The end.....or is this just the beginning

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We can't believe its the final day of the programme where has this week gone??? The group seem to have mixed feelings as we know it's coming to an end and of course a part of us is ready to get back to our loved ones but you can easily get comfortable in this city and the time has flown by. The 2 week period is about right as I am now running out of clean clothes - just as well my favourite movie is Commando!!!

Our final formal meeting of the programme took us to the Vasttrafik headquarters in the Folkkungagatan building a 10 minute walk from our hotel. Vassttrafik is responsible for the public transport system in Vastra Gotaland and we were fortunate enough to be able to meet Roger Vahnberg the Vice President and his colleague Hanna Bjork an Environmental Strategist for the organisation.

Roger provided further information on the setup in the area and informed us they look after the public transport system but tender out the actual provision of the transport to a number of different companies in the area.

We were given figures that enabled us to appreciate the scale of this responsibility as 390,000 customers travel with them daily and their vehicles cover the equivalent distance of 12 times around the world each day - a crazy figure which illustrates how busy this region is.

As you may have identified from previous entries there are a variety of different type of public transport used including trains, trams, ferrys and variations of types of buses - if you have been listening you will know about the electricity project and biogas vehicles they are trying to implement.

The core values of the organisation are basic enough - to provide a simple, reliable and smart service to the people in the area and this is delivered by 271 staff within their organisation working with over 9,000 partners providing the service.

Their mission statement is 'Vasttrafik - for a smarter way of life'

Roger went on to explain how the Public Transport Authority works in practice, with the connection between the Regional Assembly making the decisions passed to the Public Transport Committee turning those decision into operational plans and finally to the Vasttrafik board to deliver the objectives.

The plans were certainly impressive and the main aim to develop attractive and sustainable transport concepts of the future included some suggestions I am sure our managers within Transport will be interested to have a look at.

Hanna then went on to explain the environmental impact the transport system can have and all the factors they need to consider when designing their future plans.

An interesting piece of research they have undertaken around what would happen if Vasttrafick did not exist detailed that society’s environmental costs would increase by SEK 350 million per year (roughly £30million),1,000 more people would be killed or injured on the roads each year and an additional 75,000 parking spaces would be needed in Gothenburg.

I have all the information from the morning and will be bringing this home with me to share with our colleagues.

The afternoon was an evaluation session with our hosts Irma and Robin so we took the chance to speak to each apprentice individually to ask them to sum up their experience and provide their opinions on how the placement has been for them.

It was nice to hear all are very positive about the experience and have learned so much about how a big authority like Vastra Gotaland delivers their objectives and the variety of experience they have been able to undertake has really given them an appreciation of the wide spread responsibility a public authority has.

Some are even considering researching into European working possibilities and I wouldn't be surprised if this leads to some more european adventures for the group.

It was also clear they have developed personally from this trip and I must admit they have all impressed me with how they have coped living and working away for this length of time and all indicated they feel more confident now and have improved on their social skills - some might have learned money management the hard way but by the sounds if it it's their parents that will be feeling the pinch following this trip.

I spent some time following the evaluations chatting to Irma to discuss how beneficial they have found the placement for themselves and again its great to hear nothing but positive comments from them - Irma actually indicated its a great way for them to make contact with all the departments of the authority they may not need to contact on a regular basis and how great it has been for Robin the Intern as he has enjoyed the programme and its been an education for him as well.

We of course thanked the whole team for all the support provided and work undertaken to make this project happen in the first place and to deliver it to such a high standard.

It is the end of the placement but feels more like the start of a strong working relationship between our 2 authorities and with the contacts we have established through the trip the communication channels are in place now with our colleagues in Vastra Gotaland more than receptive to future collaboration between our regions.

We are all thankful to have been given this opportunity which has been a fantastic experience and hope this can lead to similar future projects and also hopefully we can bring some information and good practice back with us that can help the development of our area.

Tack (thanks in Swedish)

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