Research & Innovation

The CONNECT Coordinated Action on Flexible Collective Transport Services, funded by the EC under FP6, focused on Flexible Transport Services (FTS) and all intermediate forms of transport to be classified as flexible and collective such as Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) which provides transport services "on demand" from passengers and where fleets of vehicles are scheduled to pick up and drop off people in accordance with their needs.

To date, transport services as DRT do not yet exploit the true potential of flexible collective mobility and further work is required on the knowledge acquisition, analysis and dispatching functions of such intermediate transport solutions that are required in the pursuit of sustainable mobility.

Also, the necessary supporting organizational frameworks required to deliver more effective and competitive transport solutions are not yet fully understood.

The use of urban collective transport for passenger traffic and small goods traffic has important potential from the viewpoint of the environment and city logistics. There are considerable possibilities to reduce traffic, to save operating costs and to increase the level of service experienced by passengers whilst also encouraging the promotion of small alternatively-fuelled vehicles.

University of Newcastle, TORG (GB)

VTT, Technical Research Center of FIland (FI)

ATAF (IT)

ETRA (ES)

Athens University of Economics and Business (GR)

ETTS (IR)

Angus Transport Forum (GB)

Diepens en Okkema (NL)

Institute for Transport Studies, BOKU (AT)

Isdefe (ES)

Logistik Centrum (SE)

LT Consultants Ltd.(FI)

MemEx (IT)

Mobisoft (FI)

OGnets (BE)

Polis (EU)

Rose Vision (ES)

Softeco Sismat (IT)

Szechenyi Istvan University (HU)

Technical University of Crete (GR)

Tritel (BE)

University of Southampton (GB)

Versio (FI)

In order to support the aforementioned objectives, over the two year duration the CONNECT Coordinated Action:

• set up a continuously updated web-based virtual library for gathering and managing information on on-going research, the state-of-the-art and good practices in flexible transport and its supporting technologies;
• supported the development of skills and good practice in the field of FTS through provision of training courses and educational resources; facilitation of exchanges of personnel, experience and knowledge; collection, development and promotion of good practice approaches; and identification and development of research opportunities;
• provided guidelines and recommendations for supporting the business development of FTS;
• organized four thematic workshops for relevant user communities covering information technologies; systems and operations; vehicles and vehicle technologies; and the impacts and business case of FTS increased the awareness of CONNECT initiatives among a broad audience of interested stakeholders

Marco Boero

Michele Masnata