Digitalizing the on-demand public transportation services in Valmarecchia and Val Conca to improve their usability and management. This is the ambition of theEmilia-Romagna pilot action of the Interreg Central Europe project “Sustance,” with the participation of the Institute for Transport and Logistics, the Romagna Mobility Agency, and the collaboration of the Emilia-Romagna Region.
The project’s ambition for the regional territory is the development and testing of an app capable of enhancing the usability for users of two existing on-demand public transport services in Romagna: Valmabass, Concabus, and Concabus Misano. Specifically, this digitalization aims to improve the booking methods of on-demand services, the communication, and notification of trips between the service operators and users. This app-based booking option will complement the traditional phone booking method. Additionally, the Sustance project app aims to enhance all management operations carried out by the service operators.
The experimental phase on the territory is expected to begin towards the end of 2024, with the actual testing phase scheduled for the early months of 2025. During this testing phase, feedback from users and service operators will be collected to create a tool that meets users’ needs and can be replicated in other territorial contexts. The issue of public transportation in peripheral and low-demand areas is increasingly important at the European and Italian levels, with numerous initiatives testing various efficient solutions from both a technical and economic perspective. The Sustance project aims to contribute to this important mission of offering better public transportation options in areas where it is more challenging to provide them.
In recent months, the Romagna Mobility Agency, the Province of Rimini, the two DRT managing companies (Cooperativa La Romagnola and Autoservizi Merli) and Emilia-Romagna Region, with the support of project partner ITL, have organized several meetings. These meetings were crucial in identifying the specific aspects on which the Sustance project app should intervene.
More information about the Sustance project and the pilot action in Romagna is available on the project’s website: https://www.interreg-central.eu/projects/sustance/