|
| LiRa-2 |
| LiRa-2 > |
LiRa-2, the Final Conference
Click thumbnail for larger picture
  Mr. Jan Termorshuizen, City Region Haaglanden and chairman of theLiRa-2 Steering Committee, opened the conference in the Auditorium of the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. He introduced the LiRa-2 project, the programme of the conference and the speakers. He presented the first copy of the LiRa-2 Final Report to Councillor Jones. The report can be downloaded from the LiRa-2 download page.
 Councillor Roger Jones, Chair of Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority, welcomed the participants to Manchester and talked about the development of the Greater Manchester Metrolink system.
 Mr. Charles White, Directorate-General of Regional Development of the European Commission, gave a broad view of the present and future European regional funding. He gave some examples of Light Rail solutions in several European countries.
 Mr. René Buck, President of Buck Consultants International, gave a broad presentation of the results of the LiRa-2 project. He accentuated the main themes: Breaking Barriers in Public Transport and Seamless Journeys. Fringe services are equally important as core services: Quality Rapid Transit itself. Other issues are Travel information, a crucial element in the communication with the travellers and Professional marketing to promote the qualities of public transport.
All case studies the partners worked on were discussed on their relation with seamless journeys.
He emphasized the importance of transnational cooperation.
 Mr. Alex Muller, AGV Consultants on Mobility Issues, introduced the Rapid Transit Options Assessment Tool. The tool has been developed to assess, in an early stage of planning, what type of public transport can be thought of in a given situation. The tool can be obtained by registering on the website. During the lunch break the participants in the conference had the opportunity to test the tool themselves.
 
In the afternoon the case studies were presented more extensively by the partners in six workshops, chaired by Mr. Buck and by Mr. Nick Briggs, Lancashire Economic Partnership. The participants discussed the findings with the partners.
      
 Mr. Briggs summarized the workshops and presented the conclusions of the conference. The transnational aspect that Interreg made possible contributed highly to the success of each sub-project of the partners. The proposed approach of Breaking Barriers gives a good perspective to solve present and future problems in realising public transport projects.
 Mr. Jan Termorshuizen thanked all participants and speakers for their contributions to make the conference a success.
During coffee and lunch breaks many useful contacts were made between the participants in the conference.
 
The PowerPoint presentations that were given during the Conference can be downloaded from the LiRa-2 download page.
|
|
