TRANSIT

The project

TRANSIT is a research project funded under SESAR 2020 Exploratory Research. TRANSIT’s vision is that of a multimodal European transport system where the different modes are seamlessly integrated, so that passengers travel from door to door in an efficient, sustainable and resilient manner. Realising this vision requires coordinated planning and collaborative decision-making across transport modes, as well as multimodal information systems that allow passengers to plan and reconfigure their journeys in real time. 

Goals

TRANSIT aimed to bring together recent advances in mobility data analytics and long-distance multimodal travel modelling to develop a methodological framework and a set of software tools that would support the design, implementation and evaluation of new intermodal concepts and solutions based on a better integration of the European air transport system with ground transport modes. 

The project had the following goals:

1. The high-level specification of a set of innovative intermodal concepts based on information sharing between the Air Traffic Management (ATM) system and ground transport modes, including collective public transport, but also the new mobility options grouped under the banner of ‘smart mobility’, such as shared mobility and demand responsive transport.
2. Identify a set of multimodal performance indicators that allow a comprehensive assessment of the contribution of each transport mode to the quality, efficiency and resilience of the total door-to-door trip.
3. Develop new data analysis methods and algorithms for the detailed reconstruction of the different stages and attributes of long-distance multimodal trips.
4. Create a modelling and simulation framework to represent annual long-distance travel at the national scale, enabling the evaluation of the effect of different intermodal solutions and passenger information systems on long-distance travel behaviour and the resulting impact on the multimodal KPIs. 
5. Carry out an impact assessment of the proposed intermodal concepts based on their simulation for the Spain-Madrid and France-Paris case studies, and a set of guidelines and recommendations for the further development and practical implementation of those solutions identified as more promising.

Nommon’s role

In addition to coordinating the project, Nommon was in charge of: 

• Developing the intermodal assessment framework. 
• Developing a methodology for enriching daily and long-distance multimodal travel diaries derived from Mobile Network Data (MND) and integrating these with travel surveys and other complementary data sources. 

Nommon also collaborated with ETH in the implementation and assessment of the developed solutions within the Spain use case. This use case assessed one of the project’s key innovations: the Timetable Synchronisation Tool, designed to optimise rail-air timetable coordination for the Valencia-Lanzarote origin-destination pair. As there are currently no direct flights between these two locations, journeys require a transfer in Madrid. 

To evaluate the impact of the proposed solution, a fully calibrated long-distance agent-based model was used. The model was developed using the long-distance travel diaries derived from MND.

Results

The work carried out by TRANSIT has resulted in three main solutions:

The TRANSIT Intermodality Assessment Framework

The TRANSIT Intermodality Assessment Framework enables the evaluation of the impact of innovative intermodal transport solutions on the quality, efficiency and resilience of the door-to-door passenger journey. The framework comprises: 

1. A set of multimodal, passenger-centric, door-to-door performance indicators covering, among other aspects, travel time, travel time reliability, affordability, environmental impact and resilience.
2. A set of data analytics techniques for the detailed reconstruction of long-distance multimodal journeys through the analysis of emerging big data sources (e.g., Mobile Network Data) and their integration with more conventional data sources, such as passenger surveys; 
3. An open-source simulation framework integrating the long distance travel demand model (J-TAP) with the airport access and egress  simulation model (MATSim). 
4. A methodology that combines  these tools to assess the performance of innovative multimodal transport solutions.

The TRANSIT Intermodal Timetable Synchronisation Tool

The TRANSIT Intermodal Timetable Synchronisation Tool enables the design of coordinated timetables between air transport and ground public transport services. The solution consists of an optimisation algorithm that generates synchronised timetables to improve connections between flights and ground public transport services, achieving an optimal balance between reducing door-to-door travel times and minimising the risk of missed connections caused by delays.

The TRANSIT Intermodal Disruption Management Tool

The TRANSIT Intermodal Disruption Management Tool (AMAN/DMAN Ground Tool) provides a mechanism for information sharing and coordination between ATM stakeholders and ground transport operators to support the tactical management of unplanned disruptions affecting airport access modes, such as unexpected rail or metro services interruptions.

Read TRANSIT white paper: Lessons learnt from the TRANSIT project and way forward

Public deliverables

• D1.3. SJU Final Project Report
• D2.1. ATM Role in Intermodal Transport: Opportunities for Innovative Intermodal Concepts and Passenger Information Services
• D3.1. Multimodal Performance Framework
• D4.1. Methodologies and Mobility Analytics Algorithms for the Analysis of the Door-to-Door Passenger Journey
• D5.1. TRANSIT Modelling and Simulation Framework
• D6.1. Impact Assessment of New Intermodal Concepts and Passenger Information Services: Conclusions and Recommendations
• D7.3. Travel Information Management for Seamless Intermodal Transport: Lessons Learnt from the TRANSIT Project and Way Forward

Scientific papers

• Burrieza, J., Jordá, R., Gregg, A., Ruiz, P., Rodríguez, R., Sala, M.J., Torres, J., García-Albertos, P., Cantú Ros, O.G., Herranz, R. (2022). A methodology for understanding passenger flows combining mobile phone records and airport surveys: Application to Madrid-Barajas Airport after the COVID-19 outbreak. Journal of Air Transport Management, Volume 100.
• Scozzaro, G., Ma, J., Delahaye, D., Feron, E., & Mancel, C. (2022, June). Flight Rescheduling to Improve Passenger Journey during Airport Access Mode Disruptions. In International Conference on Research in Air Transportation (ICRAT 2022).
• Buire, C., Delahaye, D., Marzuoli, A., Feron, E., & Mongeau, M. (2022). Air-rail timetable synchronization for a seamless passenger journey. In International Workshop on ATM/CNS (IWAC2022).
• Gregg, A., Blasco, J., Jordá, R., Martín, I., Burrieza, J., Cantú Ros, O.G. (2021). Airport accessibility surveys and mobile phone records data fusion for the analysis of air travel behaviour. 12th International Conference on Transport Survey Methods.

Resources

• TRANSIT model data. TRANSIT long-distance multimodal trips model results – A Spanish case study.
• TRANSIT Poster – GO MOBILITY by MUBIL Congress 2022.
• TRANSIT Poster – SESAR Innovation Days 2020.
• Optimization of airport operations to improve passenger door to door travel – ITS 2022.
• Air-Rail timetable synchronization for a seamless passenger journey – ITS 2022.