Public transport in rural areas has to deal with structural difficulties such as low population density, high motorisation of the population and an ageing rural society. But rural areas are also characterised by vibrant community life, strong voluntary engagement and cooperation. Local voluntary organisations in many European countries, including Germany, have started to run community transport services in villages and communities. The number and types of services are growing steadily. This is where the RAMSES project comes in. Community transport services, such as citizens’ buses or “bottom-up car sharing”, rely largely on direct contacts, personal acquaintances and trust. These are often organised on a paper basis. Limited budgets do not allow for an IT infrastructure. Building on this first generation of the “sharing economy”, RAMSES aims to develop an easy-to-use IT application that helps providers to achieve the optimal result from local engagement. RAMSES strengthens rural mobility by bringing public transport providers together with alternative mobility providers and rural communities on an online platform.

This platform should not only provide an intermodal journey planner and ticketing for rural mobility service users. The RAMSES platform is primarily intended to strengthen the small providers of mobility services in rural areas, such as voluntary community transport. A cost-effective, integrated solution supports them in organising, operating and marketing their services. For the rural population, RAMSES provides access to a wider range of mobility options and thus less dependence on the private car. The platform is being tested and applied in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg. In the rural regions of the southwest, there has been significant growth in alternative community transport providers for years. nexus, together with RAMSES partners Siemens, Eindhoven University of Technology and the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence, is responsible for exploring the existing market and preparing business models and market concepts. nexus is primarily using knowledge and practical experience from the planning and implementation of community transport, such as community buses in Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and Schleswig-Holstein. The acronym “RAMSES” stands for “Remote Area integrating Mobility Hub for Smart Environment InfraStructures”.

Client: European Institute of Innovation & Technology
Duration: 01/2016 – 12 /2016
Team: Frank Balzer
Project partner:
TU Berlin, Institut für Berufliche Bildung und Arbeitslehre
TU Berlin, DAI Labor
Siemens
Deutsche Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz gGmbH (DFKI)
Nahverkehrsgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg (NVBW)
TU Eindhoven