How a well-connected transport system can make travel safer and more sustainable across Europe
A Global Wake-Up Call
In 2021, while the Covid pandemic raged on, a cargo ship ran aground and took the entire world by storm. The Ever Given had blocked the Suez Canal, a key trade route between Europe and Asia, leading to 88.79 million dollars in losses and thousands of extra tonnes of carbon emitted from extended trips and extra waiting times.
Although a dramatic example with widespread consequences, broken down buses, delayed trains, or damaged infrastructure can have lasting impacts at a local level as well.
“If we are able to optimise the way in which we move passengers and cargo, we can reduce fuel consumption and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said José Solís Hernández, director of research and innovation at infrastructure engineering institute CEMOSA.
Solís is the coordinator of the EU-funded research project MOVEO, which is aiming to build a new framework to make transport infrastructure more efficient, seamless, and inclusive across the bloc. The project, which launched in the summer, aims to have the framework ready by October 2028.
Introducing MOVEO: A Europe-Wide Transport Framework
The project has identified five key areas that it will focus on, including how to adapt public spaces to accommodate bikes and electric vehicles, using cutting edge technology to detect hazards in public infrastructure like bridges, and making transport more accessible for people with physical limitations like the disabled and the elderly. It’s not all about accessibility and efficiency either.
In 2018, the Morandi bridge in Genoa, Italy, collapsed leading to deaths of 43 people and leaving 600 homeless. The cables of the bridge were difficult to inspect and it was unclear how they were coping with increased traffic decades after its completion. The MOVEO project will use cutting edge digital tools to monitor infrastructure in real time, an approach that could potentially reduce the number of people affected by accidents in the future.
“If you have systems where you’re more aware of what’s going on, you can improve the safety of the service,” said Hernández.
Five Demonstrator Sites Across Europe
Five demo sites have been selected across the EU in France, Italy, Lithuania, and Switzerland. Each site has been selected to focus on a specific part of the overarching project, and different countries were chosen to ensure the framework works in different countries. “We are working in different countries with different contexts, different legislations, and different standards,” he said.
One of the demo sites in Switzerland will look at how to coordinate medium-distance trains with the local rail and metro systems. The site in France will look at the logistics of barges going up and down the river with the aim of minimising greenhouse gas emissions. The site in Italy will focus on a drawbridge at the port of Ravenna which acts as a transport bottleneck for the area. The Klaipeda port demonstrator will address navigability at the harsh port entrance from the Baltic sea.
Aside from wanting to cover a range of transport options and countries, the selected sites also reflect wider EU policy. As part of the European Green Deal, for example, the EU wants to move towards rail and inland waterway transport as part of the drive to reduce transport emissions by 90% by 2030 – one of the reasons the site in France was chosen.
Digital Twins: The “Glue” of the System
An important part of the project, referred to by Solís as the “glue”, is the use of digital twins to develop the framework. A digital twin is a digital replication of something in the real world, like, for example, a drawbridge or a river route for barges. Digital twins can be used to visualise, simulate, and predict problems that might arise during the project.
One of the biggest challenges for MOVEO is that it’s incredibly complex and will require a massive amount of coordination to pull off properly. Not only are the researchers working in different countries, and therefore conducting research under a range of legal structures, a range of technologies and methodologies are being used – and everything has to fit together for the framework to succeed.
A Complex Challenge: Towards a Safer, More Connected Europe
Even in developing a framework, however, the work never really ends. Any framework will have to take into account the needs of the people using transport infrastructure, and those needs will change over time in response to outside influences like policy changes at the national and EU level or changing weather conditions through the climate crisis.
Ultimately, however, a broader framework is important to help prevent blockages like the Suez Canal or the collapse of the Morandi bridge. If our roads are better connected with our trains, ships and other modes by means of digitalisation, transport becomes more efficient,” said Solís. “This makes Europe more efficient and more competitive in the international context”