Rural Mobility in European Regions affected by Demographic Change
RUMOBIL is based on transnational cooperation between public authorities and their transport entities who are confronted with a similar challenge to respond to pressures on regional public transport systems caused by demographic change in peripheral areas. Working together in RUMOBIL will provide them a platform to exchange their knowledge, to generate learning through launching pilot applications of state-of-the-art tools and solutions, and revise their transport policies to better suit changing mobility needs.

Main outputs of RUMOBIL are therefore pilot actions, the elaboration of a RUMOBIL Strategy and policy-decisions to implement it in the eight partner regions through an improvement of their transport plans. Pilot actions allow testing a number of innovative applications during a period of 12 to 18 months how sparsely populated peripheral areas can be better linked to a primary, secondary or tertiary transport node (access to European and national passenger transport networks). The transnational RUMOBIL Strategy indicates to CE regions innovative and transferable public transport approaches - based on jointly analysed good practices, the combined knowledge of the partners and involved stakeholders, learning from the pilots, and fresh ideas put forward through a transnational social media-based competition. The strategies’ implementation across the partner regions is prepared through work papers focussing on different aspects of transport policies and forecasts how demand for public transport will develop in coming years. Finally, decisions to revise the transport plans in light of the RUMOBIL Strategy are introduced to policy-makers. Communication activities aim to lead to political support for a change of transport policies and the strategy’s adoption beyond the partner areas. All outcomes are jointly assessed in site-visits, transnational workshops and a coordinated evaluation under the hospices of research institutions participating in RUMOBIL.