INTRODUCTION

Czech Association of Public Transport Authorities (in Czech: Česká asociace organizátorů veřejné dopravy – CAOVD) was based in 2004 as a representative of the public transport authorities – organisers (companies owned by regions or cities) that are responsible for organising and co-ordinating of integrated public transport systems in specific areas in the Czech Republic.

 

WHAT IS INTEGRATED PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM

Under the idea of integrated public transport system one understands the higher level of both regional and city public transport. In the integrated public transport all transport modes (trains, regional buses, underground, trams, city buses or trolleybuses etc.) co-operate. They can be used under the same conditions and for the united fare. It does not matter which transport mode you use for the journey from point A to point B, you can be sure, that you pay the same price and use the same and only one ticket.

There are quite a lot of integrated public transport systems in Europe – in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland etc. Most of such systems are based on the co-operation between operators. They usually establish specific body – organiser or co-ordinator responsible for timetable and fare integration, fare division and common marketing. In some cases such organisations are owned partially or totally by the cities or regions.

 

REASONS FOR INTEGRATED PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM

There are two main reasons for establishing the integrated public transport system. First is the aim to provide the public transport service more effective way. This brings savings both for the operators and the public funds. For example without integration there exist several ineffective bus s going in one direction moreover supplemented with a train line. None of these lines are used in their full capacity. If the service of some departures or lines is stopped and the passengers are let to change to train or to only one bus line, the capacity could be used more effective. The spared money could be used for increasing the offer in the badly served areas.

The second reason is to bring more passengers to the public transport. Customers can easily understand the system of line- or zone numbering due to the simplification of the network. They can use the most time effective connection and do not have to wait for specific operator. They pay the same price for the same journey which does not depend on the operator. The marketing and customer communication is for them more clear. Moreover thanks to the united fare they can be offered by special seasonal tickets and other offers. Generally the integrated public transport system simplifies the life of the customers which causes more new customers come in.

 

HISTORY OF THE INTEGRATED TRANSPORTATION IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

The first integrated public transport systems were established in the Czech Republic in the early ninetess in Prague – Prague Integrated Transport (in Czech: Pražská integrovaná doprava, abbr. PID) and in the city Zlin in eastern Moravia. Foremost the PID has grown quite rapidly and soon reached the circle of about 20-40 kilometers around Prague. In Zlin there has been only cooperation between train and city public transport operators.

The Czech Republic has been very centralised in 90s. There did not exist any regional governments but only the state and municipalities. Municipalities had supported only the city public transport. Subsidies for trains were sent directly from the Ministry of Transport. Subsidies for regional buses were distributed by political district of state administration without firm binding rules. This caused quite big structural differences in quality of public transport. The city public transports were usually well organised and functional. Due to the lack of feedback from the regions the train transport was not effective and depended only on the strengths of the separate municipalities without the regional overview. In the regional bus transport the development depended only on the abilities of the local state officials and again on the strengths of the municipalities.

These problems connected with the lack of legislative caused that the integrated public transport systems with only one exception were not created earlier than the regions and their regional governments were established (2001). The exception was the integrated public transport in the City of Ostrava where the start of the integration has been pushed by the specific multi-core region.

The establishing of the regions brought the change in the subsidies-flow and responsibilities for the regional transport. At present the state is responsible for interregional trains. Regions are responsible for regional buses and regional trains. Cities are responsible for city public transport. This division of authority enabled the systematic development of the regional public transport and establishing of integrated public transport systems.

 

PRESENT OF THE INTEGRATED TRANSPORTATION IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Actually there are two main types of the integrated public transport system in the Czech Republic. Some of the regions have decided to built their systems more like the tariff union of bus lines, sometimes partially with integration of trains or city public transport. They did not based the organiser (co-ordinator) and try to organise the system by the regional administrative officers. They resigned from the redefining the network and intermodality. The effectiveness of such system could not increase very much. The fare is also not unified and integrated completely.

The second approach is more systematic. Some regions (sometimes together with municipalities) based the organiser (co-ordinator) responsible for most of the tasks connected to the transport management. The organiser is responsible for network defining, timetable solution, common fare and transportation directives, controlling, revenues division and marketing. In such cases are usually in effective ways integrated all transport modes and passengers could use all advantages of such systems.

 

CZECH ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT AUTHORITIES

Organisers of the integrated public transport systems in the Czech Republic decided to establish the association CAPTA for co-ordination of the effort towards better conditions for integrated public transports in the Czech Republic. The seat of the CAPTA is in Ostrava (Na Hradbách 1440/16, 702 00 Ostrava-Moravská Ostrava). It has also branches in Prague (Rytířská 10, 110 00 Praha 1), Brno (Nové sady 30, 602 00 Brno) and Olomouc (Jeremenkova 40b, 779 11 Olomouc).

 

REPRESENTATIVES

Position Name E-mail Telephone
Chairperson Ing. Aleš Stejskal ales.stejskal@kodis.cz +420 596 116 308
Managing director Ing. Petr Vychodil vychodil@volny.cz +420 602 379 793
Vice-chairperson for transport organization and tariff Ing. Jiří Horský jhorsky@kordis-jmk.cz +420 543 426 651
Vice-chairperson for legislation and economy Ing. et Ing. Petr Tomčík tomcik.petr@ropid.cz +420 224 234 737
Vice-chairperson for ticketing systems and standardization Ing. Jiří Hruboň jiri.hrubon@korid.cz +420 603 155 885

AREAS OF CO-OPERATION

  1. co-operation and consultation;
  2. mutual informing on the topics relating to the public transport in the Czech Republic;
  3. harmonising the positions to present problems in the area of the public transport and discussions on legislation;
  4. active debating on problems in the area of public transport with the governmental administration.

 

AIMS OF ASSOCIATION

  1. to support the development of the public transport and its preference to individual transportation on the state level;
  2. to achieve united conditions for integrated public transport system operation;
  3. to support development of the integration in the public transport.