CAPRICE - Capital regions integrating collective transport for increased energy efficiencycomprises a network of actors from European Capital regions who are responsible for public transport.CAPRICE will contribute to reach the goals of the Gothenburg agenda by- increasing efficiency of public transport services in regions,- implementing policies to stimulate the accelerated introduction of 'clean' vehicle fleets in public transport,- providing policy recommendations to road transport authorities aimed to maintain the modal split or to change in favour of use of public transport means,- providing integrated and 'seamless' passenger information services to stimulate use of public transport and to bring down barriers for access to public transport services.The CAPRICE partnership consists of regional and local authorities responsible for policy implementation in public transport, for public procurement and integration of public transport services, for tariff integration and passenger information, and for control of quality in public transport services.The actors are key players in their regions for improving efficiency of public transport services also in terms of energy consumption, and for implementation of innovative and environmental friendly new propulsion and emission reducing technologies in public transport fleets.While in some of the participating regions public transport authorities (PTA) are already existing and working successfully since a series of years (Paris, Berlin), the establishment of a PTA is foreseen in other regions (Warsaw, Riga, Vilnius) in the next future.But on the way to a successful establishment of a PTA, a lot of barriers needs to be identified and overcome.This is addressing the development of the legal framework, contractual framework between key players in the regions, practical handling of efficient procurement of public transport services, the split of income from fares and subsidies, passenger information integration etc.The CAPRICE will provide a platform for the identification of good practice and barriers, for the exchange of experience among partners (component 3) by carrying out a series of thematic workshops, and will go to transfer knowledge and good practice between participating regions (component 4).CAPRICE will work closely with EMTA - the European Metropolitan Public Transport Authorities Association in terms of communication, promotion and dissemination (component 2) to ensure a wide outreach of the network and to raise awareness on it's activities, outcomes and results beyond the project. Achievements: In the project CAPRICE partners from 5 capital regions - Paris, Berlin, Warsaw, Bucharest and Vilnius - work together to exchange experience about and to improve public transport systems in their regions. The partners jointly organise seven thematic workshops to discuss relevant issues of public transport organisation. Within the project lifetime knowledge and good practice will be transferred by setting up an intermodal door-to-door passenger information service for the Warsaw capital region and by improved tendering and contracting public transport services. Up to now, three thematic workshops were held: - 3-5 June 2009 in Vilnius: "Legal framework, organisation and financing of public transport services, infrastructure and management". - 14-16 September 2009 in Warsaw: "Tendering and contracting of PT services" - 16-18 November 2009 in Bucharest: "Implementation of clean vehicles fleets and experiences in operation of low emission and energy consuming vehicles" At the workshops the following good practices and recommendations could be identified: - INTEGRATED PUBLIC TRANSPORT ORGANISATION as practiced in the regions Ile-de-France and Berlin-Brandenburg offers a lot of advantages like integrated PT services, transparent tariff model, integrated traffic information. BILATERAL CONTRACTS as in Warsaw region may have similar effects. - DEMAND ORIENTED FINANCING instruments, like the French public transport tax enable more adequate solutions in public transport. - WELL PREPARED TENDERING of public transport services reduces costs and increases service quality, as proved by tendering processes in the Berlin-Brandenburg, Ile-de-France and Warsaw regions. Innovative methods like ONLINE TENDERING in Warsaw region may increase the transparency of procedures. - Green mobility needs a HOLISTIC APPROACH. The URBAN MOBILITY PLAN elaborated for the Paris region provides a good example for a concept how to reduce emissions by increasing public transport services. - In addition, ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY TECHNOLOGIES need to be further developed and tested. Metropolitan regions may act as catalyst for these technologies as successful examples from Switzerland and Germany show. The transfer of available knowledge particularly proceeded in case of the Warsaw door-to-door travel planner. A similar system as used in Berlin-Brandenburg region was developed and tested for the Warsaw metropolitan region. In the field of tendering and contracting, the CAPRICE partners started to exchange documents. One of the aims is to pre-shape tendering resp. contracting procedures in regions that actually do not practise these procedures like e.g. the Bucharest metropolitan region. The project provides a regular newsletter with reports from workshops, information about policy recommendations and good practices, information about upcoming European events and relevant further news. The newsletter interacts with the website. Additionally a leaflet in six languages introduces the project and its partners. The partners presented the project and their activities at several external events on European and national levels e.g. at events of the EMTA and CODATU networks. Furthermore external newsletters are applied to disseminate information about the project to relevant stakeholders. To coordinate dissemination activities, a communication plan has been drafted. More information about the approach of the CAPRICE partnership can be found at the CAPRICE website www.caprice-project.info, at which an internal site provides as well a working platform for the project partners.