Basque transport chief announces ambitious plans for the region

This happened at a conference that gathers major stakeholders in that sector

Yesterday morning saw the start of the Congress of Intelligent Transport Technologies, an annual conference organized by the Mobility and Logistics Cluster of the Basque Country. The opening speaker was Iñaki Arriola, the regional Minister of Territorial Planning, who highlighted some of the major plans that his government has towards fostering a deeper integration and fully sustainable development of the public transport network of the northern Spanish region for the upcoming years.

Progress requires some turning points

Speaking at the 11^th edition of the Congress, Mr Arriola outlined the need and the intention to reform infrastructure around the concept of sustainable mobility but also around greater efficiency and convenience for the daily users of public transport.

The main points of his speech that deserve serious attention due to their promised scope are the following:

A Sustainable Mobility Law which, together with a Sustainable Mobility Plan, will legislate the regional integration of the transit system in line with the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals Agenda. This will help different level administrations to coordinate their actions towards achieving this goal.

The Interoperability system that is already under development will allow for the introduction of a single means of payment (card or ticket) that will be used on all transit operators within the Basque country, including trains, subways, buses, trams and even funiculars!

“This task requires intensifying collaboration and coordination with different public and private actors that make up the Basque transport system. And, also, the development of adequate telematic tools so that citizens have a greater knowledge of the different public transport systems, promoting their use over other alternatives and favouring mobility between municipalities,” explained Mr Arriola.

The idea of synchronizing the payment systems would only be fully coherent and beneficial if this action is combined with the implementation of a synchronized information point regarding this wide variety of transit networks. To that end, it is planned to create a mobile app that will deliver the necessary information.