City dwellers who drive cars produce two to three times more greenhouse gas than those who use buses and trains. And yet, public transport in Europe has not yet reached its final destination. Transport companies are constantly fighting to attract more users and to become more eco-friendly with sustainable propulsion systems and digital infrastructure. Public transport has long been Europe’s “innovation hub” for urban mobility, with a myriad of ideas and projects.
Public transport plays a central role in the fight to curb the climate crisis. While overall CO₂ emissions in the EU fell continuously from 1990 to 2023, transport is the only sector where emissions are higher today than in 1990. In the face of increasing urbanisation and growing mobility needs, public transport needs to evolve, and has to juggle multiple demands simultaneously. To name but a few, it is tasked with contributing to the reduction of CO₂ emissions, reducing the burden of car traffic, and fostering social participation. In Europe, public transport is not just a means of transport, but a key element in sustainable urban development and quality of life. In terms of mobility, European public transport systems are still among the best in the world: according to a survey of residents in 50 of the world’s largest cities (2023), in Berlin, for example, public transport is considered the best way to get around. The old continent offers a wide variety of public transport models and approaches, from centralised, national systems as in France to decentralised structures as in Germany where each municipality has its own transport company.
There are two basic organisational models for public transport in Europe: centralised and decentralised systems. Countries such as France rely on centralised control, with the state making key decisions and setting uniform standards. This enables coordinated development and, often, faster investment decisions. In contrast, public transport in Germany is highly decentralised. This means that the responsibility for transport systems resides with each municipality and federal state. While this allows for greater responsiveness to regional needs, it also leads to fragmentation and heterogeneous service quality. However, Germany has a nationwide network and the introduction of a Germany-wide ticket for 49 euros (58 euros since the beginning of the year) has made bus and rail travel much more attractive. The country is also demonstrating sustainable innovation with pilot projects such as Hamburg’s Hochbahn, which aims to become carbon-neutral by 2030. Their 1,100 diesel buses will be replaced by zero-emission electric vehicles by the early 2030s. “Public transport as a whole must offer an attractive range of services by intelligently combining different public transport services and other means of transport,” says Prof Dr Josef Becker of the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences. Becker and his team are researching a decision support system for the use of autonomous minibuses in rural areas for the combined transport of people and goods. The findings will be published in May this year.
Networking all modes of transport
“Intermodal transport” has been on the agenda of Scandinavian countries for some time. Since the 2010s, they have been working on the close integration of different modes of transport. For example, optimally networking buses, trains, and bicycle systems to offer users a seamless mobility chain. Stockholm’s Tunnelbana (underground) is renowned for its excellent service, with frequent services and a simple ticketing system that can be purchased online using almost all payment methods, as well as at many points around the city. There are also connections to other transport systems such as bicycles and car-sharing providers at transport hubs. The Netherlands has been following a similar path since 2011. With the “OV-Chipkaart” (OV = Openbaar Vervoer, public transport), the Netherlands offers its passengers a digital payment method that can be used to pay for various public transport systems. This allows users to travel throughout the Netherlands without having to worry about different fares or payment methods.
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