Evaluation of public transport systems along the corridor Sassuolo-Vignola

Technical assistance to assess the potential demand for a public transport system in the ceramic district area and connections to Modena

The Transport Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility Sector – General Directorate for Territorial and Environmental Management of the Emilia-Romagna Region entrusted TRT Ingegneria with the “Technical assistance aimed at assessing the potential demand for a public transport system in the area of the ceramic district and connections with Modena”.

The purpose of the study was to carry out an analysis of possible alternatives for the local public transport system along the corridor between Sassuolo and Vignola.

In the first instance the study analysed the main characteristics of the area considering:

• current rail and road public transport offer, both in terms of routes and active services;
• travel demand based on available sources, both local and regional. In particular, reference was made to the Origin-Destination (OD) matrices estimated by PRIT2025, the PUMS of Modena and the Distretto Ceramico, as well as data on the demand transported by LPT services in the area;
• various sector planning documents currently in force, in order to better understand what is envisaged in the corridor under study.

Starting from this knowledge base, the study identified five different alternatives for new public transport services between Sassuolo and Vignola for a subsequent preliminary assessment. The preliminary assessment cross-referenced demand data with supply data referring to the different systems (capacity, performance, costs, investment and management, etc.) and was complemented by a multi-criteria analysis that followed three main steps:

• definition of evaluation criteria and sub-criteria;
• estimation of the criteria weights through the involvement of local administrators and stakeholders by means of interviews;
• normalisation of the measurements to ensure comparability.