Partner Meeting in Žilina
Workshop report
The partner meeting on 8 & 9 June 2017 in Žilina (SK) came shortly after the first year of the project lifetime has been completed. The event was opened by Wilfried Köhler (Ministry for Regional Development and Transport Saxony-Anhalt, Head of Project) who emphasized that all partners need to maintain the high quality of the work done as pilot projects are now under way or to begin shortly.
Dana Sitanyiova, representative of the hosting partner University of Žilina, welcomed the participants and gave a short introduction about her institutions and the Žilina region (see presentation #1). Thereafter she introduced the meeting's agenda. Sophie Golinski (Ministry for Regional Development and Transport Saxony-Anhalt, Project Coordinator) summarised in her presentation (#2) current activities, upcoming tasks and first achieved outcomes of the project.
The discussion of the pilot projects was launched with a presentation by Kamila Napora (#3), representative of Kolje Mazowickie, who gave insights about the companies development (steady increase of passenger numbers, modernisation of the running stock, adjustment of train schedules to people's actual mobility needs), current service lines and information services. The planned RUMOBIL pilot will help to improve passenger information services on two lines operated in a rural area in the Northwest of the voivodship (Sierpc, Plock). Marcin Kaczmarek added information about the survey conducted during the planning phase for the pilot investment (see presentation #4; use of the anticipated app and functions desired by public transport users).
Thereafter, Dana Sitanyiova opened the discussion about the indicators to measure the success of the pilot projects (see presentation #5). She explained the task and the proposed set of indicators and the methodology of their measurement, and outlined the launch report which all pilot-implementing partners have to prepare until the end of August 2017. The report is designed to promote the learning between partners. A gamestorming exercise "How to get to Noplaceville" completed the discussion of pilot projects.
After lunch, Francesco Misso (T Bridge; see presentation #6) spoke about the transnational strategy elaboration and the follow-up activities aiming to integrate it in public transport strategies. While the service strategy is already close to finalised, the formulation of recommendations and actions customised to the pilot areas is the next task. He furthermore highlighted the importance to begin early with the elaboration of draft decisions in order adopt the necessary decisions in time before the project closes. To that aim, he had already analysed the strategies/plans to be impacted and their expected timing's compatibility with RUMOBIL's work plan.
Another upcoming task for project partners is the collection of data allowing to analyse the future mobility demands in light of demographic change. Data to be researched will also allow better assessing the success of carried out pilot projects. A first research will be completed by partners until 15 July 2017.
Later in the afternoon, three work papers that are elaborated by RUMOBIL partners were discussed. The first one addresses "macro-economic effects" (see presentation #7), e.g. factors, interdependencies and impacts of public transport on regional development. The second one addresses "transport telematics' opportunities and boundaries" (see presentation #8) investigating how the "internet of things" (machine-to-machine communication) is changing the ways how IT can be used for "smart transport". Finally, the third paper on "mobility demand patterns" (see presentation #9) shows how demographic change and growing prosperity are impacting mobility. The paper furthermore identifies external and internal factors and their impact on transport by calculating correlations between those and observed mobility patterns. Each work paper includes information on several RUMOBIL partner territories. All will be finalised by the end of 2017. If possible, they will be submitted to scientific journals for publication.
Frank Trepte (see presentation #10) briefed partners thereafter on current communication activities, including statistics of the project website and outcomes of the "transnational competition" activity which was foreseen in the project's first year. In the next project phases, the communication of project results to new audiences using presentations at other events and media dissemination gain in importance. To update the project website, partners are requested to send their materials to him.
In the evening, project partners visited the site of the local pilot project at the Rajecké Teplice train station. Marian Gogola showed partners the feasibility studies carried out and how the investment is now in preparation for realisation.
The next day, partners firstly met to discuss the project's coordination and management (Steering Group meeting) and discussed the next activities' responsibilities. Following that session, a disused train station converted to a non-profil cultural centre on the outskirts of Žilina was visited where the meeting was closed.
Partners can find all presentations shown during the meeting available for download on the project’s mini-site.
