Real-world benefits using real-time information – RTF
The first Real Time Ferries conference in Rostock was truly appreciated by participating ferry lines, ports and logistics companies. The hands-on outcomes of the project, the eleven demo lines involved, the concrete information sharing solution based on European and global standards, explains why the interest is great and that governments and institutions promote the Real Time Ferries project, RTF.
”The Real Time Ferries conference showed a project that is hands-on implementation which will result in intermodal efficiency gains. Real-world benefits using real-time information.” – Thomas Erlandson, Policy Area Coordinator, EUSBSR PA Transport
Ferry lines and ports which were present expressed an interest to join RTF whenever possible. They found the plans and progress impressive.
The conference started with keynote speeches showing the support of important public bodies and the warm welcome from project leader Nina Vojdani, University of Rostock.
Kurt Bodewig, Katarina Norén, Nina Vojdani
Kurt Bodewig, European Coordinator for Motorways of the Sea, said “The EU strives to build a seamless and competitive trans-European transport network by 2030. The Real Time Ferries project is very complimentary to achieve that goal.”
Katarina Norén, Director General of the Swedish Maritime Administration, stated “I think the RTF-project is a really good example of European public transportation standards meeting STM and other maritime standards to deliver value to cross-border passenger and goods transportation.”
The morning continued with a session introducing the project (slides) and another session where commercial partners in the project explained their reasons to join (slides). One important output of the project presented are the tools that different actors can use to connect to the infrastructure after the project.
After lunch, Jens-Uwe Zingler from the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern government and Melvin Matthews, Wärtsilä Voyage brought some inspirational thoughts outside the RTF framework (slides).
The next session described how RTF really will work behind the scenes (slides) and the final session launched the Hackathon which is a way to innovate and discover new solutions using the available data in RTF (slides)
Did you miss this conference? Do you want a crash course summary of Real Time Ferries? At the conference we premiered “RTF – the movie”. Please watch it to get a quick summary of the project.