Europe’s largest transport conference, the TRA (Transport Research Arena), took place in Vienna, heading the city as European centre for future mobility. The theme of this year’s TRA conference is ‘a digital era for transport – solutions for society, economy, environment’ and is in line with the first of the 10 European Commission priorities identified by President Jean-Claude Juncker for 2014-2019, which is jobs, growth and investment.

Clara de La Torre, Director for Transport Research, DG Research and Innovation, said: “From the first TRA Conference in 2006, the European Commission has supported the event as it is the only research conference in Europe covering all modes of transport and their interconnecting activities, such as logistics, urban mobility and for the first time aviation and multimodal traffic management.”

Miss Clara de la Torre added: “The European Commission works together with its stakeholders to promote safe, efficient, clean and competitive transport policies and seeks to ensure that Europe remains at the cutting edge of transport innovation”.

Throughout the entire four-day conference, an exhibition area with various stands manned by researchers, scientists, engineers, companies and public authorities representing the field of transport gave visitors an insight into the different challenges that are being faced by the transport sector in respect to new mobility patterns.

During the conference there were different plenary sessions where stakeholders gave presentations, discussed and shared new ideas, research results, technological solutions and new business models.

Herakd Ruijiters, Director for Investment, Innovative and Sustainable Transport, DG Mobility and Transport, said:  “Transport is one of the most important fields receiving substantial EU investment and we have to ensure that the right return will be to the benefit of European citizens.”

Mr Ruijiters added: “This can be achieved through an optimal use of the opportunities offered by digital technologies and a smarter use of financial resources by removing obstacles to investment and providing visibility and technical assistance”.

The conference emphasised how 2018 is the year where digitalisation is essential to the achievement of a low/zero-carbon transport as it can also significantly improve transport management. The benefits from digitisation will continue to grow with better access to-and sharing of digital transport data from traffic, travel, vehicle, cargo etc. for both public and private stakeholders along the supply chain that will foster seamless information flows, and open up a wide range of new business opportunities.

2018 is also the year of multimodality, which is an important tool for driving sustainable mobility, ensuring economic strength and efficiency of freight transport, for achieving social inclusivity, allowing disadvantaged citizens the best accessibility to mobility and for improving the environmental performance of transport as a whole.  

TRA offers the opportunity to highlight the links between research and policy, as well as showcasing the latest research activities in transport. As part of the SILCI research project funded by the European Research Council, Emma Cassar, a PhD researcher at the University of East Anglia, presented the results of the study so far and posed the question of whether disruptive innovations can help stimulate end-user demand for a low carbon transition.

Dr Cassar’s research focuses on mobility-as-a-service which allows consumers to go about their journey seamlessly as the planning, ticketing and payment is done through one single smartphone application.

This service is currently being piloted across European cities to demonstrate its use. A study by RethinkX has found Mobility-as-a-Service to reduce carbon emissions by as much as 90 per cent when using autonomous electric vehicles and having a decarbonising grid.

Dr Cassar said: “Malta has a lot of potential in offering this service. Most of the population live in urban areasand travel distances are short. Malta needs to look at cities who have successfully adopted mobility-as-a-service and start introducing the concept to the public. She added: “Nevertheless, there needs to be a robust public transportation system and a shift in mentality, where we start making smarter choices in the way we travel, and reduce our dependence on the private car.”

As the baton was passed to Helsinki to host the TRA research conference in 2020, during the closing session, Finnish Transport Minister Anne Berner listed the four trends that will have the greatest impact on the future of transport. These are digitalisation, the speed of technological development, the effects of urbanisation and how climate change is dealt with.

With these trends in mind, the TRA 2020 Helsinki conference edition is likely to be just as thought-provoking.

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