What is MAMBA project about?

MAMBA is about maximizing mobility and accessibility of services in rural regions. It is a project under the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme that runs from October 2017 until September 2020. It includes 15 partners from six countries: Denmark, Germany, Poland, Latvia, Finland and Sweden. MAMBA has a budget of 3.54 million EUR. In South Ostrobothnia the MAMBA project partners are: Regional Council of South Ostrobothnia and Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences (EPTEK). For more information: https://www.mambaproject.eu/

MAMBA project news from South Ostrobothnia – the Regional Analytical Framework report

The creating of the Mobility Centre in South Ostrobothnia is moving forward. As a first step, Regional Council of South Ostrobothnia initiated planning for the Regional Analytical Framework. The purpose of the framework report is to offer up-to-date information on regional health and social service related transportations and make suggestions on their future development. The Regional Analytical Framework will have a strong contribution on the development of the Mobility Centre in the region.

Sitowise (external expert) conducted the Regional Analytical Framework report. The regional project partners, Regional Council of South Ostrobothnia and Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences (EPTEK) guided the process along with the stakeholders as members of the steering group. The report consists of two different phases; the objective of the first phase was to form an extensive idea of the present situation of all publicly funded transport services in South Ostrobothnia and the objective of the second phase was to create a concrete development plan from this overall description of the present situation. In order to obtain feedback and different approaches Sitowise and MAMBA partners formed a work group and organized two regional workshops. In the first workshop, the participants were mainly stakeholders and experts. In the second workshop, the work group presented the report to stakeholders but also to customers and users, as the work group wanted to get their feedback and comments on the report. In this workshop, the customers once again reminded, that when planning for transportation services it is important to focus on customer service, especially when dealing with the customers with special needs.

At the end of the process, the following main objectives of the development plan concerning the regional health and social service related transportations were defined:

* To improve the level of service in passenger transport services to all inhabitants
* Introduce transport services to the regions that lacks them at the moment
* Make statutory transport obligations more equal for all inhabitants
* Make service production more effective – more service with the same money
* Make new user services possible for searching the trips, paying and receiving the information

The Regional Analytical Framework report serves as an excellent starting point when planning and creating an effective and functional Mobility Centre for the region.

 
Writers: Sanna Valkosalo and Tanja Aronsen