This is one of the largest projects funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 program, both in terms of budget (€18.7 million) and the participation of 47 partners from Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Spain, including some of the leading European infrastructure managers and transport operators.
Transforming Transport includes 13 pilot projects to be carried out in different countries and across seven different transport sectors: roads, airports, ports, rail infrastructure, sustainable connected vehicles, integrated urban mobility, and logistics. In each of these sectors, new algorithms, based on existing big data technologies, will be developed and tested to integrate real-world data from diverse sources, analyze it, develop transport patterns, and leverage this data in the most appropriate way to facilitate decision-making.
For example, in Spain, in Valladolid, one of the pilot projects on urban mobility will be developed; in France, on the connected vehicle; in Greece, on passenger flow in airports; in Great Britain, on rail transport; in Portugal, on highways; and in Germany, on port logistics.
Furthermore, one of the project's objectives is to ensure that the results achieved in these pilot projects are reusable and replicable, even after the project formally ends, for which more than 120 key players in European industry will be involved.
Tangible benefits
The three main advantages that big data can bring to the transport sector, and which will be addressed in the Transforming Transport project, are improved efficiency, improved customer service, and the possibility of generating new revenue or business models.
It is estimated that the use of big data can improve the operational efficiency of processes and services linked to transport by at least 15%, optimizing the use of resources and reducing maintenance costs, fuel consumption or incidents, among others.
These technologies also make it possible to offer a more personalized service tailored to customer needs, while simultaneously optimizing passenger flow, reducing waiting times and delivery times, and preventing missed connections between different modes of transport, among other benefits. All of this improves user satisfaction and generates greater repeat business.
The use and exploitation of data can also lead to new sources of income and even new business models, based on a better understanding of travelers' preferences or travel patterns, in areas such as tourism or advertising.
At the head of four pilots
Indra contributes to the Transforming Transport project its expertise as one of the world's leading companies in intelligent traffic management technology, with references in more than 50 countries, as well as its digital capabilities in big data and analytics. In fact, the project will include the participation of Minsait, Indra's unit that addresses the challenges of digital transformation. This is complemented by the company's experience leading ambitious national and international R&D initiatives, involving a large number of partners and including international pilot projects.
Indra is also leading four of the Transforming Transport pilot projects. Among them, a railway pilot project will be launched in collaboration with Adif and Ferrovial Agroman on the high-speed rail line between Córdoba and Málaga in Spain. Big data technologies will be used to improve the management of line maintenance, optimize available resources, and reduce maintenance costs. This will be achieved through the integration, processing, and modeling of various data sources: maintenance information, asset data, traffic data, topology data, superstructure data, and meteorological information. Real-time predictions will also be made regarding the impact of certain events on rail traffic management and their effect on maintenance.
In the two smart road pilot projects coordinated by Indra, to be developed in Spain and Portugal in collaboration with Cintra and Ci3, the objective is to validate the use of data to improve road capacity management, reduce accidents, optimize available resources, lower operational costs, and mitigate potential congestion. To achieve this, mobility patterns in the identified corridors in Málaga and Portugal will be analyzed in depth, along with user selection criteria. Tools will be developed and validated to manage traffic information and make short-term predictions, for example, regarding demand and expected vehicle flow, in order to facilitate decision-making. Data on traffic, speed, weather, camera information, and other sources will be integrated.
Indra is also running a pilot project at Athens airport that, using big data, aims to optimize operations for both the airport and airlines, managing passenger flow, optimizing check-in times, arrival at boarding gates or access to aircraft, and even contributing to improving the management of occupancy levels in shops.
A thriving sector in Europe
Business and tourism travel are expected to grow significantly in the coming decades, and freight transport is projected to increase by 40% by 2030, necessitating a shift in how transport and logistics are carried out. At the same time, climate change regulations and mandatory emissions reductions are putting enormous pressure on us to find a more efficient and sustainable mobility model.
Transforming Transport aims to address this challenge by applying big data to the transport and logistics sector, which is currently only used by 19% of companies in the sector. The project intends to double that percentage by demonstrating the tangible benefits that data offers to both citizens and businesses, and how it can help improve Europe's competitiveness and consolidate its position as one of the world's most advanced regions in terms of transport and logistics.
This sector accounts for approximately 15% of global GDP. The push to effectively leverage big data is expected to lead to savings of over €450 billion in fuel and time worldwide, as well as a reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of 380 megatons. In Europe, a 10% improvement in efficiency is expected to save the EU up to €100 billion.
