UPPER at Transport Research Arena 2026
Another year, another Transport Research Arena edition and UPPER is unleashing the full potential of public transport in Budapest!
From 18 to 21 May, UPPER project is being represented at the TRA2026 through several different activities and actively involving our consortium partners.
Discover when & where to meet us!
18-21 May
UPPER represented in the European Commission & UITP stand (C/11 in Hall G - click here for the floor plan)
18 May | 15:30–17:00 | Strategic session 1.1 – room E1 - "Tackling Transport Poverty through Seamless and Sustainable Mobility"
- Transport poverty continues to hinder access to essential services, economic participation, and social inclusion, particularly in rural, peripheral, and peri-urban areas across Europe. This strategic session will explore how multimodal, digitally inclusive, and community-oriented mobility systems can address this challenge, aligning with EU ambitions for a just and green transition. Building on recent developments, including the Social Climate Fund and Commission Recommendation (EU) 2025/1021 on transport poverty, the session will investigate mobility solutions that combine availability, affordability, accessibility, reliability, and decarbonisation. The discussion will highlight the needs of vulnerable groups and the role of transport as a social equaliser and lifeline for remote and outermost regions. The session aims to highlight the research needs to combat transport poverty, so that research can support policymaking.
19 May | 10:00-11:00 | UITP Stand - “Measuring & Evaluating Mobility as a Right”
- UPPER, GOLIA and eBRT2030 will come together for “Measuring & Evaluating Mobility as a Right”, a session that asks a pretty fundamental question: how do you actually measure whether a transport system is fair? The session will focus on how the rights of people are central to mobility planning, and how tools for measuring the social impacts of mobility can serve to validate innovative solutions that support behaviour change, explored through the lens of the three projects.19/05/2026 16:00 – 17:30 Technical session 4.7 – room G2-G3 Strategic planning for inclusive mobility systems (Inclusive Mobility
19 May | 16:00-17:30 | Technical Session 4.7 - room G2-G3 - "Strategic Planning for Inclusive Mobility Systems"
- Presentation of the paper 261 with the UPPER colleagues from IBV. UPPER project performed a user research study to identify needs and expectations of end users regarding PT, including groups with special needs. The results were synthesized into Mobility Maps, which serve as evidence-based policy tools. This approach not only identifies gaps in current infrastructure but also empowers underrepresented groups by translating their lived experiences into actionable design requirements, ensuring that public transport transitions are both technically efficient and socially equitable, in order to achieve an inclusive mobility and to guarantee the access to PT for all.
20 May | 12:00-13:00 | UITP Stand - "Innovations beyond Europe"
- TRANS-SAFE, UPPER & ULTIMO discussing "Innovations beyond Europe". The session will look at how research projects support the development or capacity building/knowledge exchange with cities beyond Europe in regard to mobility innovation. The goal of the session is to highlight transferability and adaptability in several EU-funded projects beyond the European region. The main questions being, how mobility innovations are translated, tested and transformed in non-European urban context? The session will also explore the importance of getting different perspectives on technologies, operations as well as financing, policy and planning.
21 May | European Commission Stand - "User-Centred Mobility Systems"
- Session "User-Centred Mobility Systems" with UPPER, GEMINI and SPINE projects, where each project will present their objectives and some of the measures being implemented in the different cities and regions.
