HGV Management Forum

NEWSFLASH Long Distance Corridors Update

Dec 2005

NEWSFLASH Long Distance Corridors Update

December 2005

WP 1: Project management

Extension of LDC project in2006 + budget allocation
A plenary committee meeting was held on 26th of October in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The main objective of the meeting was to discuss a potential extension of the project into 2006. This discussion was supported by a presentation of envisaged activities in 2006. At the end of the meeting an overall draft decision was made to continue the project in 2006. Since not all LDC partners were present in Rotterdam, the decision is currently being checked for approval of all partners. The partners are asked to support their decision by the allocation of budgets for 2006 accordingly.

Dublin Euro-regional conference
At the I2TERN conference in Dublin several presentations were made on LDC activities with a very positive response. High level officials mentioned LDC on several occasions and were especially interested in the pan-European phone number. Our job now is to find a way to capitalize on this positive response. A renewed communication strategy will be set up to anticipate.

Pan European phone number for traffic information
The idea was presented by Helen Eveleigh during the Dublin conference and drew strong support from the European Commission. The need to keep an active role in this initiative for strategic purposes is expressed; this project can be a strong trump for the 2007-2013 phase. All partners recognize its potential, but most are not able to take the lead. Furthermore it is unclear what the role of road authorities – for which it is generally not in their mandate or responsibility to deploy such a number – will have to be. Centrico is willing to use a part of its common budget for a quick scan to look into the possibilities and the potential role of road authorities and road operators. This paper should reflect what all partners expect from such a phone number and in what way it can support long distance traffic. A draft ToR will be set up for the next Centrico SC held in december.

Road works information exchange
Centrico partners initiated an action to exchange information on planned road works. A survey was done to get a picture of what large scale road works are planned for 2006 in the Centrico area and to analyse whether there would be relevant cases for cooperation. The main objective is to come to a framework for cooperation. This would encompass the criteria for road works (location, estimated impact on cross border traffic, duration) to initiate cross border cooperation, which could vary from informing upstream/downstream road authorities and/or joint actions in rerouting and informing the public.

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WP 3: Strategic Traveller Information Services

HGV management forum and newsletter
In December the first HGV freight newsletter will appear. Depending on the response, this newsletter will be published three times a year. If it is really successful a HGV workshop can be organised in the third quarter of 2006 to bring together all freight stakeholders. A dedicated freight session in Barcelona is proposed as an alternative. It was decided to await the response to the freight newsletter.

Knowledge exchange between labeled LDC projects
For MIP 2006 new LDC projects will be labelled. The results of the existing projects and the first results of the new ones will be presented in Barcelona. These experiences are the basis for a TIS best practice kit.

WP 5: Evaluation

Pre-evaluation report has been finalized and endorsed by the plenary committee. The report contains an extensive overview of activites and their foreseen contribution to the LDC objectives. The report is available on the website.
The approach for the post-evaluation has been presented in Rotterdam and is currently being finalized. It will be a qualitative approach.

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NEWSFLASH Long Distance Corridors Update

July 2005

WP 1: Project management

Pan European phone number for traffic information
Several activities have taken place. The Netherlands have organised an internal brainstorm session with TIS experts to phrase the most important question for a feasibility study. The Highways Agency had two papers on the subject: one concerning frequently asked questions and one identifying relevant stakeholders and issues to be organised. Since this subject has so many stakeholders and exceeds the scope of the LDC project, the European Commission is asked to consider a role in the process. This will be further discussed in Dublin.

Road works information exchange
Information on planned road works is both of value to long distance travelers as well as other road authorities up- or down stream. This is why in CENTRICO a exchange of this information is being considered. It was agreed that once a year the CENTRICO partners will present their planned road works on international corridors for the coming year. In case common action, like rerouting or informing the public, is needed, this can be organized on a bilateral basis between partners involved.

Preparation of Dublin Euro-regional conference
A generic paper on the LDC initiative will be presented by the project management. Further presentations will be on the corridor initiative in network management of German speaking Centrico and Corvette, as well as a presenation on information services for freight.

WP 3: Strategic Traveller Information Services

HGV management forum
The forum, to be coordinated by Xavier Crassous, will start low profile with the response received to the request for freight contacts within the different road authorities.

Strategic information services
The French partners started up dialogue within France with relevant national and local stakeholders. This will be a showcase functioning as an example for other partners. A model communication plan and “marketing package” will be developed and distributed to other partners for their information. It is beyond scope of WP3 to start similar activities within other partners’ area. The milestones will be a report on the results of the French approach and the marketing package.

WP 5: Evaluation
The pre-evaluation, including a set of prioritized performance indicators, is being finalized and will be distributed amongst LDC partners in August. The report contains the labeled projects of STREETWISE, CENTRICO and CORVETTE and an assessment of their contribution to LDC objectives.

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NEWSFLASH Long Distance Corridors Demonstration

5 April 2004

A third LDC meeting for all participants was held on the 11th of February in The Hague, the Netherlands. In the meeting the activities and deliverable for the workpackages were endorsed by all participants:

Because there is an overlap in workpackage 2 and 3 with regards to the identification of existing services it was decided for England and France to cooperate on a questionnaire. This questionnaire has been put together to determine the existing services in each partner country in CENTRICO, STREETWISE and CORVETTE The questionnaires have now been sent to all partners with the aim of investigating existing Traffic Information Services and more specifically the ones dedicated to the freight industry. Input is expected in the two upcoming months

With the results France will be able to identify opportunities for new projects/services or extensions and England will make an overview of quick wins. Both overviews are due for September.

CORVETTE will start by gathering information on network management with the cooperation of domain leaders of CENTRICO and STREETWISE.

The planned work for the LDC demonstration project was received very well by the European Commission, because it brings about cross ER cooperation and it combines several different ITS measures.

The next meeting is planned at 2 September 2004 in Brussels.

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NEWSFLASH Long Distance Corridors

8 January 2004

During 2001 CENTRICO took the initiative to investigate the possibility to establish Long Distance Corridors in Europe. Long Distance Corridors (LDCs) are corridors on the Trans-European Road Network (TERN), which cross or connect several regions or countries within the European regional projects. A number of cross-border Traffic Management Plans have been carried out. The purpose of LDCs is to go a step further and consider how to manage the traffic over longer distances.

The Euro-regional projects CENTRICO, STREETWISE and CORVETTE have carried out a feasibility study on a predefined corridor, which was finalised in 2002.

This year the preparations for a LDC demonstration in 2004-2005 were completed to follow up the feasibility study and initiatives of other ER-projects. The objectives are to facilitate road user and road operator with a set of measures directed to long distance traffic on specified route(s) during a demonstration period of 2 years. Heavy goods transporters have been identified as a first priority target group for this project.

In July 2003 the European kick off took place. After this meeting all partners gave their input on possible measures and user needs of both road authorities and freight transporters.
The gathered information lead to the definition of three key areas for LDC demonstration:

· Improve communication / PR on services
· LDC information services
· Multi modal Network Management

The work plan for the LDC demonstration is now being set up and consists of several work packages, the key areas plus project management and evaluation. Each work package will be lead by a different partner who will be responsible for the results in this work package. The work will take place in 2004 and 2005.
The experiences and also the installations of the CENTRICO re-routing corridors will support the development of a LDC.
A LDC Kick off meeting for all participants is being organised on the 11th of February in The Hague, the Netherlands.

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