Cooperation and partnerships make learning and sharing new ideas in the public sector possible, implementing new models at an international level.

In your opinion, what are the key elements to combine logistics and public means in crowded cities?

In my opinion, the idea of combining logistics, i.e., delivery or freight transport, with public transport does not work in big cities. The density of parcels and delivery people is far too high here. Because of the short stopping times of buses and trains, they cannot squeeze into them. However, the situation is different in rural areas. Here, public transport is dominated by school traffic at peak times in the morning and early afternoon. We often experience, especially in rural areas, that these areas are generally poorly connected and are served by public transport with very low frequency. This is where we can start. Why not combine public transport with freight? For example, a model could be created that uses the means of transport that would otherwise go unused for further passenger transport as delivery vehicles, perhaps even autonomously in the future. Customers can then order their parcels, which are loaded at central hubs. Other empty vehicles can also be ordered to the front door and take people to the nearest, larger public transport hub (train station, etc.). In this way, synergies can be gained from delivery traffic and passenger transport, enabling us to proceed more efficiently and make unused capacities usable.

How do you think partnership and collaboration with other transport operators in Europe can improve the network and interoperability?

In my opinion, cooperation and collaboration are always decisive factors for the success of a product or a company. Going it alone is hardly possible in today's global and digital market anyway. Somewhere in the world, or to be more precise, in Europe, there are always companies or alliances that do certain things better than you or use the latest technologies and products. By cooperating with these many different best practices, you can learn new things, understand other ways of thinking, and, last but not least, develop your business further. Of course, such partnerships often result in opportunities for collaboration among the alliances, which in the end benefits the clients and can ensure interoperability between systems. This is of course particularly important in border areas, where services regularly have to be operated between two or more countries. An example of this could be railways, which do not stop at national borders but still cover long distances in other countries and transport areas. All this convenience for travelers would not be possible without close cooperation between different associations and countries. So we can see that what works in border traffic can also work in many other areas of public transportation. Most recently, nationwide offers such as the Deutschlandticket should have made it clear to all participants how important cooperation and collaboration are in providing the best possible offer for customers.

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