SPINE

Mission

Their work involves examining the structure, environment and public spaces in which public transport operates to shape impactful strategies and a unified framework that supports the co-creation of affordable, inclusive and resilient mobility solutions. It also entails designing, testing and assessing innovative mobility approaches in four living labs, bringing local stakeholders together to form an open community that collaboratively develops these solutions.

Alongside this, the SPINE project will develop and apply digital tools—such as digital twins, simulations, AI, behavioural models and data-driven decision-making systems—to enable seamless integration between public transport and emerging mobility services. A further aim is to promote the spread, replication and scaling-up of successful solutions by facilitating knowledge exchange among pilot and other European cities. Finally, the work contributes to the evolution of European transport policy by documenting effective pathways, aligning findings with current developments in spatial and mobility planning, and supporting local and regional policy advancement.

Expected Impact

SPINE’s vision is to accelerate the progress towards climate neutrality by reinforcing PT systems through their smart integration with new mobility services, sharing schemes, active transport modes, and micromomibilty. SPINE adopts an equity centred design thinking approach, leading the transition to a more efficient, sustainable, resilient, and inclusive PT system. A network of collaborative LLs is developed to foster transferability, while an intersectional view of the transport system users is applied. Four Lead City LLs in Antwerp, Bologna, Tallin and Las Palmas will be established, and a series of co-creation activities will take place where multiple stakeholders will be actively engaged in the development and demonstration of efficient, replicable, and socially acceptable innovative mobility solutions, advancing existing assets.

The SPINE approach involves the creation of (a) innovative simulation and Digital Twining (DT) tools, along with open data and behavioural models, that will allow the building of scenarios combining different mobility interventions (push and pull measures along with supporting policies) and the implementation of the most promising ones; (b) data-driven impact assessment models that will foster the twinning, transferability and adaptation of the successful solutions of the four LLs in seven Twining Cities - Barreiro, Valladolid, Zilina, Sibenik, Hrakleion, Gdynia and Rouen-. SPIRE sets a high ambitious plan for the co-design and implementation of 55 smart greens inclusive mobility solutions.

The SPINE consortium brings together a multidisciplinary team of 39 partners from 16 countries. The unique mix of experienced transport engineers, Public transport Operators, computer scientists, data analysts, transport modelers, social scientists, urban planners, policy analysts, software providers, within our consortium assures the comprehensive approach to the challenges, scope, expected impact and the successful delivery of the project.

Collaboration with Emeralds

EMERALDS and SPINE are set to collaborate on a webinar, to showcase how high-quality public transport data and real-time behavioural analytics can work hand in hand to support smarter mobility planning.

With SPINE demonstrating its data quality work in Antwerp and EMERALDS showcasing real-time analytics tested in Riga, the session highlights how the two projects complement each other in advancing more reliable and responsive urban transport systems.