How can we best combine public transport with ride-sharing to reduce private car ownership? It’s the central question of RIDE2RAIL, the new EU-funded project coordinated by UITP. The RIDE2RAIl project held its kick-off meeting on 11 December in Brussels.

As widely recognised, ride-sharing, if properly implemented, has the potential to reduce the number of cars on the road. Especially in rural areas, where commuting distances are higher and public transport cannot always operate efficiently, ride-sharing can be seen as a solution to fight private car ownership.

The RIDE2RAIL project aims to create solutions and tools that enable people to compare and choose between multiple transport options and services, that way making ride-sharing a (more) attractive way to move passengers towards public transport services and at the same time fight congestion and pollution.

The project seeks to integrate multiple (public/private/social) data sets and existing transport platforms to make ride-sharing a complementary transport mode that extends public transport and rail networks. RIDE2RAIL solutions will be tested in four sites around Europe: Padua, Brno, Athens, and Helsinki. 

“Multimodality is key to ensuring a mobility system that is truly serving the passenger. By combining the strengths of public transport and ride-sharing, the RIDE2RAIL project seeks to increase the number of passengers using public transport, improve the rail connection with rural areas, and minimise environmental pollution while travelling,” said Umberto Guida, Senior Director Knowledge and Innovation at UITP.

The project, which joins 17 partners from 10 countries, falls under the Shift2Rail initiative – a body from the European Union aiming to make railway services more attractive.