The Passenger Services Group Innovation Workshop on “Driving Sustainable Travel Choices by Passengers” took place on 11 September 2024 at EY Wavespace in Rome.
Luca Mariorenzi, Chair of the UIC Passenger Experts Subgroup, opened the Innovation Workshop and welcomed all participants, both attending in person or online.
Participants represented key rail industry players, including Trenitalia, SNCF, FSTechnology, Alstom, MAV Start, Entur, CFL, Gysev, Eurail, FS, HS2, RHB and UIC.
After a quick round of self-introductions, Lia Talarico, Head of Sustainability at Trenitalia and Chair of the UIC Sustainability Platform, gave a keynote speech, providing the highlights of sustainability activities at Trenitalia and UIC. Surveys of Trenitalia customers indicate that the vast majority identify the train as the most sustainable mode of transport and are also interested in the information provided by Trenitalia sales channels regarding trip emissions compared to other modes of transport, determined using the UIC EcoPassenger green calculator. UIC sustainability activities include advocating for a multimodal vision of sustainable mobility with rail as the backbone, providing a trusted platform on which the railway sustainability community can connect, and delivering practical solutions, such as the EcoPassenger tool.
Stefano Scarci (EY) tackled the questions of how sustainability influences travellers’ choices and what the rail industry should do to drive more sustainable choices by travellers. A number of studies, including the 2024 EY Future Travel Behaviours report, indicate that most travellers believe that sustainability is important, but when making travel choices they make trade-offs with other drivers, such as price, convenience and time. They demand that the travel industry provide more eco-friendly information and offerings. The rail industry should educate travellers on how rail travel addresses environmental challenges, help travellers make informed decisions, provide incentives or “nudges”, create end-to-end eco-friendly experiences, ensure transparency, and tailor messages to customer profiles.
Paolo Gentili (EY) addressed the issue of how to partner with clients to achieve sustainability goals. The European Green Deal aims to achieve a 90% reduction in transport-related GHG emissions by 2050. Increasing the use of rail transportation is key to achieving the objective. The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) provides an opportunity for partnerships between corporate clients and rail transportation companies, for example encouraging employees to use greener transportation. Eco-scoring calculators are becoming increasingly important due to their ease of use and ability to inform consumers about their personal travel emissions. Disclosure on GHG emission savings also ensures audit-proof information in line with the requirements of the CSDDD.
In the breakout sessions, participants had the opportunity to discuss and co-create ideas on three key topics:
1. How can railways promote sustainability to influence the preferences of leisure travellers?
2. How might railways leverage sustainability to become a preferred option for business travel?
3. How can UIC facilitate international initiatives to position sustainability as a key factor when selecting the mode of transportation?
Among the many ideas that were generated, some were ranked higher than others based on their impact and feasibility and these included:
- Encourage transparency between transport operators through best-of-breed tools and common metrics and standards;
- Integrate information about sustainability and environmental impact in OSDM;
- Implement communication campaigns aimed at leisure and business travellers;
- Tailor service design to customer needs.
