirta.
Additional services:
- Taxis, 8 seats for passengers, drivers have communicators to receive DC-messages
- Services run mainly during school holidays two times per week,
- Connections to the centre of Leppävirta and back, arrivals to the centre by 10 a.m. and returns starting from noon.
On-demand services - reservation procedure and policies:
All services introduced within the frame of this demonstration-project are demand responsive. The customers pre-book a ride by calling to the travel dispatch centre. Customers are asked to reserve their trips a day before by telephone. The latest accepted time for reservations is half an hour before desired departure. If a taxi service gets more than eight requests, only the first eight ones will be served. In the case that the minibus gets too much passengers from bus stops those who have requested the trip beforehand are privileged. The aim is to pick up all passengers within five minutes of the agreed time.
Travel Dispatch Center:
The travel dispatch centre started in Kuopio in 1998. It is operated by a company owned by municipalities and the Social Insurance Institution (KELA). It has received funding also from the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the Provincial State Office of Eastern Finland. It is serving the needs of eight municipalities and KELA. The centre takes the requests from the customers by telephone, plans the taxi and minibus routes and communicates this information to the drivers. It is operating in weekdays between 7 and 17 o´clock. The software system used in the travel dispatch centre combines the requests made from the service area and sends the route information to the driver. All taxi drivers have a Nokia communicator and the minibus is equipped with an onboard data terminal.
Routes and stops:
The offered services are mainly door-to-door-services, but there are two checkpoints at the centre of Leppävirta and one in operating area Sorsakoski where the vehicle will always stop and customers can get on the bus without pre-booking.
Leppävirta demo tries to overcome some
- enonomical and socio-economical barriers (long term financing, public funding etc.)
- legal barriers (e.g. finding the balance between regular scheduled services and on demand services)
- organisational barriers (e.g. co-operation among parts of the administration)
- cultural barriers (reluctance to changes, political decisionmaking about financing)
Barriers already encountered in the initial project phase are
· lack of financing,
· lack of resources,
· lack of expertise and technology.
The problems encountered during the start up of the Finish project can be summarised as stemming from the lack of competence and financing. Taking first, local municipalities, the question of how to finance the transport services demanded by inhabitants has arisen and has become a major barrier in the demonstration project. Furthermore at local administrative level there is a
great lack of resources as well as of expertise concerning the implementation of the new system. It has been claimed that there is nobody familiar with new transport issues; the official(s) in charge of implementing services may feel that they do not have adequate expertise and know-how.
Moreover, lack of technology may cause problems for operators, as they require
new equipment but they cannot be sure whether or not new investments will be profitable. One reason is the insecure long-term financing of new transport systems, which is “already worrying”, because financing is limited to just two years. After that fixed period, municipalities will be in charge of financing and finding new forms of funding. These problems were indeed identified earlier and
come into the categories of ‘economic and socio-economic barriers’ and 'organisational barriers’.
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