TRANSFORuM's series of stakeholder workshop continues. Six more to come.
Nine stakeholders from seven countries gathered in Reading near London on November 11 and 12 2013 to discuss good practice issues related to intelligent transport systems (ITS), in particular the future of inter-modal travel information and payment systems. The participants from Finland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Sweden, UK and the Netherlands represented a complimentary set of perspectives, ranging from small start-up companies and public authorities to national associations, consulting companies and city representatives. They followed an invitation of the TRANSFORuM project, which is driving the development of a stakeholder-led roadmap for the implementation of key goals of the 2011 EU Transport White Paper; among them goal number 8: "By 2020, establish the framework for a European multimodal transport information, management and payment system." The discussion was kick-started by a presentation from two gentlemen from Transport for London, who provided fascinating insights into the history, current state and future plans with the Oyster Card, London’s hugely successful multi-modal payment system. The ensuing discussion brought to light key criteria, risk factors, barriers and policy drivers to the implementation of such systems, which sharpened everyone’s understanding of the challenge – at a different scale – to work towards similar systems for journeys across borders of EU’s member states. The discussion over these two days also helped to identify suitable criteria for identifying good practice cases from which the TRANSFORuM process can learn in general. The event was also the launch of the TRANSFORuM road-mapping process, which will culminate in the 2nd half of 2014 in a set of key outputs: a road-map with feasible steps, a timeline and the identification of key players required to join the White Paper implementation efforts. TRANSFORuM will also produce a strategic outlook for the time beyond 2030 and a set of immediate policy recommentations, targeted mostly to the European Commission but also to national governments. The event ended with a site visit to central London where the functionality of the Oyster Card could be experienced first hand. Six more similar stakeholder workshops are yet to come: Two in the 2nd half of November 2013 on long-distance freight (Basel) and on high-speed rail (Lyon) and four in the spring 2014; one workshop each per TRANSFORuM theme: urban mobility, ITS, long-distance freight and high-speed rail.+49 221 6060 55 18
