UIC intends to facilitate partnerships between member rail companies and other transport providers (e.g. airlines, public transport) in order to optimise the multi-modal travel experience.
The UIC Passenger Services Group has started two projects this year. This common objective is helping the development of digital integrated mobility solutions by rail companies as well as the growth of an ecosystem and marketplace of digital integrated mobility services involving third parties. Air+Rail is focused on improving interoperability with airlines. D2D is aimed at facilitating multimodal door-to-door mobility solutions. Both projects will deliver position papers to be published later this year.
The second project meetings of Air+Rail and D2D took place on 12 and 13 March in Paris at UIC Headquarters. Participants were welcomed by Luca Mariorenzi, Programme Manager of both projects and Chairman of the UIC Passenger Experts Subgroup, and by Fabrice Setta, UIC Senior Advisor Passenger Transport.
The project delivery team presented the structure and key contents of the first part of the position papers, including a review of current and past key endeavours aimed at enabling intermodality, an overview of projects funded by the European Commission in this area, market trends, relevant standards from UIC and other institutions.
Several contributions came from the roundtables, involving: Henk Hoppener, Bob Vinke and Frauke Quik of NS; Mario Canu of Trenitalia; Jan Svensson of CIT; Mateja Matajic of SZ; Pawel Dydyszko of PKP; Jan Vàvra of CD; Clemens Gantert, David Sarfatti, and Kurt De Vriendt of UIC Passenger Expert Subgroup.
The topics covered included insights about collaborating with the airline community, experiences and lessons learned about intermodal services in several markets, perspectives on emerging trends such as EMV contactless pay-as-you-go and MaaS, considerations about the legal framework, positioning and market adoption of key standards.
The next meetings will take place in Brussels on 11 and 12 June.
