studies

  • Passenger demand for small aircrafts until 2050: design and application of a modelling tool to simulate future scenarios The background of the study is the European Clean Sky 2 programme, aiming at developing innovative technologies to reduce emissions and noise levels from aircrafts, while simultaneously developing and strengthening a globally competitive aeronautical industry in Europe. The scope of the programme does also include Small Air Transport (SAT), which is expected to contribute to the connectivity of remote regions in Europe and the rest of the world. The study provided an ATS level assessment and forecasts for Small Air Transport aircrafts, namely airplanes with passenger capacity between 9 and 19 seats and pressurized and unpressurized cabin compartment. A modelling tool has been developed to provide (i) the assessment with respect to passenger volume, fleet and flights for the base year 2019 and (ii) results for future years from 2025 to 2050 in five years steps. The main activities of the project have been related to: Review and analysis of available SAT concepts and potential business models; Design and development of the model for the estimation of demand for Small Air Transport aircrafts at European scale, supported by the related data collection and calibration process. The model is also accompanied by input and output interface, complemented with a user guide; Application of the model to forecasts future potential SAT demand for the reference scenario and two alternative scenarios by 2050; Analysis of European modelling results to evaluate the potential SAT demand for the rest of the world with a qualitative approach.   TRT led the project and covered all the activities related to the model design, development and application. The subcontractor SEO Amsterdam Economics focused on the review of SAT concept and business models.     For more information: Official site of Clean Aviation programme: description of Small Air Transport Transversal Activity.
  • Definition of a strategy to exploit the potential of Greece as a gateway for logistics flows to and from Central The objective of this study is to support the Government of Greece in developing a Logistics Gateway Strategy and the related Implementation Plan to  consolidate the role of Greece as maritime transhipment hub serving the international containerised traffic within the Mediterranean Sea and to pursue a transition from transhipment hub to a regional logistics gateway. The study approach is to assess and contextualize the opportunity to better position Greece’s logistics sector in order for Greece to become a more capable, more competitive and more attractive gateway linking Central Europe with international and intercontinental markets. To support the positioning of Greece, especially the port of Piraeus and Thessaloniki, the analysis develops the following steps: Quantitative mapping of the Central European Hinterland trades with a focus on south-east Asia (China) in order to understand the amount of freight traffic and the routes followed. This includes the intercontinental railway route across Asia between Europe and China. Operational mapping of the freight trades by involving relevant stakeholders (freight forwarders, intermodal operators, big retailers, etc.) mainlybased in Central Europe.     The analysis provides a review of: maritime ports in Greece (Thessaloníki and Piraeus) and in Europe (Hamburg, Gdansk, Rotterdam, etc.), serving the Central European Market, freight corridors serving the Central European Market: the Pan European Corridor X and the Orient/East-Med TEN-T Corridor. In this study, TRT lead an international consortium of companies based in Greece (OPTILOG) and Austria (MC Mobility Consultants)  to better cover the geographical scope of the study and with the partnership of MDST Transmodal as transport modeler expert in the container cargo shipping.   [tw_button icon=”” link=”http://www.trt.it/en/projects/” size=”small” rounded=”false” style=”flat” hover=”default” color=”#223468″ target=”_self”]Projects[/tw_button]
  • New mobility patterns in European cities The objective of the study is to provide an extensive data collection covering the areas of passenger mobility, urban logistics, fleet composition, transport activity and traffic for the EU Member States. The project is composed of three tasks: An EU-wide survey covering all mobility, including both urban and non-urban parts, based on the methodology recommended by Eurostat with a specific focus on new ways of mobility in cities (shared mobility, active mobility and use of alternative fuelled vehicles and modes). The task includes a statistical meta-analysis of similar surveys done at EU and at national, major regional and local level to derive evolution over time of mobility patterns. A targeted survey on urban logistics in the major EU urban centres, addressed at businesses that provide delivery services for own account or for hire, to understand the composition and the mileage of the fleet, the characteristics of the vehicles, the corresponding activity, the fuel/energy consumption, the Origin-Destination characteristics of the supply chain and the carbon footprint resulting from their activities in cities. A complete and consistent dataset of fleet, activity and traffic data and relevant indicators on the economic, environmental and usage aspects of transport, for the period 2005-2018, covering all road, airborne, rail and waterborne passenger and freight transport. TRT led the systematic review of existing mobility surveys in Europe, analysed the results of the passenger mobility survey (Task A), supported the activities for the urban logistics survey (Task B), and developed the rail dataset (Task C).
  • User-friendly information tool on urban and regional vehicle access regulation schemes II UVAR-Exchange is the European Parliament Preparatory Action 2 (EP PA 2) contracted by DG MOVE. The project, which links to and follows the EP PA 1 (the UVARBox project in which TRT is also involved), aims to enhance the experience of road users by improving the communication of information to drivers in the vicinity of UVARs, as well as to facilitate the city’s access to information, especially of foreign vehicles and drivers, for their seamless travel and the city’s enforcement of UVARs. The project developed recommendations and guidance for EU-wide harmonised physical signs for different UVARs (use of symbols and layout of main and additional panels plus indication on road marking) and for variable message signs (VMS). Their applicability has been discussed and demonstrated in different countries including the provision of information to the vehicle via Cooperative Intelligent Transport System (C-ITS) UVAR-adapted and harmonized messages. UVAR-Exchange also addressed the cross-border sharing of vehicle and driver information, which will on one hand, allow the automatic compliance check of foreign vehicles and drivers, reducing the need for pre-registration (and related fines). The work included intensive desk research and extensive engagement with experts and stakeholders at the local, regional, national and international level (including the UNECE working group on road sign and signage), through surveys, interviews and workshops.   For more information: UVAR BOX project [tw_button icon=”” link=”http://www.trt.it/en/projects/” size=”small” rounded=”false” style=”flat” hover=”default” color=”#223468″ target=”_self”]Projects[/tw_button]
  • Analysis of ITS applications and solutions at logistics nodes Ursa Major neo project is co-financed by the Connecting Europe Facility of the European Union. The main goal of UMneo is to identify the best ITS solutions to interconnect the logistic nodes (ports and freight villages) and arches (road networks) for sharing each other information about traffic conditions or allow operators to book in advance some specific services. ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) are known to be effective for several applications in the entire supply chain, e.g. for reducing congestions at gate terminals or along the road, for saving time and costs, for reducing the environmental footprint of logistics activities, etc. The Italian partners involved in UMneo are the ports of La Spezia, Livorno, Ravenna, Trieste, Venezia, the freight village of Verona and the road network operators ANAS S.p.A, Autovie Venete S.p.A., Autobrennero S.p.A. and Autostrade per l’Italia S.p.A. TRT was commissioned by RAM to describe the state of the art about ITS services and systems applied or planned in ports and freight villages infrastructures involved in the Ursa Major Neo project, pointing out the most relevant best practices. Final results come both from desk-analysis and specific interviews that TRT performed with the involved partners.   For more information: Ursa Major Neo project Objectives of the Ursa Major project on NeoAutobrennero S.p.A. website
  • Study on the implementation of the amendments to Directive 96/53/EC amended by Directive 719/2015 (implementation of vehicle weight and dimension Directive) Directive 96/53/EC regulates the maximum authorised dimensions in national and international traffic and the maximum authorised weights in international traffic, both of passenger and freight vehicles. The evolving market, technological development and new international emission targets has required a review od the Directive in 2015 by Directive (EU) 719/2015. The amendments introduced concern: the installation of retractable or foldable aerodynamic devices to the rear of the vehicles; alternatively fueled vehicles to increase the maximum weight; the use of aerodynamic cabs with safer profiles; the increase in weight for passenger buses; the carriage of 45-feet containers and 45-feet swap bodies as part of intermodal transport operations. The objective of this study is to provide input to the Commission report, on the implementation of the amendments to Directive (EU) 2015/719 taking into account the specific characteristics of certain market segments. Five segments has been investigated by TRT in partnership with COWI: Hight Capacity Vehicles (HCV); Car carrier vehicles; Vehicles with equipment (crane, lift etc.); Vehicle for the transport of indivisible loads; Transport of military equipment.       [tw_button icon=”” link=”http://www.trt.it/en/projects/” size=”small” rounded=”false” style=”flat” hover=”default” color=”#223468″ target=”_self”]Projects[/tw_button]
  • Implementing a multimodal transport network model of the Rail Baltica Corridor and appraisal of the passenger and freight transport activity onto the Corridor Rail Baltica Global Project is the Baltic part of a rail transport infrastructure project with a goal to integrate the Baltic States in the European rail network. The expected core outcome is a fully interoperable railway line of more than 870 km in length meant for both passenger and freight transport as part of TEN-T Core Network (North Sea – Baltic Corridor). A first phase of the study, carried out in 2021-22 consisted of two main activities. The first activity was the implementation of a multimodal transport network model of the Rail Baltica Corridor covering in some detail (NUTS3 or even sub-NUTS3 zones) the area of the three Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and of neighbouring regions of Finland and Poland plus the rest of Europe and world regions in a progressively more aggregated fashion. The transport model is a four-stage model, dealing with the estimation of generated demand, distribution, mode split and assignment to a multimodal network. The model covers both passenger and freight activity of interest for the planned rail infrastructure. All transport modes competing with rail are represented. Different rail services are explicitly modelled both for passenger (including Night-Train services) and for freight. Supporting the implementation of the model, a Stated Preference surveys was carried out to estimate parameters for the passenger demand model. The second activity of the first part of the study was the application of the model to estimate the passenger and freight demand onto the corridor in several future time thresholds, corresponding to different stages of the implementation of the infrastructure, and under three scenarios: a “do-nothing” scenario without the new infrastructure. a “Base scenario” with the new infrastructure. an alternative scenarios where alternative assumptions are made regarding intermodal rail transport services and the application of measures related to the EC Green Deal transport policy is considered.   The application of the model provided several outputs ranging from aggregated statistics to link-based traffic and including impact indicators on energy consumption and emissions. The model was delivered along with the outcomes of the study and a training course focused on the use of the model was held for staff of Rail Baltica AS. This first phase of study was carried out by TRT with the support of PTV (DE), MDS Transmodal (UK), CSE COE (LV). TRT was the coordinator of the study and was responsible for developing the demand model (passenger and freight) as well as the Stated Preference survey. In a second phase (2024), some aspects of the model have been revised in order to improve the level of detail of the analysis and make the interaction with the model easier. In particular, the number of zones has been increased so that zones do not include more than one (non-urban) regional station. Following the revisions implemented, at the end of the second phase the model is recalibrated. The activities of […]
  • Study on “Providing public transport in cross-border regions. Mapping of existing services and related legal obstacles” In the EU it is widely acknowledged that border and cross-border regions need particular attention. About 30% of the EU population live in regions close to internal border. Despite the single market, cross-border activities still face bottlenecks hampering businesses and citizens. Cross-border transport is one central means to facilitate cross-border activities. Despite the importance of cross-border public transport to link regions across borders, to date, no European-wide and comprehensive inventory of cross-border public transport (CBPT) services exists. Thus, even the actual number of services is impossible to estimate. In view of this role of CBPT, this study: provides a comprehensive inventory of existing CBPT services along the internal borders of the European Economic Area and a sound and profound analysis thereof; develops an inventory of obstacles to the implementation of CBPT and further analyse them and possible solutions; identifies best practices with relevant case studies and develop a toolbox to support planners and implementers. Within the project TRT is responsible for: the analysis of cross-border rail transport services; the development of a web viewer to map existing services for all transport modes; the analysis of 3 case studies on the business models of cross-border public transport services.   [tw_button icon=”” link=”http://www.trt.it/archivio-progetti/” size=”small” rounded=”false” style=”flat” hover=”default” color=”#223468″ target=”_self”]Projects[/tw_button]
  • User-friendly information tool on urban and regional vehicle access regulation schemes UVAR-BOX is the EU project which has been established to tackle fragmented or unavailable information on up-to-date and relevant UVARs (Urban Vehicle Access Regulations) policies in European cities. The 24-month project successfully ended in 2023 and developed the Datex II standard for UVARs and a tool, the UVAR-BOX, to facilitate the input of UVAR data into the Datex II standard, which can be read automatically by navigation systems and mobile applications available to European drivers. UVAR policies pursue various objectives such as improving air quality, livability and reducing congestion.  The project aimed to harmonize and disseminate information on UVAR policies in fleet management tools and navigation devices. Its widespread application and use will support both road users to plan journeys across the EU, and local authorities and Member States to set up standardized communication procedures in line with European regulations on the dissemination of mobility-related information (ITS directive and single digital gateway). TRT, as part of a large consortium, had the role of Italian Country Coach to support Italian public administrations in this digitization process.     For more information Project brochure – Link Country Coaches web page – Website DATEX II: the standard for traffic and mobility information – Video