These days, there is an increasing demand for high quality travel, especially when covering distances over 30 kilometres. Travelling by private car tends to meet this demand less and less. When looking for a different mode of travel, in most cases more than one mode will be necessary during one trip. For the traveller this implies a certain level of uncertainty and unpredictability about the possibilities, travel time and comfort. Total trip service providers could offer door-to-door services that reduce these uncertainties to a great extent. In the Netherlands, some providers are taking steps to develop services for intermodal door-to-door transport, e.g. Transvision with the Odessey-concept for business travel, services for disabled people, etc. Public transportation providers seem to take interest, but so far no large scale initiatives are undertaken. The main interest of the Dutch government is why doesn't the market take up activities in this area, while there seems to be a large potential. Currently, a study is being carried out that is aimed to get a broad view of the opportunities and threats within the total field of intermodal passenger transport. It looks into the demand side as well as the supply side and at the potential effects on policy issues like accessibility and environment and amenity. The focus will be on organisational and communication aspects, and not primarily on infrastructure. The paper gives preliminary results of the study and discusses some views on the possible policy measures to stimulate total trip service provision.
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