Das World Passenger Festival ist eine einzigartige Veranstaltung, die Betreiber öffentlicher Verkehrsmittel aus der ganzen Welt anzieht, um über die sich wandelnde Ära der Mobilität zu diskutieren. Dieses findet vom 05.-06. Oktober 2023 dieses Jahr in Wien statt.
Die Veranstalter führten ein Interview mit unseren Präsidiumsmitgliedern der Mobilitätsverbünde Österreich, Christian Hillbrand und Wolfgang Mag. Schroll, über unsere Ziele, die Herausforderungen für Österreichs Mobilitäts- und ÖPNV-Branche, laufende Projekte und Innovationen unserer Organisation und vieles mehr!
Das Interview zum nachlesen:
1) Can you explain what the Mobility Association Austria is and
what your overarching mission and goals are?
As association of the seven federal public transport authorities in Austria, we
ensure public mobility for everyone. We implement and constantly optimize a
climate-friendly, sustainable public transport network that is accessible and
affordable for everyone.
Mobilitätsverbünde Österreich is comprised of the
seven Austrian public transport authorities. We represent the interests of public
transport in national and international projects and industry initiatives in order
to shape and continuously optimise mobility in Austria.
Together and with all relevant partners, we develop holistic mobility solutions
for public transport in Austria, such as harmonised and simplified tariff models,
and generally comprehensive mobility services that are accessible to everyone –
right up to the “last mile”.
We collect and process public transport data to create forward-looking offers
for local, regional and long-distance public transport, f.i. we supply the data to
the Austria-wide, multi- and intermodal route planner “traffic information
Austria” (VAO) with our digital data pool.
We focus on know-how and innovation in bundling the combined expertise of
the seven transport authorities to jointly advance public transport in Austria.
We tap synergies at national and EU levels to shape and continuously optimize
mobility in Austria through cooperation. We represent the interests of public
transport in projects and industry initiatives to shape and continuously
optimize mobility in Austria.
2) What are the most pressing current and upcoming challenges
for Austria’s regional and national mobility and public transport
industry?
We are working on solutions to address the general challenges of the industry,
which include climate neutrality, traffic management including international
traffic information, climate change, last and first mile (MaaS), service expansion
and infrastructure, tourism and making public mobility more attractive.
Climate and mobility transition is major for us and we use renewable energy
and resource-saving drive types, but also pay attention to efficiency and
sensibility in terms of sustainability.
3) Can you elaborate on the benefits of collaboration and
cooperation within mobility? How does the Mobility Association
Austria’s network benefit its members?
We ensure “Mobility for Everyone”.
We stand for Togetherness: We use synergies of the regional public transport
authorities and maintain an exchange with our partners in Austria and Europe.
Comprehensiveness: We make sure that mobility is publicly accessible
throughout Austria – in all federal states, regions, and localities. Sustainability:
We ensure that mobility is available, affordable and climate-friendly for
everyone in Austria.
Through cooperation and intensive collaboration across the seven federal
public transport authorities at a national and international level, we are
generating synergies, optimizing processes, and developing sensible, efficient,
innovative solutions. Therewith we want to further develop publicly accessible
mobility in Austria and to make it even more attractive. We act in the interest of
all citizens, customers and people participating in public transport in Austria.
That is our Mission.
As a common interface we are available for cooperation with external partners.
Together with national and international partners, we work on the
implementation of national and international legal regulations (f.i.
implementing the provision of EU-wide multimodal travel information services
as required by the ITS Directive).
4) Within your organization, what are some of the ongoing
projects and innovations that most excite you?
a) Project DOMINO: The main objective of the DOMINO research project is to
develop a universal, publicly accessible mobility service. This should be as
barrier-free as possible for all users and at the same time support the mobility
and climate goals of the public sector. The Mobility Association Austria has
been involved in the project, which has been running since 2019, in defining a
basic target picture for the design of a Mobility as a Service (MaaS) landscape
and the role of the public sector is considered and the proposal of a common
architecture and recommendations for action for a MaaS integration are
developed for political decision-makers.
b) Mobility Data Space: Involvement in creating a concept for a national
mobility data space in compliance with a European mobility data space.
c) Traffic information and management: Research project on integrated traffic
info and integrated traffic management across all transport sectors as well as
providing incident messages to the national radio station “Ö3” in real-time.
d) Development of data processes for timetable data: Technical and contentrelated further development of various data processing procedures to optimally
supply the “Traffic Information Austria” (Verkehrsauskunft Österreich VAO) and
its customers as well as passengers to f.i. guarantee accessibility in the travel
chain as well as to ensure a cross-border data pool.
5) If we look into the near future, what is your vision for national
mobility and public transport?
Our vision as the association of Austria’s seven public transport authorities is
that we create forward-looking mobility solutions for public transport in all
regions of Austria.
It is of central importance to expand public transport so that more people
switch to public transport and thus achieve the national transport turnaround,
which can be achieved, among other things, through Multimodal offers and the
development of the transport authorities towards mobility authorities.
