The past year was the final and firmly the busiest year for the Interreg South Baltic Interconnect project which started in June 2017. 2020 began with some great news from one of the project partners, Innobaltica (Poland), who announced an open tender for the implementation of FALA – integrated ticket for the Pomorskie Region –  a charges collecting system for transportation in collective passenger transport and a consistent passenger information system, standard for both coordinators and carriers.

On February 17th the Interconnect project was presented on a hearing regarding the revision of the TEN-T regulation held by Ministry of Infrastructure in Sweden. During the conference, the Interconnect project Manager Mr Mattias Andersson, representing Region Blekinge, had an opportunity to emphasise the importance of cross-border public transport. The collaboration between Blekinge and Pomorskie Region in the Interconnect project was set as a good example where regions collaborate with private players, in this case, Stena Line, to find new ticket solutions.

In March 2020, the South Baltic success story series, developed within ERB’s Umbrella project, noted the Interconnect project as an example of Interreg South Baltic Programme success story, offering an understanding of the best practices and the success of the project’s results and outcomes.

On March 11th 2020, a first partnership meeting was held in Karlskrona, Sweden. Due to the travel restrictions following the Covid -19 pandemic, only ten persons participated in Region Blekinge office, and two persons experienced online. During this meeting, partners discussed the multigovernance co-operation model for public transport in the South Baltic area, the main outputs of the project, and the project’s final conference details. The partnership has submitted a request for changes where additional activities were mentioned and a prolongation of the implementation period of 6 months until the end of November 2020. Furthermore, a decision was made to postpone the final conference to preliminary October 1st 2020, instead of May 7^th and most likely to hold it online.

At the turn of March and April 2020, Joint Secretariat agreed on the project’s prolongation by six months while Monitoring Committee approved all requests for changes.

With the begging of June, The Hanseatic Institute for Entrepreneurship and Regional Development at the University of Rostock (HIE-RO) announced it is about to deliver an Indicator-based self-evaluation tool in Excel for public transport planners within the task 4.2 “Implementing a multi-stakeholder planning model for public transport services”. The tool’s main objective is to develop an easy-to-use self-evaluation (or monitoring) indicator tool in Excel that can be used by public transport planners to evaluate the performance of the local and regional (public) transport system.

Between 13th and 26th of July, a joint Danish-German exhibition called “ekspeditioNORD” took place, as part of the German-Danish year of cultural friendship. The event was co-financed by the Interconnect project on the principle of supporting co-operation and cross – border interconnections between local governments and public administrations and civil societies with a specific focus on educational institutions and schools, culture and tourism organisations and business co-operations.

In August Mr Mattias Andersson, Interconnect Project leader was invited by Mukran Port in Germany to participate in ‘South Baltic Transport Loops’ project partnership meeting, where he had a chance to speak about the findings the Interconnect project and discuss the cross-project exchange.

In August, the Polish Ministry of Development Fund and Regional Policy has chosen the Interconnect Project to be promoted as one of the best projects of Interreg South Baltic Programme 2014-2020. Therefore, a photo session was organised to present the main goals and achievements of Interconnect Project. The photo session results were presented in December 2020 in a publication on “15 years of Interreg programs in Poland”.

Summer period ended up with information that the first Interconnect scientific paper on ‘PT Data for multi-stakeholder planning and monitoring excel tool for public transport services’ was accepted for publication at the CSTFM-conference in Madrid October 2020. The paper resulted from WP 3.5 and related to a process and solutions for sustainable cross-border and regional public transport.

With the beginning of September, intensive preparations for the upcoming Final Conference started. The invitation and conference agenda sent to more than 300 people and an intensive promoting campaign in social media began.

On September 8th, Mr Mattias Andersson attended the ERB Executive Board meeting. He presented the idea of establishing a new task force within ERB, concentrated on sustainable transport issues and related to the Interconnect project’s outputs.

On September 17th, the Project partner Mr Frede Danborg from Guldborgsund Kommune was invited to become one of the pannelists during the Interreg South Baltic Programme’s Annual Event celebrating 30 years of Interreg South Baltic. Mr Danborg had a chance to present the Interconnect project, its objectives and challenges throughout projects lifetime, and opportunities it has created to impact public transport in small Baltic Sea regions.

On October 1st 2020, the Interconnect Final Conference titled ‘Future of Public Transport – Trends, Tools, Governance’ was held online via Hop.in the platform. Nearly 100 participants from 14 countries joined the conference to take part in many valuable lectures on sustainable transport, cross-border passenger transport and new solutions in public transport given by experts from EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, The Hanseatic Institute for Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, Innobaltica, Blekinge Institute of Technology and Interreg South Baltic. The participants also had a chance to hear panellists from ESPON Programme, Interact Programme, Region Blekinge and Euroregion Baltic discussing and exchanging experience on various multilevel governance options.

In November, as a result of several workshops and discussions among project partners and experts in the transport sector, a Catalogue of Solutions for Sustainable Cross-Border and Regional Public Transport was finally developed and published on the project website.

The publication was shortly followed by the Interconnect Final Report on Guidelines on multilevel governance for Public Transport in the South Baltic Area published on November 25th 2020.

On November 30th 2020, partners from Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, and Viimsi Municipality in Estonia met for the last time, to sum up, the Interconnect project results. After 42 months of an exciting and fruitful co-operation, the Interconnect project partners from 6 EU countries met for the last time to finalise their work results achieved within the project. During the final meeting, the project partners had a chance, to sum up, their previous work & results within the project and share their experience and ideas for further co-operation. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the meeting was held online. All the partners expressed their hopes to continue cooperating to support the development of sustainable public transport, mobility and connectivity in South Baltic Area.

Finally on December 3rd 2020 during the final ERB Executive Board meeting in 2020 the Board members all agreed to establish another task force in the Euroregion Baltic – Mobility Core Group, which will consist of partners from the Interconnect project, as well as contact persons and experts from the ERB member organisations.

On 3rd December 2020, during the final ERB Executive Board meeting in 2020 and the last one under the Presidency of the Association of Polish Communes Euroregion baltic (PL), the Board members all agreed to establish another task force in the Euroregion Baltic – Mobility Core Group.

The decision was made after the Blekinge Region Board Member – Mr Johan Sandberg, ERB Vice President presented the idea to the ERB Board Members. Blekinge Region will host a secretariat for the newly established group.

The ERB Mobility Core Group consists of partners from the previous Interreg South Baltic project Interconnect, as well as contact persons and experts from the ERB member organisations.

The group will be working on behalf of the ERB Board with concrete actions and the work is supposed to contribute to project development and common activities improving mobility between the ERB member regions.

The Mobility Core Group will report to a steering group consisting of ERB board members (appointed by the ERB Board). Lobbying activities in order to represent and promote common interests;

Implementation of strategic initiatives and projects complementing the local and regional agendas of the member organisations; and

Exchange activities, to seek a collaborative approach to common challenges and to progress in innovation and in operational efficiency of the cooperation. The Mobility Core Group will focus on activities from the below perspectives.

Exchange of experience:

• Trends affecting public transport and sustainability change directions of the local and regional transport systems in the South Baltic area.
• Public transport planning vs. strategies by private operators (e.g. ferry companies).

Shared challenges

• Access to cross-border PT services for rural and more remote areas.
• Low knowledge/awareness of leisure time attractions on ‘the other shore’.
• Fighting climate change

Joint solutions

• ‘Low-hanging fruits’ (new or enhanced methods, services or products developed and/or applied in the Interconnect project and demonstrating a high replication potential)
• Cross-border perspective of public transport in the local and regional strategic documents

Impact on other sectors

• Tourism routes – adapted to different target groups
• Cross-border commuting / labour market travel patterns
• Student and youth travel patterns

 Method

The Mobility Core Group will apply a Multi-level governance perspective on its activities. The link between TEN-T development and contribution to the EU cohesion policies is considered a week. The focus will be to apply a holistic view on regional mobility and transport planning as a driving force for boosting potentials within other sectors such as tourism, education and business. This approach will strengthen the relationship between public transport, regional development and the citizens.

 Actors from each region

The ERB Mobility Core Group should aim to include members from all nine regions, in six countries. The basis will be the partnership from the previous Interreg South Baltic project Interconnect with the possibility to extend the network with relevant representatives from each of the ERB member organisations. The group will also invite relevant participants from regions outside the ERB geographical area ie former Interconnect partners.

Actions

The Core Group aims to have physical meetings back to back with the ERB Board meetings. Those meetings will be complemented by online meetings.

The meetings should aim to identify “hot topics” and “bottlenecks” for further joint development and discussion.  

We present here the article from the Interreg South Baltic Programme website prepare for the 30th anniversary of the Interreg.

In 2020 we celebrate 30 years of Interreg. On this occasion, we asked representatives of the Interreg South Baltic Programme projects to share their experiences about the Interreg funds and the cross-border cooperation. 

Frede Danborg, the International Coordinator in Guldborgsund Municipality, Denmark, and the project manager for the Interconnect project shares his experience from the perspective of the project’s partner in INTERCONNECT project. Let’s talk about Interreg!

What impact has Interconnect had on Guldborgsund Municipality?

Interconnect has both worked to improve public transport between Rostock, Germany and Guldborgsund Municipality, Denmark. 

Interconnect has supported a joint local development and provided exciting opportunities to travel across the Baltic Sea between the two project partners.

Interconnect made it easier to buy the InterCombi ticket online. This is a joint ticket that covers both buses and ferries and makes it easier to travel across the Baltic Sea.

Interconnect has assisted promoting the summer bus between Gedser and Marielyst Tourism Resort and is especially aimed at international tourists crossing the Baltic Sea.

Interconnect has prepared a catalogue of new mobility solutions for the residents of our rural areas so that it will be easier to travel to our main city Nykøbing, which is on the travel route to Rostock and Berlin.

Interconnect has completed more than 10 exchanges within education, culture and tourism as well as business. It has involved more than 150 people from Guldborgsund who have visited Rostock and more than 150 people from Rostock who have visited Guldborgsund.

I believe that this cooperation between local associations, institutions and authorities is an important part of a transport project.

Why is it necessary for International Cooperation to achieve those results?

When it comes to cross-border public transport and common local development as in Interconnect, then it can only happen through international cooperation.

The cooperation with Rostock regarding better transport connections and cooperation for joint development is high on our agenda both in Rostock and here in Guldborgsund Municipality.

But still, the international project is needed to make it actually happen! A joint project is a signal and a message to our organisations and to the surroundings that we prioritise these activities. And it is a starting shoot from our management to implement this cooperation.

What role do you think Interreg projects should have in Denmark and Europe in the coming years?

Interreg projects should develop knowledge and relationships between neighbouring countries and neighbouring regions. And they must involve both local and regional authorities, institutions and associations.

Interreg projects should be broad and reflect local and regional development agendas.

They do not have to be research projects or follow narrow specific business branches or professional themes.

For such purposes, you have already in place the Structural Funds, Horizon 2020 and the thematic programmes based in Brussels.

As a very concrete proposal, Interreg projects could provide opportunities for cooperation in the field of health. Not to develop cancer treatment or COVID-19 vaccine, but so that health and care staff in e.g. municipalities could develop new forms of work and methods within public health and prevention and elderly care.

Among all local and regional authorities, these tasks require great efforts and large budgets. I believe that international cooperation in these areas can change a lot.

What European challenges are particularly important to address in international cooperation?

There are many common European challenges that need international cooperation. Therefore, it is good that the EU has a very wide range of different development and support programmes.

You can find the interview here:

https://youtu.be/FN-zcTILIzg

In Interconnect Interreg South Baltic project, we support the idea of sustainable public transport in the South Baltic Sea.
See how easy & pleasurable a journey can be in our coproduction video clip, promoting the #InterCombiTicket connection between Rostock and Nykøbing Falster

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqKeaEZvGok&feature=youtu.be

#connectivity #mobility #SouthBaltic

This month Umbrella is coming back with the Success Story on INTERCONNECT project. Interconnect supports new and more efficient public transport services both in and between the coastal regions of the South Baltic area – to give the residents and tourists broader and more sustainable options for realising their mobility needs.

Today, the public transport offer in the South Baltic area hardly meets customer expectations for the comfort of making regional and cross-border journeys. Communities of the coastal regions see no clear benefits of choosing public transport over a car for longer trips:

• dissatisfied with a shortage of tickets allowing multimodal rides (e.g. bus-ferry-train) across the regional borders,
• difficult access to one-spot passenger information
• a lack of tailor-made products.

This is particularly visible on ferry links, which see a steadily growing number of cross-border car travels due to customised services and price packages for motorised passengers, while the market segment of foot passengers remains marginal.

Public transport authorities in the South Baltic area require more knowledge about regional and cross-border mobility needs in their communities – both now and in the future – and need deeper expertise on how to match them with sustainable solutions. The usual planning and management tools, market incentives and promotion campaigns in the regional communities to change the travel behaviour tend to fail, as they are usually not preceded by a mapping of no-car travel preferences.

Although many interesting public transport services and products in the South Baltic area have been developed locally, the experience is very scattered and the good practice has not been effectively exchanged at the region-to-region level so far. In addition, some South Baltic regions lack public transport systems and organisations to manage this process.

Read below some useful tips and info from the project partner responsible for the Communication in Interconnect. Answers provided by Ms Ania Dudziak, Project Officer at Euroregion Baltic, Poland.

What has been valuable or what was the most significant asset for you as a person to be a part of this project?

Being a part of this project has given me new self-development opportunities and has widened my knowledge about cross-border cooperation. But most of all, it gave me a  chance to meet many great people from different countries.

What have you discovered from working with other nationalities? Is there something you discovered and you considered as a surprise (for its originality, something you discovered about your the country that you did not know before?)

When working in an international environment, you can always discover something new and surprising, something to learn from. I guess every nationality has a lot to bring “onboard the project”, whether it’s cultural, social, or legal issues. The beauty of working with other nationalities is the possibility of creating something unique that might reach beyond any kind of borders.

If newcomer: What was your experience as a newcomer in the Partnership?

As a newcomer in both partnership and international projects, I was amazed by how well people from different environments/institutions can work together, overcoming any boundaries and sharing their experience and knowledge to gain common goals.

What has your organization gained from the project?

The Interconnect project partnership is about being a part of changes that affect our everyday life, e.g. sustainable transport, mobility etc. The partnership gave us a great chance to extend the contact network of experts, local institutions and companies to cooperate with in the future. It is also a significant opportunity to share know-how and international experience in implementing technical solutions when it comes to a particular area of regional development.

How has the project made an impact on your area?

A great success of the Interconnect project is the intense cross-border cooperation and pilot work to implement technical solutions in developing a model of paying for public transport journeys in cross-border traffic between Region Blekinge(Sweden) and Pomorskie Voivodeship (Poland), as well as the development of the FALA integrated ticket system in Pomorskie Voivodeship.

Has something changed/ improved thanks to your Project?
The process of the implementation of the FALA integrated ticket system in Pomorskie Voivodeship has already started, which will have a significant impact on the ease of use of public transport in this area.

Do you have any good advice for potential new organizations that wish to enter into international projects and CBC networks?

No organization should hesitate to enter into CBC networks and transfer their project ideas to the international level. Reaching international partners gives a project better chances of evolvement and implementation.

The past year was a busy time for all Interconnect project partners, as it was marked by several meetings and promotion of the project itself.

The 2019 kicked-off with a partnership meeting in Karlskrona where representatives of Stena Line, Region Blekinge and Blekingetrafiken discussed one ticket solution for the ferry passengers travelling without a car between Blekinge (Sweden) and Pomorskie Region (Poland).

During the year also, the following meetings were held:

• Rostock workshop (11^th April)
• The study visit in Klaipeda (21^st May)
• Innobaltica workshop in Gdańsk (10^th October )
• Karlshamn regional seminar (18^th October)
• The study visit and project partner meeting in Rostock and Warnemunde (6^th December)

Furthermore, the Interconnect project was presented on several events such as  10^th Annual Forum of EUSBSR in Gdańsk, or the ‘Boosting Cross-Border Region through better transport’ conference in Brussels, where the moderator noted it as one of the most interesting ongoing cross-border projects.

The biggest event of the past year was undoubtedly the Interconnect project mid-term conference held on 5^th September 2019 in Elbląg. During the meeting, the following thematic fields were defined: identification of needs of using alternative means of transport to a personal car, traveller-friendly offer and strengthening cooperation in the field of public transportation. The conference tackled all of the three areas, but considering the selection of speakers, it mainly has focused on the cooperation of different stakeholders in the field of shaping a traveller friendly offer.

The conference was opened by the Mayor of Elbląg, Mr Witold Wróblewski, who emphasized the growing importance of cooperation between different stakeholders and cities. Agata Ludwiczak, the representative of the Euroregion Baltic, presented the aim of the conference, i.e. including the present condition of public transport integration on the regional level and the analysis of the experience of other countries in the Baltic Sea Region.

During the conference regional experts and municipalities representatives presented best-practices from:

• Models for sustainable transport system – Region Blekinge;
• Public transport tariff and ticketing integration – Innobaltica and Pomeranian Voivodeship;
• Integrated transport in the agglomeration – benchmarks from the operational point of view – Rostock;
• The positioning of public transport integration in Olsztyn and catchment area Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship

 One of the main conclusions of the conference was that the so-called ‘soft projects’ consisting of developing international cooperation (e.g. INTERCONNECT) constitute an essential foundation for good practices popularization. They also contribute to the limitation of risk in the modern innovative solutions development, e.g. in the scope of tariff-ticket integration.

The September conference also resulted in several open information meetings regarding the modern public transport payment system FALA that will revolutionize travelling in Pomorskie Voivodeship and the city of Elbląg. Responsible for the implementation of the project is the Interconnect project partner – Innobaltica. The tender for the implementation of the FALA system in Pomorskie Voivodeship was announced on 20^th December.

At the end of the year, another Interconnect partnership meeting took place. On 5^th December, in Rostock, the project partners not only discussed past project activities and future challenges of the project but also took part in a very fruitful workshop on the catalogue of solutions for sustainable public transport.

We are pleased to inform you that the Mid-term conference will take place in Elblag on 4th of September 2019 (only for the Project Partners and Association Partners) as a joint event with the Warmia-Mazuria conference on the 5th of September.

We welcome all to join us for the conference on the 5th, please see the agenda below.

Agenda of the meeting:
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On 24-25 of September the 4th South Baltic Programme Annual Event will take place in Ostróda, a city located in the western part of the Warmińsko-Mazurskie Voivodeship in Poland. This year, the annual meeting will be dedicated to sharing experiences and learning from each other about important issues reaching the final stage of projects’ implementation.

Last year around 150 participants from different countries and institutions took part in the event in Klaipeda, Lithuania. This year we anticipate again a high interest as the Annual Event 2019 will give us an opportunity to meet across the exciting South Baltic projects!

Therefore, we invite project partners, representatives of local and regional authorities, scientists, researchers, businesses, NGOs, politicians interested in the fields of green technologies, environmental protection, maritime industry, labour market, sustainable tourism and transport.

The first day – networking, capitalisation and social activities

On the first day networking activities, seminars and discussions will give us an insight into the important issue of capitalisation. To strengthen and create new cooperation networks we, of course, took care of social activities.

The second day – communication, durability, future challenges and expectations

On the second day, two sessions of parallel workshops will be led by invited experts, Regional Contact Points and the Joint Secretariat team. You will have the opportunity to exchange with other experienced project partners on issues such as sustainability of results, the upcoming Programme Period and challenges in intercultural cooperation.

 You can find the  agenda for the detailed Event Programme on the SouthBaltic website here:
https://southbaltic.eu/-/save-the-date-for-the-interreg-south-baltic-annual-event-2019-let-s-share-and-learn-

The registration will be opened by the end of July. As the number of participants is limited, hold your travel arrangements until getting the confirmation of registration.

Stay tuned and see you in Ostróda this Autumn!!!

Adopted in December 2017 as a flagship project of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, INTERCONNECT serves as a clear example of a change in the public transport system in the Baltic Sea Region. Indeed, the EUSBSR is implemented, among others, by flagships namely a single project, a set of project contributing to the same action or a process. According to the EUSBSR the label of a flagship can be given to a project/process that fulfils certain criteria: it has a high macro-regional impact; it contributes to meeting the objectives, indicators and targets of the EUSBSR; it is related to the implementation of one or more actions of the policy area/horizontal action concerned.

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The kick-off meeting of the INTERCONNECT project took place in Karlskrona (Sweden) on 4-5th October 2017.  Organized by Region Blekinge, the project’s Lead Partner, the event aimed at organizing the work of the partnership while promoting its practical objectives dedicated to the establishment of sustainable cross-border public transport solutions in the South Baltic area. (more…)