Improving mobility services in rural areas is an important issue throughout Europe. Being mobile is a prerequisite for participation in public life, especially in rural areas. The district of Northeim is working intensively on this topic and will develop solutions and concepts for sustainable and networked mobility services as part of European cooperation. aconium is currently supporting and advising the district in the Interreg Europe project “MATCH-UP“.
The national kick-off event for the project took place in Einbeck, Lower Saxony, at the beginning of November 2018. District Administrator Astrid Klinkert-Kittel invited representatives from districts and municipalities, associations and initiatives as well as companies from the mobility sector. In specialist presentations and discussions, the participants explored the question of how to make public transport in the southern Lower Saxony region more attractive and encourage more people to switch from cars to environmentally friendly mobility solutions.
In her welcoming address, District Administrator Klinkert-Kittel said that affordable and well-connected public transport was one of her personal priorities and that the district would therefore also like to improve strategies and develop measures in European cooperation. The State Commissioner for Regional Development, Matthias Wunderling-Weilbier, congratulated the district on its participation in an Interreg project: “The district of Northeim is thus playing a pioneering role in Lower Saxony.
The MATCH-UP project and its integration into the EU funding programme Interreg Europe was presented jointly by Stefanie Thomuscheit, employee in the Department of Economic Development and Mobility in the district of Northeim, and Britta Schmigotzki, project manager at aconium GmbH. They emphasised the role of all event participants as so-called national stakeholders of the MATCH-UP project. In addition to the European exchange of experience, a regional network is also to be established. In this way, the district would like to strengthen cooperation with key players and initiatives and achieve the goal of sustainable, multi- and intermodal mobility in the region.
Cover photo: Britta Schmigotzki, aconium, giving a presentation on the MATCH-UP project.
Photo below: Matthias Wunderling-Weilbier, State Commissioner at the Braunschweig Office for Regional Development, giving a welcome address. MATCH-UP kick-off event in Einbeck, 1.11.2018.
Photo credit: aconium GmbH