Examining network governance of multimodal integration: A comparative study of rural mobility hubs in The Netherlands

Abstract

Sufficient accessibility ensures that rural populations can participate in transport societal processes. However, linear public systems often fall short in these areas due to inefficiencies such as indirect routing, low frequencies, and limited stops. Integrating functionally interdependent transport networks across spatial scales inevitably increases institutional interdependencies and complexity. This paper examines the governance of multimodal integration by combining functionally interrelated transport services into an institutional ‘network-of-networks’ for two case studies in the Netherlands: Groningen-Drenthe and Zeeland. The findings show that central coordination mainly occurs through information and organisation instruments, cliques of actors form around individual transport modes, and the mode of governance depends on network maturity and scope. In this context, barriers of ambiguous responsibility, patchworked policy instruments, and interoperability gaps between transport services affect the network’s ability to achieve positive accessibility and efficiency effects. Future governance designs could balance central coordination to ensure consistent modal availability with decentralised coordination to facilitate bottom-up initiatives. Additionally, implementing instruments that create overlap between mode-specific network cliques may further encourage interoperability.