The number of the available seats on tram vehicles has been increased from 40 to 103, thus reaching a capacity of 40% compared to the total 272 persons capacity. This is part of the city’s steps towards phase 3 which will include reopening of schools, and hopes to reinstate 100% of public transport services on rail and road. Current measures on the tram include hand sanitising hand gels and markers indicating where to sit or stand. Read more here
Contact: Alessandra Barbieri
Transport for London, working closely with the Mayor, has put together a plan to ‘re-open carefully, safely and sustainably’. This includes gradually increasing the frequency of services on public transport routes, easing pressure on public transport by creating more space for walking and cycling, and providing specific briefings for businesses. Read more here
Contact: Ian Catlow
Starting 1 June, public transport passes will become almost 50% cheaper for the unemployed in Braga, Portugal. The city had made it’s buses free of charge in April and May. With returning to normal operations after the corona lockdown, the passes with reduced fee will be introduced to support those in need. You can read more here
Contact: Nuno Gouveia
Madrid is running a campaign to raise awareness among public transport users about the importance of following daily gestures such as respecting seat priority for people with disabilities, people with reduced mobility, pregnant women or the elderly. These gestures will make mobility easier and more pleasant for these groups who are particularly impacted by deconfinement measures. Read more here (in Spanish)
Contact: Ana Buñuel
Flexible start times at work and school, to avoid crowded busses and trams. Enhanced possibilities for cycling and walking in the city. Outdoor catering on closed roads for restaurants. – These are some of the proposals of Budapest’s mayor Gergely Karácsony for a gradual reopening of the city. According to him, the easing of the lockdown demands new thinking and deliberate decisions in many fields from both the national government and the municipality. You can download the document here
Contact: Adrienn Magyar
The City of terrassa has rearranged parts of its mobility infrastructure, to create more space for people to move around, as well as for other, greener, forms of transport. This includes an emergency bus, taxi and bike lane. Read more here
Contact: Joan Chicón Vallejo
Reopening schools with small groups of pupils, making face masks mandatory in the metro and devoting roads to biking, to prevent an intensive surge in car use – these are some of the steps out of the corona lockdown in Paris. The city has compiled a summary of measures. You can download the document here
Contact: Jean-Yves Camus
In order to secure the movements of people who use the metro for their essential journeys, and in particular for the medical staff, access to the metro will require a validation of a transport ticket. The metro will regain its access control through the validation of subscriptions and tickets, which will be downloaded free of charge in the case of subscriptions or reimbursed after use for other tickets. These tickets will be fully refunded at the end of the lockdown period.
Continue reading “Toulouse – Safe metro”
Since wearing a mask in public transportation and shops is compulsory now, city staff of Dusseldorf and volunteers are distributing masks on different places in the city. For the elderly, 50,000 hygiene kits including masks have been prepared and can be ordered for home delivery. Additional 15,000 masks have been donated for refugees. With online videos, the city shows how to sew your own mask. You can read more here and here (in German)
Contact: Stefanie Nietfeld
The public transport company of Milan has set a security plan in accordance with the distancing measures ruled by the Italian Ministry of Health for phase 2 of the Covid-19 emergency. The transport fleet has been widened and every station and transport is constantly sanitized. The number of passengers is controlled, signal pathways help to keep physical distance. You can read more here (in Italian)
Contact: Olimpia Vaccarino Aureli
In Izmir, all employees working in the health sector, pharmacists and pharmacy staff have free access to public transportation. In addition, four bus routes have been redirected to exclusively serve city hospitals. Trips and timetables of these routes are coordinated with the hospital to accommodate changes and updates in staff shifts. While conductors are separated from users, hand dispensers are available in the bus and at bus stops for passengers. Read more here
Contact: Ozan Sumerkan
Tallinn has allocated a municipal food supply and 15,000 euro in financial contribution to the NGO Food Bank, it has kept two day-care centres in the city open 24h, the city library is reading books to children via Skype or by phone, and drones are used to give information in Estonian, Russian and English. Download the full overview here (updated version: 30 April 2020)
Contact: Kerttu Märtin
From next month priority will be given to those travelling around the Belgian capital on foot or bikes, with vehicle speeds reduced to just 20 kilometres per hour. Read more here
Contact: Geert de Roep and Antoine Umbrain
The Turkish city of Izmir is organising its work in the corona crisis through a special governance. The city has established a Critical Incident Management Team with a Supreme Board, an Executive Board and a Science Board. A new directive provides those bodies with the necessary authority to take decisions in the crisis. The directive also regulates the cooperation of the metropolitan and the 30 district municipalities in Izmir, as well as with business and civil society. You can read more and download an overview of measures here and here on the municipality’s website
Contact: Ozan Sumerkan
TAN, Nantes’ Public Transport Company, equipped 87 trams with 300 hydroalcoholic solution dispensers. Some dispensers are connected, so the cleaning provider is able to refill it as soon as necessary. Read more here (in French)
Contact: Nicolas Joffraud
London, through its transport agency, Transport for London, has launched a suite of changes in its mobility services and policies, including: service levels, treatment of tenants, construction, customer season tickets and staff. Read about all of these in this document.
Contact: Ian Catlow
Brest metropolis has run a survey with hospital staff, nursing homes and other relevant workers to establish essential routes and timetables to guarantee public transport for these categories. This also resulted in creating a dedicated night bus service for the main sites of the Brest University Hospital. Read more here (in French)
Contact: Anne-Marie Cabon
The Italian city of Genova has compiled a summary of the city’s measures in response to the corona pandemic. The presentation describes a stepwise approach to care for people, jobs and services first, while preparing for reboot and resilient and sustainable growth after the crisis. You can download the document here
Contact: Corrado Ragucci
Zagreb has suspended parking charges for medical and technical staff of hospitals in the , as well as for citizens using their services, and for employees of state and local authorities of the Republic of Croatia who are engaged in combating the COVID-19 virus epidemic, alongside of hospital locations and surrounding streets.
After the Civil Protection Staff of the Republic of Croatia made the decision to suspend public urban transport, the City of Zagreb, through its public urban carrier ZET d.o.o. introduced 17 lines of emergency transport to transport persons from work and to work for those jobs that did not cease to be carried out during the epidemic. Shuttle service is free of charge. There are 62 buses in service.
Contact: international.relations@zagreb.hr
Health workers, bus drivers, volunteers for social services and others working in relevant functional areas in Dusseldorf can get free use of public transport and taxis as well as permission to buy bigger amounts of foods and goods than stated in the regulations against panic buying. The city is handing out badges to those people, based on registration via employers. Read more here (in German)
Contact: Stefanie Nietfeld
The Municipality of Budapest is establishing temporary bicycle lanes on some important routes to provide residents with an alternative and safer way to work.
Many people are temporarily looking for modes of transportation where they could minimise contact with others. Due to this and the drastic reduction of the price of the local bike sharing scheme, the bicycle traffic in Budapest has increased. The decrease in overall traffic provides an opportunity to improve Budapest’s bicycle transport network with rapid intervention. Cycling is a suitable form of transport even during the pandemic. Read more here.
Contact: Adrienn Magyar
Zaragoza is providing free parking slots to the health workers near the two main hospitals in the city. The staff interested in obtaining this service can register online. An agreement was reached with the private companies that run this service, and for one month up to 900 parking spots are being offered.
Contact: Lorena Calvo
Madrid has launched a full public transport process for dealing with the coronavirus outbreak. Measures range from signage and communication to social distancing and hygiene. The full document and annexes are available below.
People who need to travel to work during the confinement in the metropolitan area of Nice Côte d’Azur can use public transport for free. The Metropolitan Office also adopted urgent measures to support small local companies, including advance payments for public contracts and aid to cover the monthly rent. The French Government and Parliament are asked to reduce, or authorize local authorities to exempt economic players from the corporate property tax. The decision were taken in a video meeting of the Office. Read more here (in French)
Contact: Jérôme Sieurin
Healthcare workers, who are able to prove their work, are now permitted to make use of all public transport service for free until the end of the emergency. Additionally, in order to protect drivers of public transport vehicles, passengers are no longer allowed to board by the front doors or sit in the first few seats, which is now closed on busses and trolley busses. A further measure includes reducing the fee for Budapest’s bike-sharing system pass to 100 HUF. Read more here and here and here
Contact: Adrienn Magyar
Debrecen is ensuring the safety of public transport by disinfecting buses, trains and trams. Each cabin will be disinfected every day for four weeks, so there will be no vehicle that may be infected at the site. Professionals will work at night, wearing appropriate protective clothing and protective equipment, and spraying an antiviral chemical that it is not harmful to human health. Read more (in Hungarian) here.
Contact: László Mátyus
While fighting the COVID-19 crisis, ensuring the basic continuity and survival of public transport and local mobility services is essential for Europe and all European citizens. This includes the many professionals that depend on a well-functioning local transportation network to meet their daily needs. Read more here
In order to ensure the highest possible mobility for residents and guests, even under the current conditions, Berlin is temporarily making the first 30 minutes of rental for its public bike rental system free of charge. “We want to offer people as many options as possible to stay healthy and mobile”, the Senator for transport, Regine Günther, said. Until Easter, the bikes can be rented via an app once or several times a day for a free half an hour. In addition to the positive overall effects on public health, this is also meant to reduce the risk of infection.
You can read more here (in German)
Contact: Johanna Eisenberg
Ljubljana has organized home food delivery for children from at risk families and elderly citizens. Drivers of city buses are volunteering to perform the deliveries. Over 100 people have volunteered at the Ljubljana Public Transport (Ljubljanski potniški promet) public company.
Bus drivers have also started helping with urgent non-scheduled transport of people, organized by the Slovenian Red Cross. The transport is intended for people who urgently need access to essential services or errands.
Contact: Polona Novak
Poznan is working to make sure that people have the best and most up-to-date information on COVID-19. This includes a special website for foreigners, available in Russian, English and Ukrainian, and a special phone helpline for Ukrainians The City opened a special helpline where they can call and ask for help and information. Learn more about it here.
The mayor is also keeping contact with locals through a daily Facebook live video confrerence with live translation in sign language. He presents the most recent news about a situation in the city and actions undertaken by local authorities and also answers questions from viewers. You can see the video conferences here.
Other information on topics like public transport and childcare is made available on a website here (in Polish).
Contact: Anna Aleksandrzak
The city council will credit students for their unused days on their public transport tickets. Separately, families of children who benefited from a ‘canteen grant’ will receive a voucher to compensate. Read more here and here
Contact: Mercedes Hernández
Madrid City Council has started a new free bus route to transport health professionals and volunteers to a new temporary hospital. Read more here
Contact: Ana Buñuel
London’s public transport authority is curtailing services by stopping some night services, closing stations and urging Londoners not to use public transport services unnecessarily. The services that remain open are to support the city’s critical workers, according to the mayor.
Read more here
Contact: Ian Catlow
Madrid city council has suspended parking fees and closed down its bike sharing scheme. The offer of free parking had already been in operation in areas surrounding hospitals for a few days, in order to make access easier for staff and patients, but has now been extended throughout the city.
Read more here
Contact: Ana Buñuel
London’s public transport company has committed to a new cleaning regime for its metro and bus network. This includes ensuring that all regularly touched areas, such as poles on buses, are wiped down every day with a strong disinfectant. Other new concepts include testing of a new cleaning agent that could potentially offer 30 days’ worth of viral protection, and testing a hygiene back-pack that would allow for this new disinfectant to be sprayed safely and quickly across the network.
Read more here
In a separate advice here London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, has warned that London’s transport network foresees operating a weekend style service during the week, meaning less frequent travel options.
Contact: Ian Catlow
