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To start with, Bertrand Minary, Director Passenger, Freight, Safety and Operations at the International Union of Railways (UIC), brought in the rail and freight operations perspective. He stressed that transport can no longer function in isolated silos, particularly in rail, where long-life infrastructure must now integrate with rapidly evolving digital systems. He highlighted that the real bottleneck is not technology but governance, coordination, and trust between actors. For him, progress depends on shared standards, harmonized processes, and reliable data quality frameworks, especially for cross-border freight operations. He also referenced UIC initiatives such as open multimodal toolkits and interoperability frameworks, while pointing to the growing role of artificial intelligence in improving operational efficiency and enabling smoother passenger experiences, including automated rebooking across transport modes during disruptions.
Moving from operations to infrastructure strategy, Guillaume Zwang, Deputy Director for Territorial Transport Development at Société des Grands Projets, emphasized that digital thinking must be embedded into transport planning from the very beginning. He explained that infrastructure projects have too often been designed in silos, with digital services added after construction decisions are already made. In contrast, he argued that ticketing, pricing systems, passenger information, and data infrastructures should be integrated from day one. He identified three key purposes for transport data: supporting project justification, enabling integrated services from launch, and ensuring long-term exploitation for operations and public policy evaluation. He also stressed the importance of interoperability standards, shared data platforms, and strong governance structures that align technical and political dimensions.
Shifting to freight and sustainability, Juliette Medina, Director of Operations Research at Weenlo, focused on the decarbonization challenge in logistics. She explained that freight transport remains a major source of emissions and that efficiency gains depend on better coordination across actors. She contrasted centralized optimization platforms with a more distributed model based on data spaces. In her view, the most promising approach is one where each actor retains sovereignty over its data while selectively sharing information within trusted, rule-based environments. This enables collaborative services that can identify synergies, reduce empty transport, and improve overall efficiency without requiring a loss of control. She also highlighted the role of artificial intelligence, particularly agent-based systems capable of supporting complex operational decisions, while emphasizing the need for transparency and human oversight.
Finally, Benjamin Beaudet, CEO of Beti, addressed Europe’s position in emerging mobility markets such as autonomous shuttles and robotaxis. He emphasized that while technological progress is accelerating, Europe’s ability to compete depends on its capacity to build collective strength around data. Shared protocols, interoperable systems, and high-quality data inventories are essential foundations for scaling innovation. He also pointed to a structural challenge across the ecosystem: aligning large established operators with smaller, more agile companies that often face very different constraints and timelines, which can slow down collaboration despite shared goals.
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All in all, the panel made one message clear: the future of mobility will not be shaped by isolated systems but by trusted, interoperable data ecosystems spanning rail, freight, infrastructure, and autonomous transport.
Readers are invited to explore further by visiting the EONA-X website and engaging with its ongoing work on collaborative mobility data spaces.
