FENEBUS’ CONTRIBUTION TO THE EU HIGH LEVEL GROUP TO DOUBLE THE NUMBER OF USERS OF BUSES AND COACHES FENEBUS, the Spanish Federation of Transport by Bus is a passenger transport’s senior organization in Spain. FENEBUS is nowadays the most representative association of its sector (transport by bus and coach) in Spain. FENEBUS represents almost 77% of the regular services in Spain, about 27% of the occasional services, 61,55% of all bus stations in Spain and more than 21% of the urban services in the country. FENEBUS is composed by 34 sectorial and territorial associations, as well as by 273 companies which are direct members. Thus, it represents more than 2,713 companies which provides passenger transport services, have a fleet of more than 18,613 vehicles, have a turnover of more than 2,000 million euros / year and directly employ about 30,000 workers. In view of the newly established EU High Level Group to double the number of users of buses and coaches and in order to achieve that objective, FENEBUS would like to make the following RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Equal treatment between transport modes is not only fair but also profitable. Citizens have the right to a decent transport service and quality, but the EU Member States must ensure the efficiency of all transport investments. 2. Member States should engage themselves in the promotion of buses and coaches, since they are the most sustainable mode of transport from the economic, social and environmental points of view. 3. Tourism and occasional services are fundamental pillars for maintaining and increasing tourism. Therefore, it is necessary to foster and promoting its consistency in terms of economy, profits and stability. 4. The construction of platforms reserved for bus access to cities is a simple, cheap and effective way to remove bottlenecks and to ensure a high quality transport that meets the main expectations of users, such as frequency and length of the trip. 5. The EU actions on transport must take into account the differences of the 27 national transport systems. 6. The last recently adopted EU initiatives do not meet their goals due to a lack of prior harmonization in the framework of the Member States. 7. The regions of the EU must lead the transport policies in a realistic way, which means not only environmental sustainability but also economic management models. 8. The creation of a EU single transport market requires the agreement on transport policies between all relevant authorities at different levels.
FENEBUS – Spanish Federation of Transport by Bus C / Orense 20 28020 Madrid Phone: (+34) 91 555 20 93 Email: info@fenebus.es Website: www.fenebus.es