Railway Hub Cities and TEN-T Network (RAILHUC Project) – How to Improve Connectivity Around Several Central European Railway Hub Cities?

Abstract

Central Europe cities are the “first / last legs” of transnational transport chains. These chains consist of local, regional and transnational transport systems. On the one hand high speed connections among rail hubs in Central Europe are being upgraded, especially on TEN-T networks and along the main intercity lines. On the other hand nevertheless rail and in general public transport bound feeder lines need to be upgraded, strengthened and better organized. That calls for a multimodal integration of local/city transport networks, regional transport systems and transnational transport axes in particular TEN-T. In fact the main elements of this integration are constituted by city rail hubs.In order to enhance rail transport by improving the feeding functions on rail of major hub cities and their respective regions 11 partners from 7 countries cooperate in the RAILHUC project. This project aims to improve Central Europe's interconnectivity by an intermodal integration of rail hubs at three different levels: into the TEN-T system, into regional and local transport rail and non-rail systems. The challenge that the RAILHUC partners share is the development of models, concepts, measures, harmonized strategies and policy actions targeted at the embedding of the urban and regional transport systems into the intercity rail transport throughout the whole Central Europe area. This paper aims to give an overview about the modelling results and the designed interventions planned at participating hub cities and their respective catchment area.