Padua, 28 October 2019
A decrease in traffic, smog and, above all, traffic accidents to render the city a better and healthier place to live.
These are the reasons why Busitalia Veneto won the 2019 award for good urban practices for the Night Bus service in Padua.
Chairman Andrea Ragona will accept the award as part of today's presentation in Mantua of the results of the 2019 Urban Ecosystem Report on the environmental performance of cities.
The innovative on-call service permits bus travel in Padua by night, after booking the trip via a dedicated app, indicating the departure stop, arrival time and the number of passengers. At the time of booking (possible from one week to five minutes before the desired time), the platform checks the availability of buses and seats before immediately providing information on the wait time. It operates from 9:00 pm until midnight each Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday; and until 3:00 am the following morning each Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
Active since 19 January, the experimental Night Bus service, managed by Busitalia Veneto and funded by the Municipality and University of Padua, was immediately successful. In the first month alone, 7,000 people registered for the service.
In the initial six months of experimentation, 19,000 people registered with the Night Bus platform. For the last period, the growth rate was 300 new registrations per week. Originally planned until 30 September, it has already been extended.
Designed to move freely, the Night Bus helps make the city liveable even at night. Considering Padua's university vocation, it is mainly geared towards young people, however the service is guaranteed to all citizens.
The Night Bus service aligns entirely with the sustainability, environmental, social and economic principles underlying FS Italiane's 2019-2023 Business Plan, as strategic cornerstones guiding the activities of all Group companies.
With this in mind, FS Italiane—aware of the key role of collective and shared mobility in improving the quality of life and of the territories—is constantly committed to implementing integrated mobility projects able to contribute to the development, connectivity and sustainability of the country's transport system.