The Argentario Coast of Tuscany, which includes the Maremma Regional Park is a unique environment with many protected wetlands that are crucial for the conservation of protected bird species. The Argentario Coast is a popular tourist destination, with the population augmented by up to 300 000 tourists per year, including 80 000 each August. Public transport services are unable to cope with this influx of visitors, leading to widespread use of private cars and subsequent negative impacts on local mobility and the environment.

The LIFE_SC project aims to develop a sustainable tourist mobility programme on this stretch of the Italian coast. The goal is to integrate the benefits of public and private transport, encouraging people to shift from the concept of owning a means of transport to that of accessing integrated mobility services, where inhabitants and tourists can access private or public transport services, depending on their needs and destination.

The project will create an integrated mobility network in three coastal towns/municipalities (Monte Argentario, Orbetello and Isola del Giglio), combining public and shared transport services, which will be operated for two years. It will develop:

• A sharing system for electric bikes and small electric cars;
• New connections, served by electric boats, between the beaches of Orbetello, Giannella and Feniglia;
• Electric boats adapted to sea operations for tourist connections between the Argentario Coast and Giglio Island;
• An electric shuttle bus between Orbetello train station and the town centre; and
• An integrated mobility platform that will allow users to travel on all services, including ferries, using a single ticketing system.

The project will thus contribute to the EU's sustainable urban mobility and air quality policies, as well as the target of achieving a 60% reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from transport by 2050. It will also help promote the EU transport policy goals of optimising performance, increasing efficiency and moving closer to zero fatalities in road transport by 2050.

Expected results: