Reaching a global audience during COVID19: UITP joins forces to call for the continuity of passenger transport services

Public transport is needed now more than ever…and in order to ensure that this vital message is heard, UITP is joining forces with fellow associations and bodies around the world.

Last week, with IRU, Polis, EuroCities and CER, UITP wrote to the European institutions with an Open Letter to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Council Charles Michel and David Maria Sassoli, President of the European Parliament.

With a specific focus on Europe in this instance, we called for the ongoing support of our sector now, and in the times that lie ahead.

As a international association, UITP is now teaming up with ITF, UIC and UCLG to call for the continuity of passenger transport services during these unprecedented times and beyond.

With key sector workers in our cities relying on their local mobility options we must always advocate for the basic continuity and survival of our public transport services.

In order to ensure the continuity of services, the competent authorities have to guarantee the availability of the relevant sanitary equipment and products to public transport and local mobility operators to protect the health and safety of their employees, as well as their passengers.

Public transport and local mobility stakeholders have already put in place a set of preventive measures and are continuously sharing information and best practices in order to protect both staff and passengers and to keep transit systems running.

In these unprecedented times, public transport authorities, operators and local mobility providers are committed to complying with, to the greatest extent possible, the health and safety recommendations and requirements set by their national authorities and the WHO.

We are committed to optimise the exchange of good practices, started in January, and jointly build expertise within the community of mobility providers.

No one is quite able to determine what the next steps will look like in terms of assessing the social, economic and financial impact of the pandemic on the urban and metropolitan mobility sector.

UITP is committed, alongside our fellow associations, to ensure the continuity of service and limit any likely consequences for the various stakeholders in the local passenger transport sector.

We remain ready to contribute to the future ambitious environmental objectives as these are truly exceptional circumstances…action and collaboration are required to make sure that the public transport sector survives and thrives.