This paper describes how municipal transport can be developed and how savings can be achieved in providing public transport services with the help of a new transport management concept based on new advanced telematics systems using GIS technology. Finland is a large but sparsely populated country with 5.0 million inhabitants (16.7 per sq km). Both passenger and goods transport have significant status in the economy of the state and the municipalities. Public transport services are difficult to arrange because of the small town centres and large rural areas. The Working Group assigned by the Ministry of Transport and Communications has defined how savings can be effected in public transport and other passenger transport provided by the state and municipalities without diminishing the quality of transport services. This paper describes how municipal transport can be developed with the help of new municipal transport concept following the guidelines set by the Working Group. The case of the municipality of Kuusankoski shows that there is a remarkable cost savings potential in municipality transport with the help of new advanced transport planning concepts and software.
Abstract