FAMS

FAMS was a European project funded by the EU-IST Programme which started on March 2002 and ended on February 2004 under the co-ordination of ATAF, the Public Transit Company for the Florence Metropolitan area.

The FAMS Consortium was composed of 7 partners and 1 sub-contractor from 4 different countries:

Two transport operators/authorities/Agencies – SITA (I) and Angus Transport Forum (UK) – to implement the Flexible Agency concept in the Toscana and Angus regions respectively.
Two IT suppliers, Mobisoft Oy (FI) and Softeco Sismat SpA (I) – to provide the required technology transfer by adapting solutions obtained in previous EU RTD projects.
One public transport service operator, ATAF (I) – to provide a transfer of expertise on DRT planning and management and support the implementation of best practice in community transport and DRT at end-user organisations.
Two IT and a transport consultancies, MemEx Srl (I) and ETTS (IE) – to guarantee the co-ordination of technical trials and the common evaluation framework.
A university research group, University of Newcastle (UK) – subcontracted to support ATF and ETTS in site development and evaluation.

FAMS has innovated solutions for Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) planning and operation by the implementation and trial of the Flexible Agency. Existing DRT management tools have been adapted and made interoperable within an e-Business collaborative environment allowing co-operation amongst transport service suppliers and the operation of a new service value chain which has allowed:

Different transport operators to benefit from a shared IT infrastructure.
Services for the management of the Flexible Services they are individually offering.
The FAMS service operator to have a global view of travel needs and the service offer, ensuring the best match between users’ demands and available services.
DRT and Flexible Transport users and users’ groups to benefit from a unique service centre able to serve their travel needs in the most integrated and best possible way.