Mobility is a citizens’ right, and urban public transport is the backbone of a sustainable urban mobility.

European cities offer extensive mobility services, and the urban public transport (UPT) sector creates many jobs. However, the sector is changing fast. In the future of urban mobility, much is at stake:

• Austerity policies, deregulation and privatisation of urban public transport
• Planned liberalisation of the bus and coach market
• Disappearance of public transport in rural areas
• Digitalisation and the emergence of the MaaS (mobility as a service) model
• Uber and other platforms with disruptive business models
• Players like automotive manufacturers and big tech companies engaging in urban mobility

Those developments have an impact on employment in UPT and on working conditions.

Trade unions have to get involved, influence urban mobility policy, and ensure that UPT remains a public service. The way we organise this service must be based on policy decisions taken by the democratic bodies of a city, a region, or a country – not the market alone.