CO-MODALITY AND INTERFACES BETWEEN SHORT AND LONG- DISTANCE TRANSPORT - LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE CLOSER CASE STUDIES

Interfaces between long and short-distance transport in a door to door trip remains frequently as the weak link in the transport chain for both passengers and freight. This situation favours the choice of unimodal transport solutions, and jeopardizes the development of more competitive and sustainable transport chains. The result is that door-to-door services- provided by road transport (cars for passengers and trucks for freight) has remained the dominant mode in European transport, and is only challenged by alternative modes only in particular situations (such as high-value travel, congested corridors or very long-distance transport). The CLOSER (Connecting LOng and Short-distance networks for Efficient tRansport) project has been set to analyze the interfaces and interconnections between long distance transport networks and local/regional transport networks of all modes. The project has been funded within the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission, under the topic TPT-2008.0.0.13 “New mobility/organisational schemes: interconnection between short and long-distance transport networks”.