Overview
TOOLQIT was a user oriented project for the development of framework and tools for the assessment of level of service and quality across different transport market segments.
The TOOLQIT objectives were as follows:
- to further develop and validate common definitions for Level of Service (LoS) for passenger, freight and intermodal transport;
- to propose suitable indicators for level of service and quality of transport, both for nodes and for links;
- to determine an accounting framework and method to measure these and assess impacts of policy actions through inclusion in an European transport network model;
- to recommend procedures and roles in the exploitation, uptake and transfer of results.
A strategic aim of TOOLQIT was to contribute to the achievement of the objectives set out in the EC White Paper 'Time to Decide'. The White Paper identified a variety of strategies and actions to be promoted and, in some instances, provided quantified objectives. This was the case for road safety and rail energy consumption. Quantification had, however, been avoided in the case of quality-related performance variables such as congestion, bottlenecks, accessibility or users rights.
To achieve its objectives, the TOOLQIT project was organised along four technical WPs and two horizontal activities, one integrating the activities related with the stakeholders involvement and dissemination (WP5) and the other to the project coordination and management (WP0).
- WP1 – Levels of service and quality of Transport, which objective was to develop and validate the definitions of LoS and quality of transport applied to the different modes of transport (for passengers, freight and intermodal) as well as to transport infrastructure (nodes and links);
- WP2 – Accounting Framework where LoS and quality in transport will be operationalised through a set of measurable variables and performance indicators. An accounting framework to measure LoS will be defined and its inclusion into an European transport network model (TRANSTOOLS project) will be determined;
- WP3 – User oriented validation will perform the validation of accounting framework and assess the impacts of policy actions. This will be done through the definition of cases (in interaction with a stakeholder committee) for the different market segments;
- WP4 – Conclusions and recommendations will integrate the findings from the study and will recommend procedures and roles in the exploitation, uptake and transfer of results;
- WP5 – Stakeholders involvement which aimed to provide project development with an users’ oriented approach, that would deal with the different activities (workshops, internet consultations, etc.) in order to facilitate users’ involvement and through that to develop a framework for the assessment of quality of transport services that fits the needs and objectives of all stakeholders.
Funding
Results
Harmonised indicators in transport were developed to support policy and decision making. The indicator concepts and the collected indicators were related to the policy objectives of the Transport White paper and its Mid-term review. The purpose of this was to study how well the collected indicators cover the issues that were of interest, and to which degree the policy objectives were captured by the concepts that have been defined.