Stefan Blachfellner, Managing Director of the BCSSS, was invited by the European Commissioner for Transport to contribute to the Executive Symposium on the Future of Mulitmodal Freight Transport on Monday, 19th March, 2018 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The symposium was one of the interactive and participative design symposia of the European Commision to engage the largest and most impactful transport infrastructure and service providers in Europe in a dialog about the future developments from an economic as well as political perspective.

Stefan Blachfellner was invited to present the essentials of his report on the Co-creation of a Future European Digital Transport Eco-System, which he worked on for two years to prepare advise for the European Commission and also take part in the lively dialog with the Executives from all over Europe.

The whole day creative ideas of the group ignited insights for opportunities, but also awareness for the risks a fully digital multimodal transport system will possibly create for citizens, customers, businesses and governments, tomorrow. Many participants shared and agreed on their awarness and also responsibilty to be part of a major paradigm shift, that will change the ways we conduct business today and offer such essential services as freight transport for the wellbeing of all citizens in Europe.

In the key messages provided from Stefan Blachfellner´s report to the Executive participants the European Commission emphasized:

„From a systems architecture, digital and technology point of view, there is no need to distinguish between freight and passenger mulitmodal transport, but the services and the legal framework [still] differ. This technological multimodal system cannot be seen in isolation; it is nested in and needs to be considered in combination with its environmental system (resource avaliablity, sustainability), social system (need to creat value for our societies), and political and econmic systems.“