Benchmarking and Quality management in public transport
vol 2
Teaching and Learning Material
funded within the 6th Framework Programme of the EU
as Specific Support Action
The sole responsibility for the content of this publication lies with the authors. It does not represent the opinion of the Community. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.
For the use of the following material:
The following material contains results of EU research projects and complementary results of national research.
Volume II of the Teaching and Learning material is based on new or updated research results in the field of local and regional transport. The aim of the material is to provide easy access for lecturers and students to single projects and detailed results. The material provided is not comprehensive, but contributes to the wider set of course material on this topic. A complete list of the projects, consortia and cited literature including links, is provided at the end of the material.
This material, based on project results for the topic Benchmarking and Quality Management in Public Transport, was compiled by Maeve Kennedy Grimes and Graham Lightfoot of Mendes Limited in 2007.
BEST - Thematic network on BEnchmarking in tranSporT
Urban Transport Benchmarking Initiative
UniAccess - Design of Universal Accesibility Systems for Public Transport
CoMET – Community of Metros
COMPETENCE - Strengthening the knowledge of local management agencies in the transport field
PLUME - PLanning and Urban Mobility in Europe
Table of Contents
1.Updated Research Results 2002-2006
1.1Conclusion of BEST project
1.2New Benchmarking Projects
CoMET
PLUME
THE URBAN TRANSPORT BENCHMARKING INITIATIVE
UniAccess
COMPETENCE
1.3Examples and Study Sites
Example: Urban Transport Benchmarking Initiative.
Example: COMPETENCE Initiative
Example: PUBLIC TRANSPORT RESEARCH PROGRAMME JOTU
1.4Exercises / Assignments for Module
2.Literature and Websites
3.Glossary
UniAccess project
The Urban Transport Benchmarking Initiative
PLUME
4.The consortia of the projects
Benchmarking & Quality Management in Public Transport1
Volume II Teaching and Learning Material
1.Updated Research Results 2002-2006
1.1Conclusion of BEST project
The final BEST conference took place in Brussels on 12-13 March 2003. The conference consolidated the findings of the BEST project and presented the results of its sister project, BOB. BEST provided expert and practical information about benchmarking methodology, key success factors, benefits, limitations and the challenges involved in benchmarking. Through the presentation of examples of successful benchmarking projects, participants learned about the benefits of benchmarking as well as the challenges and problems that can be encountered.
BEST covered new ground by exploring the potential of benchmarking at the levels of policy and strategy. As a result of the debates and exchanges at BEST conferences, five types of benchmarking in relation to policy were identified: Policy on benchmarking; Benchmarking into policy; Benchmarking for policy; Benchmarking of policy; and Benchmarking of policy making. Reports, conference proceedings and newsletters prepared as part of the BEST project can be found on the project website. A vast number of references are included for additional review.
Figure 1: Challenges of accessibility
1.2New Benchmarking Projects
CoMET
CoMET, the "Community of Metros" is a programme of international railway benchmarking. It is a consortium of twelve of the world's largest metropolitan railways (metros) - Berlin BVG, Hong Kong MTR, London Underground Ltd, Metro de Madrid, Mexico City STC, Moscow MoM, Paris Metro (RATP), Paris RER, New York City Transit, Shanghai SMOC, São Paulo MSP and Tokyo Metro - each of which transport more than half a billion passengers per year.
The four main objectives of CoMET are:
- To build measures to establish metro best practice
- To provide comparative information both for the metro board and the government
- To introduce a system of measures for management
- To prioritise areas for improvement.
This consortium continues to share information regarding benchmarking of metropolitan railways. Its website includes newsletters and articles for additional reading.
Smaller metropolitan railways are represented by the Nova Consortium, a programme of fifteen medium sized metro systems from around the world - Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Delhi, Glasgow, Hong Kong (KCRC), Lisbon, Milan, Montréal, Naples, Newcastle upon Tyne, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago de Chile, Singapore, Taipei and Toronto.
PLUME
PLUME (PLanning and Urban Mobility in Europe) was a thematic network which dealt with issues connected to the integration of urban planning and urban mobility. For a 3 year period from October 2002, PLUME built on the work of a number of individual RTD projects within the Key Action, each of which addressed specific issues of Land Use and Transportation Research (LUTR).
The need to develop tools to benchmark the implementation of integrated land use and transport policies was identified as a requirement of PLUME and this was discussed in some depth with End Users and researchers at the End User workshops. The LUTR benchmarking exercise was undertaken as part of the activities of the PLUME End User Group, and a report was submitted as an additional deliverable to the core actions. The primary aim of the exercise was to compare planning and urban mobility policies, measures and tools in the End User cities.
The benchmarking exercise was a start which allowed the network to discuss how benchmarking of LUTR policies could be achieved and to carry out some preliminary investigations. All End User cities were given the opportunity to participate in the benchmarking exercise and 15 of these cities provided data indicators relating to urban mobility and land use planning issues. Two sets of data indicators were collected; common indicators relating to transport systems, which were identical to those being collected for another group of cities in the DG TREN Urban Transport Benchmarking Initiative, and PLUME indicators relating specifically to urban mobility and land use planning issues.
THE URBAN TRANSPORT BENCHMARKING INITIATIVE
The European Commission's Urban Transport Benchmarking Initiative was a three-year project exploring and comparing best practise examples of urban transport delivery in 45 cities across Europe between September 2003 and August 2006.
Six working groups carried out the work on the project: Urban Transport for Disabled People, Behavioural and Social Issues in Public Transport, City Logistics, Cycling, Demand Management and Public Transport Organisation and Policy
Within the scope of the Public Transport Organisation and Policy working group, the cities participating in the working group were: Athens, Belfast, Berlin, Budapest, Brussels, Dublin, Merseyside, Netherlands Ministry of Transport, and Stuttgart. The Leader of this working group was Laurent Franckx (UITP).
An interactive benchmarking tool that uses the data collected through this initiative is available for use on the project website. The online benchmarking tool has been developed in order to enable instantaneous graphical comparisons to be made between the indicator data collected by the cities participating in the Urban Transport Benchmarking Initiative. Representatives from cities not participating in the project are also able to enter their data and benchmark their city’s urban transport characteristics against those in the cities involved in the Urban Transport Benchmarking Initiative.
UniAccess
UniACCESS was a Co-ordinated Action funded within the 6th Framework Programme for Research and Development and was completed in November 2006. The goal of this project was to promote and support the networking and co-ordination of research and innovation activities in the field of universal design of accessibility systems for public transport between a comprehensive group of stakeholders (end users, designers and manufacturers, operators, authorities) with a view to achieve quality and equality of access to public transport in theE.U.
The final output of the project was Understanding the Evolution from Accessibility to Universal Design, A Reference Guide (2006) which can be found on the UniAccess website. The reference manual introduces the reader to how UNIVERSAL DESIGN can be applied to different public transport modes in as a solution for all citizens, based on people with reduced mobility.
The report sets out 7 principles of universal design: 1. Equitable Use, 2. Flexibility in Use, 3. Simple and Intuitive, 4. Perceptible Information, 5. Tolerance for Error, 6. Low Physical Effort, and 7. Size and Space for Approach and Use.
COMPETENCE
“COMPETENCE - Strengthening the knowledge of local management agencies in the transport field” is a 30-months project co-financed by the European Commission under STEER within the framework of the Intelligent Energy - Europe Programme EIE. The main activities in COMPETENCE are the design and implementation of international and national training and know how transfer activities, the design of training materials and the implementation of case studies as part of a training-on-the-job-programme. The COMPETENCE project consortium involves the active participation of 15 countries in Europe.
Within the scope of COMPETENCE, there are 15 learning topics, including Public transport (quality, benchmarking, intermodality). This project continues until July 2007 at which time reports will be made available on their website.
1.3Examples and Study Sites
As stated in Volume 1, there are several examples of the formalisation of quality and implementation of benchmarking. These examples can be found throughout the project websites listed above. In addition to the project websites themselves, updated examples can also be found on the ELTIS website.
Example: Urban Transport Benchmarking Initiative.
Within the Urban Transport Benchmarking Initiative site visits were made to various cities to demonstrate the impact participation in this benchmarking project was having on public transport. Here are two examples.
City of Hasselt, Belgium
Hasselt is the capital of LimburgProvince, located in the Flanders region, approximately 70 kilometres east of Brussels.
The most important tools behind developments in Hasselt are the Mobility Plan and the Decree of Basic Mobility which sets out a right of mobility for all citizens. The Decree of Basic Mobility gives the citizens of Flanders the right to a minimum standard of public transport. This does vary depending on whether residents live in rural, suburban, or urban areas. Another defining feature of public transport within Hasselt is that journeys that take place within the city are free to all users, a policy which was introduced in 1997 by the Mayor at the time, Steve Stevaert. Actions taken under the mobility programme and aimed at increasing the offer of public transport have included developing standards, creating a project structure, integrating accessibility criteria into the technical specification for new vehicles, introducing guidelines for drivers for assisting disabled people, developing a multi-modal information and booking centre for disabled people, and adapting 30 of the mostused currently non-accessible bus stops in Hasselt so that they are accessible.
RATP loyalty programme “IMAGIN R”
The public transport operators in Paris, primarily RATP, have established a loyalty programme Imagin R’. Imagin R provides concessions to younger people in Paris as a result of their loyalty. Prior to Imagin R’, which was introduced in 1998, there was no public transport fare package for younger people in Paris. As a result this scheme is the first to offer younger people discounted travel (between 30% and 50% reduction) in the city of Paris and this is possible due to the support the scheme receives from STIF, the Region Ile de France and surrounding Départements. The scheme was one of the first integrated tickets to be introduced in the Ile de France region and it permits young people to benefit from the discounted fares during the week and at weekends, irrespective of the zones they travel in.
The scheme is aimed at two key groups; juniors (aged 12-26) and majors (aged 26+) and the core target is the 900,00 people aged 10-25 that live in Paris. The mission statement for Imagin R’ is “We can help you go farther during your free time” and the success of the scheme can be measured by the 75% penetration rate of the core market (680,000 card holders).
In order to maintain the freshness of the product, RATP seeks to improve Imagin R’ for its users on an annual basis. In addition to this the Imagin R’ website ( is used to advertise short term offers and events. The aim is to keep people interested in public transport after the age of 26, because there is a perception that once people no longer qualify for the reduced fares and promotional offers they stop using public transport.
Example: COMPETENCE Initiative
Within the Competence project, the majority of the project outcomes will not be published until June/July 2007. However, the following are examples of interesting case studies.
Brussels, Belgium
The Brussels case study showed:
- Increase of public transport supply
- Improved quality (new buses, frequency, night services)
- New tariff policy
- +50% in public transport use between 1999 and 2004
Dublin, Ireland
The Dublin case study showed:
- Implementation of 100 km of bus corridors
- Provision of Park & Ride parking with fares integrated with public transport
- Bus speed 30 to 50% higher than car speed
- +29.7% in bus use (+38% in peak hours)
- 65% of new customers from the car
Example: PUBLIC TRANSPORT RESEARCH PROGRAMME JOTU
WSP LT CONSULTANTS LTD and the Finnish Local Transport Association are co-operatively carrying out this research project. The work began in autumn 2006 and will be completed by summer 2007. The objective of this research project is to determine the known quality factors of public transport, but especially to find out the hidden factors that strongly affect people’s opinions of the quality (level of service) of public transport.
The existing guidelines for the impact assessment of transport systems have been primarily developed for large infrastructure projects. They also cover big railway projects, but do not generally facilitate the assessment of the supply or the quality of services. The existing guidance is also scattered among various documents.
The objectives of the public transport assessment guidelines are as follows:
- To collect all existing guidance on public transport at a single location.
- To structure various measures into practical types and cases in view of the assessment.
- To deepen and extend the existing general guidelines so that a practical and coherent guidance exists for various cases.
- To define the principles of the documentation of the public transport assessment.
- To provide examples of the assessment of various public transport measures.
The main result will be the public transport guidelines that include guidance for the assessment of most types of public transport measures. The guidelines will be a collection of the relevant information, recommendations and procedures of the assessment.
The guidelines will be a consistent, condensed and clear document that will contain all relevant guidance and principles. The guidelines will function as a rulebook for all identified (significant and common) situations concerning public transport. In addition to regular measures (e.g. rail investment, corridor and travel centre projects) these include other measures that have effects on public transport, operations, tariffs or development programmes.
For further information, go to the project website
1.4Exercises / Assignments for Module
Below is a simplified list of steps towards Benchmarking. Choose one of the 9 steps and design a step by step approach to completing the task set forth.
- Set objectives and define the scope of your efforts
- Gain support from your organisation
- Select a benchmarking approach
- Identify benchmarking partners
- Gather information (research, surveys, benchmarking visits)
- Distil the learning
- Select ideas to implement
- Pilot
- Implement
2.Literature and Websites
The following literature and websites have been used to produce these materials. Here you can find further information, project results and good / best practice case studies. Please note that websites may be closed after a certain period.
BESTBEST reports, conference proceedings and newsletters can be found on the BEST website (project concluded 2003)
UTBIUTBI end of year reports can be found on the UTBI website
The UTBI Online Benchmarking tool can be found at
UniAccessUnderstanding the Evolution from Accessibility to Universal Design, A Reference Guide (2006) can be found on the UniAccess website
CoMETCoMET international railway benchmarking information can be found on their website at
Anderson, R. (2006), Metro Benchmarking yield tangible benefits, European Rail Outlook, March 2006 Papers/Metro benchmarking yield tangible benefits.pdf
August 2006
Volume 1, Issue 1 CoMET and Nova Newsletter (August 2006)
COMPETENCEFrom public transport to integrated mobility, article by Mohamed Mezghani (2005). Modern and efficient Public Transport System, Reference Material for COMPETENCE, compiled by Mohamed Mezghani (2005). These two articles are available on the COMPETENCE website at (project continuing until July 2007)
PLUMEPLanning and Urban Mobility in Europe. DELIVERABLE 11: Final Report (September 2005) and other deliverables are available at
NOVANOVA international railway benchmarking information for medium sized metro railway systems can be found at
ELTISEuropean Local Transport Information Service
JOTUJoukkoliikenteen tutkimusohjelma (Public Transport Research Programme Jotu) A Finish benchmarking project which we be completed by the summer of 2007.
3.Glossary
The content of the glossary is taken from the following projects: UniAccess, Urban Transport Benchmarking Initiative and PLUME.
UniAccess project
Collaborationis the process wherein Units work together to achieve outcomes for shared stakeholders, quicker and more cost effectively than if they worked on their own, without having to change the "how" codes of any of the participating Units.
A High Performing Collaboration Team is a group of people each representing their own Unit who make quick and cost effective decisions that remove barriers preventing participating Units from succeeding and if applicable pass single requests to senior managers that will make it easier and quicker for all Units to succeed