The partner perspective: IMT Portugal in DATA4PT

For EU Member States, data-sharing and data standards are essential to provide well-running multimodal travel information services. In DATA4PT, UITP and ITxPT work together with nine different Member States. What is their exact role in the project, and what do they expect from DATA4PT? We have asked them.

First up is Rui Velasco, Mobility and Transport Expert at IMT, the Portuguese Institute for Mobility and Transport. IMT is the national central administration body responsible for the coordination of transport, under the Ministry of Economics.

What you consider is the importance of data standardisation and of data models National Access Points, Netex, TransModel, Siri etc. for mobility in Europe?

The growing adoption of intelligent transport systems holds the hope for a more efficient mobility. A mobility that will allow energy savings and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, that will decrease the urban congestions and that will increase the safeness of our trips and reduce the number of road fatalities. However, to achieve these objectives there is the need for a standard European transport data layer, that will act as the platform where the intelligent transport systems and services will be built.DATA4PT provides an opportunity to engage our public transport operators (PTO) and public transport authorities (PTA), share its vision and concerns on how to develop the data exchange practices and get to know the perspective of PTA and PTO from other member states.

Can you tell us a bit more about your participation and role in DATA4PT?

I work at the Portuguese Institute for Mobility (IMT) – the national agency responsible to coordinate ITS implementation in Portugal acting under the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing –  and my role at DATA4PT is to assist our Project Manager, Mrs. Isabel Botelho, by ensuring the communication with the national stakeholders and the international coordination structure of the Project.

One of the most important challenges that we face is the need to ensure that DATA4PT is properly coordinated with other parallel ITS projects. At the moment, DATA4Pt is one of the five ITS projects in which IMT is participating (C-Roads, How2Go, IDACS, and Cooperative Streets) and each project covers a different ITS facet, from the development of the NAP (https://nap-portugal.imt-ip.pt/nap/home), to the elaboration of the national NeTEx profile (https://ptprofiles.azurewebsites.net/netex-profile) and stakeholder engagement, from the setup of a national Registration Organisation (IDRO) to alternative fuel stations, to the promotion of urban C-ITS adoption. The coordination of all these ITS developments is essential to ensure that Data4PT reach its aim to advance data-sharing practices in the public transport sector.

DATA4PT aims to advance how data in Europe is treated and shared, to further improve the mobility services. How do you think the project can further improve (multi-modal) mobility in Europe and Portugal?

DATA4PT provides an opportunity to engage our public transport operators (PTO) and public transport authorities (PTA), share its vision and concerns on how to develop the data exchange practices and get to know the perspective of PTA and PTO from other member states.

By learning from each other, promoting the internal development of tools and solutions, testing if those solutions are feasible on local pilots and refining those tools and solutions, to satisfy the expectations of PTA and PTO, the DATAPT project will contribute to design a data exchange path that is more aligned to the needs and expectations of PTA, PTO, and data users.