The regions participating in the TWIST project are characterised by a lack of service and infrastructural balance in rural and mountain areas. The growing isolation of these populations, mostly older people, is the cause and the effect of the progressive abandonment of these territories. As a consequence, the resources assigned to the local transport services have been reduced, forcing the local populations to use their own means of transport and causing more traffic and road-related accidents as well as higher levels of exhaust emissions. The TWIST project aims at reducing the social and economic gap between mountain/rural areas and urban areas through the local implementation of different patterns of DRT (Demand Responsive Transport). The introduction of on-demand bus services in the territories is expected to facilitate access in disadvantaged and remote areas to more developed areas, offering opportunities of commercial exchanges, job search and social/health assistance. Starting from the supply and demand survey of the public transport in the territories of the pilot projects, the TWIST project will implement the experimentation of different on-demand bus services. A model to organise and evaluate these services will be elaborated and transferred to other regions with similar characteristics. The project will develop methodologies to determine the best technical and economic solutions for Demand Responsive Transport, and will help to harmonise the local transport services to safety, qualitative and quantitative European standards. The final output will be a sort of vademecum of best practices and methodologies to be transferred at regional and local level to the authorities in charge of planning and managing the transport system. Expected Results: The project's results will produce short- and long-term effects by conducting experimental actions through the pilot projects. Expected results are: - Identification of management and organisational patterns to promote a flexible and innovative system of transport capable of satisfying the hinterland's need for mobility, - Transfer of the results to the decision-makers, - Pilot projects methodologies and results used to plan a model of on-demand bus services, - Measurement of the incidence of Demand Responsive Transport systems as concerns the quality of life for the people living in remote areas, - Implementation of an info system concerning the transport service and its different components, - Creation of an interactive communications network between users and suppliers, - Development of good practices and methodologies to be transferred as project results, - Creation of a network of evaluators among the partnership capable of analysing and evaluating the policies adopted or adoptable by the decision-makers (regional bodies).