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​INTER-CONNECT project: Kick off meeting held in Igoumenitsa (Greece)

On 13-14 March, the Municipality of Igoumenitsa, as Lead Partner, hosted the Kick off meeting of the project INTER-CONNECT (Intermodality Promotion and Rail Renaissance in Adriatic – Ionian Region) financed under the Interreg ADRION Programme and funded by the ERDF and IPAII funds.
 
The Major of Igoumenitsa, Ioannis Lolos, in his welcome speech stated that INTER-CONNECT represented a great opportunity to streamline and enhance passenger flows in the region. “Concrete proposals for the alleviation of existing inefficiencies, connectivity, interoperability, intermodality constraints and fragmentation in the development of intermodal door-to-door transportation in the Region will be the main input for the action plan to be developed during project implementation” he stated.
 
The meeting gave project partners the chance to discuss the first activities to be implemented, according to the recently approved application.
 
The Municipality of Igoumenitsa presented an overview of the project rationale & work plan and provided participants with clear information about the setup phase, the main activities to be implemented as well as the reporting procedures.
 
Three specific technical sessions were organised and provided an in-depth analysis of the main expected outputs of the INTER-CONNECT Project:
  • The Regional Development Agency of the Ljubljana Urban Region focused on capitalisation of existing knowledge in passengers’ intermodal transportation and rail use (from policy documents and strategies as well as from previous best practices) as a basis for the development of INTER-CONNECT new analysis.
  • The Institute for Transport and Logistics Foundation highlighted the fundamental role played by the 8 case studies that will be developed within INTER-CONNECT, thus allowing a better understanding of the ADRION region in terms of needs, challenges and potentials for promoting passengers’ intermodality.
  • The Hellenic Institute of Transport (Centre for Research and Technology Hellas) presented the Intermodal Passenger Transport Roadmap that will be defined thanks to the project. Based on the experience gained during the implementation of INTER-CONNECT,  a strategy for the ADRION region will give inputs to future policies, generalising and translating the project’s results into recommendations for future public and private actions for intermodal and rail-transport promotion.
The CEI – Executive Secretariat, who is responsible for the project’s communication & dissemination activities, gave an overview of the planned actions to be implemented during the whole project lifecycle and stressed the importance of an effective involvement of specific stakeholders in the implementation of INTER-CONNECT solutions.
 
Finally, the participants discussed the steps to be taken to elaborate the INTER-CONNECT strategy, aimed at promoting the enhancement and promotion of intermodal and rail transport in the region.
 
The next meeting is envisaged to take place in Bologna in June 2018.

For more information: dileno@cei.int

 

 

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