Projects and visions of the future: Three-day workshop by INTERREG Europe
- Cross-border passenger transport: Exchange of more than 20 experts from five European regions in Innsbruck
- Exchange with the Provincial Councilor for Mobility Zumtobel
How to improve cross-border mobility? What projects could be launched to facilitate local and long-distance passenger transport between different regions? An INTERREG-Europe mobility workshop at the new Euregio campus in Innsbruck addressed this this week. In addition to the Tyrol-Südtirol-Trentino Europaregion, representatives of four other Euregios were present: Euregio Senza Confini (Carinthia, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia), Euregio Maas-Rhein (Belgium, Germany, Netherlands), Euregio Egrensis (Germany-Czech Republic ) and the German-Polish partnership on the Oder River.
The aim of the three-day event was to compare the experiences of the Euregio Tirol-Südtirol-Trentino with the experiences of the other four Euregios and to learn from each other. At the end of the event, the results and concrete project ideas were discussed with Tyrolean mobility advisor René Zumtobel.
Best practice in Euregio Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino
“Euregio Tirol-Südtirol-Trentino has made great strides for its approximately 1.8 million residents in terms of cross-border mobility over the past ten years,” said Provincial Councilor Zumtobel, cross-border family and student ticketing or the integration of Tyrol Time do Sul in the VVT time information. Exchanging with other Euregions helps everyone involved to develop new concepts and learn from each other’s experiences. It is my clear political objective to further improve public mobility – also across borders – and to think beyond national borders.” The Euregio2Plus day ticket has been purchased more than 1,800 times in one year and the Euregio cross-border ticket for students is also sold with more than 2,600 tickets in high demand in the last university year.
But cross-border mobility is also on Tirol’s agenda outside the Euregio association: “In its role as co-leader of Action Group 4 Mobility, Euregio Tiro-Südtirol-Trentino is also heavily involved in the EU EUSALP’s Alpine Space Strategy and is pushing This topic is also making progress outside the Euregio,” says LR Zumtobel. The focus of the three-day INTERREG event, attended by more than 20 experts from the four Euregions, was the question of how technical and legal obstacles in cross-border public transport can be overcome. overcome in the future. With regard to the new INTERREG Italy-Austria program until 2027, concrete projects are now being developed and submitted for funding. The results of the mobility workshop form an important basis for the development of these forward-looking projects. One specific proposal was, for example, the expansion of transfer-free connections in the Euregion – a project that LR Zumtobel is also involved in. will drive: “There are technical and legal obstacles in the implementation of cross-border connections, but they can be overcome. In the future, there will be significantly more continuous and direct rail connections between Tyrol and South Tyrol, but also between South Tyrol and Trentino.”
“Future-oriented traffic and mobility concepts are crucial for the development of the Alpine region. In 2022, we again had To 2.5 million trucks and eleven million cars in the Brenner Pass alone. In addition to other measures, reducing private motorized transport is an important building block to alleviate the Brenner corridor – this requires passenger-friendly cross-border connections and uniform ticketing,” says LR Zumtobel, pleased with the exchange between the Euregios.