More than 170 participants registered for the online second Modus workshop, which brought together experts from the air and rail sectors to reflect on “What could future air-rail multimodal mobility look like?”.
The workshop stood out by its uniqueness in bringing together the aviation and railway communities to exchange and discuss challenges and opportunities of intermodality.
Check out the summary and recordings of this online meeting below.
After Modus Coordinator Annika Paul kicked off the workshop and introduced the Modus project, Alessandro Prister, Programme Manager at SESAR JU, and Carlo Borghini, Executive Director at Europe’s Rail JU, spoke respectively about the air and rail perspectives of intermodality.
Then, Nadine Pilon, Research Project Manager at EUROCONTROL, explained the different Modus scenarios focusing on specific aspects envisaged for the future that could significantly change the transport system as we see it today.
Modus uses cases were presented by Ulrike Schmalz from Bauhaus Luftfahrt, to identify the main gaps and barriers in achieving European mobility goals. A third presentation, made by Ellie Zareian, Research Fellow at the University of Westminster, explained the Modus city archetypes, a combination of airport and railway connectivities, to translate the output of the modal choice model into a network of individual passenger itineraries.
Each of these three presentations was followed by an interactive session facilitated by Annika Paul, Bauhaus Luftfahrt, Vanessa Pérez, International Association of Railways (UIC), and Tanja Bolic, Westminster University, where the audience had the opportunity to give their feedback to highlight the most relevant elements, those less appreciated or missing ones.
Based on these presentations and interactive sessions, two Round Tables, bringing together air and rail experts, were held during the second part of the workshop to develop the ideas shared during the first part.
The first round table was devoted to the Modus scenarios. It was moderated by Riccardo Santoro, Manager, Europe’s Rail JU Coordination and Management, Corporate Technology, Innovation, and Digital at Italian Railways. It brought together panellists Uwe Martin (Munich Airport), David Villalmanzo (ADIF), Oana Savu (IATA), and Andrea Giuricin (University Milano Bicocca).
The second round table focus was the project use cases, moderated by Peter Hullah, Senior Drones and Mobility Specialist at EUROCONTROL. It brought together panellists Christian Steyer (Austrian Airlines), Stefano Scarci (Ernst & Young), Jörg Ostwald (SBB, Swiss Railways), and Willy Smeulders (European Passenger Federation).
As a final round of reflection and conclusion, Andrew Cook, Professor of Air Traffic Management at the University of Westminster, member of Modus, led a discussion with Riccardo Santoro and Peter Hullah.