Seamless Bay Area to host virtual conference on the Swiss Public Transportation Ecosystem in partnership with Caltrans, LA Metro, Stanford

Switzerland has one of the most highly integrated and high ridership transit systems, with many transit operators and levels of government providing service.

Next month, Seamless Bay Area is excited to host a unique virtual conference and workshop for California transportation professionals and policymakers to glean best practices from Switzerland’s highly effective public transportation ecosystem. The SwissCal Conference on the Swiss Public Transportation Ecosystem, which will take place across four two-hour sessions on February 1st, 8th, 22nd, and one day in March, is hosted in partnership with Caltrans, LA Metro, Southern California Association of Governments, Stanford University’s Bill Lane Center, MTC, SPUR and other partners. See the conference website, www.swisscal.com, for more details.

The conference will offer Californian policymakers and senior leaders rare access to Swiss transportation experts who will present on how their system is structured to provide a seamless transit experience for riders in an environment with many local agencies and jurisdictions. This effective system of coordination has been identified in the California State Rail Plan as a model for California.

The conference is being limited to 100 attendees and priority for registration will be given to board members and senior staff from key California agencies, including sponsoring agencies. A limited number of additional registrants may be allowed; if you have not already received an invite from your employer or Seamless Bay Area and are interested in attending, please send an email to Seamless Bay Area’s Policy Director, Ian Griffiths at ian@seamlessbayarea.org explaining your interest in attending. Seamless Bay Area will be publishing blog posts and posting materials from the conference publicly, so even those who are not able to attend the conference live will be able to learn from the presentations.

The Swiss transportation system is fully-integrated and highly-utilized. It maintains a high degree of local independence and is funded by different national, regional, and local funding sources. Schedules are coordinated at the national level for a population of approximately 9 million (similar in population to the Bay Area). National, regional and local fare products are designed to meet a wide range of needs, offering riders a seamless experience.

The SwissCal Conference on the Swiss Public Transportation Ecosystem has been developed to complement other Bay Area regional initiatives, including the MTC-led Network Management Business Case and Caltrans-funded Regional Rail Partnerships Grant. It offers an opportunity to do a ‘deep dive’ into a particular model of networked transit that is likely to be considered in the regionally-led studies, but which is less well understood in the United States.

During the first three two-hour sessions of the conference, participants will get direct access to Swiss transportation experts, presenting virtually from Switzerland, on a range of subjects including integrated service planning, customer experience, payment, mobility-as-a service, and other topics. The Swiss experts will come from a variety of Swiss authorities including the Federal Government, Swiss Railways (SBB), Alliance Swisspass, Regional Transport Associations, and private Swiss transportation companies.

There will be three final sessions on March 1, 2, and 4th, each with a different sub-regional focus, where the goal will be to distill pertinent lessons for each region and identify opportunities to apply best practices.

Interested in learning more about the conference program, objectives, or speakers? Visit www.swisscal.com for more details.

Have questions? Email Ian Griffiths, Seamless Bay Area’s Policy Director at ian@seamlessbayarea.org.

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Sana Ahmed is Seamless Bay Area’s Policy and Advocacy Intern