TRANSTOOLS - Tools for Transport Forecasting and Scenario Testing
Overview
Background & policy context:
The policy environment is changing, in particular because of globalisation (increasing mobility of people and goods; communication technologies), the rising importance of the knowledge economy, high energy prices and the new Europe (of 25+). Transport scenarios and other tools used for the impact assessment of policy proposals will have to take all these recent and emerging trends into account. The current European transport network models have shortcomings.
The main shortcomings are:
- the unsatisfactory representation of mix of traffic (short/long distance and freight/passenger);
- the (partly) missing presence of intermodality and freight logistics in models;
- differences in implementation of Origin-Destination base year for freight traffic in some models;
- outdated character of some models;
- no sufficient linkage of network based transport models with socio-economic effects and external effects.
Objectives:
TRANS-TOOLS aimed to produce a European transport network model covering both passengers and freight, as well as intermodal transport, which would overcome the shortcomings of existing European transport network models. The objective of the project was to build on the experience of existing transport models and implement a number of improvements that would be the basis of the development of an integrated policy support tool for transport at EU level.
As a result, the TRANS-TOOLS model was expected to include the following innovations:
- new set up of a demand/supply model;
- intermodality for passenger/freight (as National and European transport policies seek to promote intermodality through different measures);
- inclusion of intercontinental flows (mainly for freight), as some models do not cover this segment;
- full coverage of Central and Eastern Europe (Accession Countries and the countries at the borders of the enlarged European Union);
- integration of the new Member States at a level similar to those of EU 15;
- feedback infrastructure development economy (as the question of indirect effects in the economy and on network level is important, especially where investment has a substantial influence - notably for Accession Countries);
- logistics/freight chain explicitly included;
- coupling method with local traffic in order to address the effect of congestion on long-distance traffic;
- the consortium provides access to all relevant experience concerning EU and national modelling;
- a software approach is chosen which results in a software modelling tool at network level.
Methodology:
The aim was to develop a European network-based transport model starting from the ideas consolidated in the modelling experience of the consortium partners. Some features of the current EU models were added, considering that while the model could not be a tool for every purpose. The selection of the model features should be essentially based on the policy needs addressed by the European Commission. It was already quite clear that the SCENES model approach would provide good suggestions for the treatment of passenger transport and the interaction of local and long distance traffic. The VACLAV transport network would be a suitable basis for the development of an efficient transport assignment model. Furthermore, the NEAC would provide the information for proper description of freight transport and the SCENES model would constitute a reference for the treatment of intermodal transport. Finally the SLAM model focused on logistics.
Finally, since in the European realm different models for different options and with different Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) settings were anticipated, it was useful to construct an IPR free instrument on the basis of the best available knowledge.
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