Rural Transport Solutions project area considers whole region of North Karelia. Project works closely with cooperation of municipalities, provincial state offices, NGOs and transport businesses aiming accurately describe regional transport structure and good practices. The project goal is to develop existing and create new models how public sector can effectively offer sustainable transport methods for citizens.

Regional challenges which affects greatly in RTS project work are ageing, sparse population density, accessibility, work commuting, tourism and sustainable development. Quality and frequency of public transport system in North Karelia is moderate, offering fair means to commute between region’s 14 municipalities. There are also frequent interregional services running trough major population centres of the region.  Inhabitants, especially in rural areas outside municipal centres are rapidly ageing. This increases need to arrange special service lines from villages to service centres. There are number of ways to organize this service traffic. These means are usually special service offer by taxi’s, bought service coaches and/or demand responsive transport services. New solutions and technologies offers huge possibilities to make public transport more attractive. For example Car pools, village cars and demand responsive transport combined with mobile gps-technology are offering promising perspectives for RTS work in North Karelia.

Economically viable public transport services in region where population density is low (8 inhabitants / km2) are usually service lines between largest municipalities.  In deep rural areas lines are subsidized by state and municipalities. Costs in past decade have increased almost in all different transport forms (open public transport, school transport, paratransit and social sector). One solution to tackle many problems that public transport system is facing in rural areas is strategic goal to gain new customers for service users. In rural North Karelia these “new” customer groups are tourists and work commuters.