Building on European Scientific Excellence to Develop an Educational Program on Intermodal Connections for Latvia and the Region

Abstract

Economic and social factors, including existing trends in urban population and employment growth combined with urbanization, have led to enhanced consumption and thus, increasing freight flows in the cities. Mitigation of transport impacts has led to plans towards a more sustainable urban environment. However, managerial and regulatory barriers restrict the incorporation of technological instruments and solutions to the sustainable dimension of decision-making and planning. This paper has sought to bridge this gap by organizing an educational and training program, which involves the participation of todays and tomorrow’s researchers, decision-makers and practitioners. Towards this direction, a methodology is developed that identifies existing gaps between the transport industry and the existing research, education and training programs and converts identified requirements and gaps into training courses. The paper addresses the context of intermodal interconnections for the case of Latvia and the region for stimulating and strengthening its scientific and technological capacity by providing knowledge in the field of smart interconnecting sustainable transport networks. The 2-level gap analysis that was developed and implemented with respect to the thematic areas of (1) ‘Governance and policy development’, (2) ‘Smart solutions’, and (3) ‘Decision-making’, and the validation process that followed, has revealed several requirements that exist currently for passenger and freight interchanges and educational programs for Latvia and the region. Based on the identified educational requirements for Latvia and the region, 20 educational areas were created that resulted in 12 courses for passenger and freight transport interchanges that are going to be used for training and education in Latvia.

How efficiently educational programs prepare professionals to meet current and future challenges of transport interchanges

“…To achieve its goal, an on-line questionnaire survey was conducted by the Traffic, Transportation and Logistics Laboratory of University of Thessaly (Greece) and the Transport and Telecommunication Institute (Latvia), investigating the level of knowledge on transport interchanges and its importance. The survey was structured based on the 12 topics that resulted as educational requirements for sustainable transport interchanges, as they have been identified by Mitropoulos et al (2017a) and the 15 emerging trends identified by the collaboration of the EU and the US as regards the intermodal transportation (HORIZON 2020, Transportation Research Board, 2016.…”

“…To address the specificities and complexity of the domain of transport interchanges, Mitropoulos et al (2017a) implemented gap analysis and studied the trends in transport interchanges and the available European educational programs. They identified the knowledge requirements for Latvia and the Baltic Region, as modest innovation performance states (European Commission, 2014a), with low expenditure in high education and business enterprise (European Commission, 2014b).…”

Assessing Knowledge Level of Stakeholders on Transport Interchange Design and Operation

“…In accordance with the results of ALLIANCE project analysis existing research, educational and training programs in transport in Latvia and the Baltic Sea region present an adequate coverage of traditional transport principles and the generic methods that are used in transport for planning and design. However, the first result of deep analysis showed that these courses are not specialized on intermodality (Mitropoulos et al 2017). It is possible to claim, that the transport education in Baltic countries is national oriented from the point of view of content, language and training material, and therefore integration of the Baltic transport networks with the European transport network should be especially included in transport programmes.…”

“…STIP was developed within the frame of the ALLIANCE project (Nathanail et al 2016b) and has been implemented and approbated during the 1st ALLIANCE Summer School in Riga (Latvia) in July 2017. The program's development followed a thorough analysis of the needs analysis, which revealed the required skills and knowledge for professionals in the domain of transport interchanges by Mitropoulos et al (2017). The analysis included identification of the requirements for sustainable passenger and freight interchanges, assessment of relevant educational programs and specific topics covered in European Universities, categorization of them into educational areas, and finally composition of twelve course modules comprising the core curriculum of STIP.…”

“…One of the aims of the ALLIANCE project is to develop educational and training transport program addressing intermodal interconnections. By analysing good practices on interchanges for passenger mobility and freight transportation and an in-depth investigation of the current situation and trends that exist in EU and the Latvia and Baltic Sea region, about the planning and operation of intermodal terminals, project identified existing gaps between the transport industry and practice, and the research, education and training programs in Latvia, which could be fund in Mitropoulos et al (2017).…”