This week marks the first-ever World Public Transport Day, launched alongside the United Nations’ new decade of sustainable transport. EIT Urban Mobility is joining the celebration, highlighting the central role that public transport must play in delivering Europe’s climate transition and keeping cities moving.
The timing reflects a broader shift in the mobility debate. While policymakers have leaned heavily on regulatory measures such as the EU’s planned 2035 phase-out of new petrol and diesel cars, public opinion is pointing in a different direction. According to the European Pulse Forum survey by POLITICO and beBartlet, 65% of Europeans support increased investment in public transport, even if it requires higher taxes, while 58% oppose the petrol ban. The message is clear: citizens are not rejecting the transition itself, but they are calling for solutions that expand affordable alternatives rather than restrict choice.
Against this backdrop, public transport remains the backbone of mobility in European cities, carrying millions of passengers daily, easing congestion and improving air quality. Yet the sector is under mounting pressure. Rapid urbanisation is driving up demand just as operators face structural constraints, from workforce shortages in driving and maintenance to tightening financial resources.
As the World Public Transport Day celebrations begin, the direction of travel is increasingly clear. Europe’s mobility transition will depend not just on what is phased out, but on what is built in its place.
According to the cost-benefit study co-funded by EIT Urban Mobility, and carried out by TRT (2024), it is the combination of public transport with shared modes that will lead to the largest impact on modal shift away from private vehicles – an up to 7% increase in ridership by 20302. One of the largest barriers to the use of public transport has always been the first and last-mile problem. If users’ final destinations are not within a reasonable walking distance of their nearest transit stop, many will opt for their private vehicle. Shared mobility modes have quickly become essential pieces of the system over the last couple of decades as they help to close this gap. With the shared mobility sector moving out of its pilot and experimentation phase, and into one of consolidation, the focus is shifting toward how these services can be effectively governed and integrated, to make multimodal journeys as seamless as possible. Successful integration of public and shared mobility modes takes shape through a combination of measures, such as multimodal mobility hubs, data sharing, integrated governance and mobility as a service solution for end users. One example comes from GreenMob MaaS, wherenew apps in Italy, Spain and Hungary have helped people cut CO₂ by choosing walking, cycling and public transport.
The uptake of shared mobility modes has caused user expectations to evolve beyond what traditional forms of public transit can provide. This change implies that public transport itself needs to become more demand responsive to keep up with expectations. Some cities are exploring how technologies such as AI and autonomous vehicles can contribute to a more flexible transport system. Many cities have already implemented autonomous metro or rail lines, but on the road, autonomous vehicles have thus far been limited to small scale pilots. Demand responsive transport has been increasingly deployed across Europe with mixed results, as the higher flexibility of the system implies higher numbers of vehicles or drivers. Autonomous vehicles can help alleviate these challenges by eliminating the need for additional drivers at a time of labour shortages and limited funds. Whether autonomous vehicles will be this silver bullet or rather bring about a new set of issues, remains to be seen. One way to ensure that autonomy contributes to modal shift away from private transport, is to ensure citizens are accepting of these vehicles. This was explored in the Interact project, where pilots in Norway and the Netherlands are making driverless buses safer and easier for people to trust.
Overall, public transport stands at a crossroads. Many innovative solutions and new ways to move around the city are popping up, and consequently, the role of traditional public transport modes is evolving. How will cities adapt?
