Public Transport Trends Report Offers Bigger Picture

July 9, 2015

UITP (the International Association of Public Transport) has issued a new report entitled, "Public Transport Trends," which offers a detailed overview of a fast-evolving sector. The report shows a sector faced with many challenges but also reveals public transport’s enormous potential.

The Public Transport Trends report is a new biennial publication detailing the most significant developments already having an effect on the mobility market in general and on public transport in particular.

Public transport is faced with various challenges ranging from dealing with rapid urbanisation (over 1,000 cities of more than 500,000 residents are facing major mobility problems) and climate mitigation (encouraging a significant modal shift would save an estimated 1,700 megatons of CO2 annually by 2050) to ensuring public transport retains a central role in connected cities and finding the right funding models to help pay for it all. Public Transport Trends also provides an overview of how globalisation is affecting the industry, with liberalisation driving the emergence of major operating groups and urbanisation and environmental protection encouraging innovation as well as major competition and new markets and growth for bus and rail manufacturers.    

With case studies, interviews with key industry leaders and groundbreaking data, the report also illustrates just how much public transport will need to change both from the inside and in relation to external threats. Public transport must perform better, meet changing expectations and be more customer-oriented but the report illustrates how it can also contribute to jobs and growth and make cities both more competitive and more liveable.    

“There are numerous internal and external trends impacting public transport,” said UITP Secretary General Alain Flausch. “This new report focuses on the most significant developments for the public transport sector and is part of UITP’s mission to keep its members around the world abreast of all these future changes so that they can make informed decisions today”.