EMR Connect

Cross-border public transport faces new challenges in the fields of ticketing, pricing, infrastructure, and transport services. The EMR project aims to remove current obstacles and improve cross-border mobility for EMR citizens, visitors, and businesses. 

The EMR Connect project aims at improving cross-border mobility and creating a stronger public transport network in the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion (EMR). The public transport sector is faced with numerous barriers that hamper mobility across national borders despite recent improvements.

“Networking within the knowledge and educational region of the EMR” is a cross-section oriented work package in which the partners develop a series of lectures and workshops on the cross-border public transport. These are dedicated to university students within the EMR. This will stimulate cross-border mobility, increase the networks between the EMR universities, and harness the creativity of young people. A euro-regional think-tank is to be established, which shall deal with issues and challenges of euro-regional mobility. It is based on an exchange of best practices through workshops in EMR locations.

LEMA is involved in the design, management, and analysis of transport systems. The research group has been working on different aspects of cross-border traffic, especially from an urban planning point of view. The project offers a unique opportunity to enhance the knowledge and expertise in the domain. Cross-border traffic is often a neglected part of the development of demand forecasting frameworks. As such, the insights gained through this project will enable further improvement of the accuracy of these frameworks.

The lead partner organization is Aachener Verkehrsverbund GmbH.

Supervisor: Prof. Mario Cools

Researchers: Martine Mostert and Mehdi Moeinaddini

Funding: The total budget of the project is €4.617.974,91, and the total budget of the project for LEMA is €294.780,00. It is financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and other Public Contribution.

Partners: AVV (Aachener Verkehrsverbund), stadt Aachen, ASEAG, RWTHAACHEN University, provincie Limburg, Arriva Personen-vervoer Nederland, Stadsregio Parkstad Limburg, Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft Belgiens, De Lijn, Liège Europe Métropole, Universiteit Hasselt, SNCB, ULg, Tec Liège-Verviers.

Project start date: Oct 2017

Project duration: 36 months

Official website: https://emr-connect.eu/