The proportion of the European population residing in urban areas is expected to increase from 73 % in 2010 to 82 % by 2050. Meanwhile, European cities need to enhance mobility and to reduce congestion, accidents and pollution through local mobility policies. The EU allocated 10,7 billion euro between 2000 and 2013 to co‑finance projects helping cities to implement urban transport such as metros, trams and buses.
The European Court of Auditors assessed whether the projects were implemented as planned, provided services that meet user needs and were used as much as expected. The Court audited the performance of 26 public urban transport projects directly in 11 cities in five Member States, and issued a number of recommendations for the European Commission.
The conclusions of the report are:
- In general, infrastructure and vehicles for most projects were implemented in accordance with project specifications. Significant delays affected four urban transport projects and three projects had significant cost overruns.
- Once completed, almost all the projects audited met users’ needs. However, a comparison between planned use at specific dates and actual use shows that two thirds of the projects were underutilised.
- The underutilisation of public transport is mainly due to weaknesses in project design and mobility policy. Several could have been addressed at the project planning stage.
The Special Report was presented in the TRAN Committee meeting on 24.02.15. The document is available here
Original source: EP TRAN Committee
