Public transport news from Europe and the MENA region & more

Dear ,

Welcome to Modasti’s fourth newsletter. You subscribed to this newsletter recently, or we met or communicated at some point over the last three years. In case you do not appreciate receiving this newsletter, simply unsubscribe from this newsletter by clicking on the link in the footer.

Modasti expands

Modasti Consulting has grown and now has two consultants: Arjen Jaarsma, a Public Transport Expert and founder of the company, and Petra van den Boorn, a Risk Management Expert connected to the company since January 2019.

News from Europe

Modasti Consulting assists Public Transport Authorities in the transition from diesel to electric buses. To address the e-bus market in the Netherlands, we joined forces with Movares, a leading Dutch consulting firm, last year. Besides this, we conducted a small Bus Rapid Transit assignment in the Amsterdam region with Movares recently.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. In the case of a project to assist the Flanders region (Belgium) in their transition to e-buses, our consortium (led by Egis and TAS Europrojects) was not selected as the winner; we ended our bid in second place.

Our involvement in a public transport project in Turkey to assist the Metropolitan Municipalities of Izmir and Kocaeli ended last February. As a sub-consultant to Integrated Transport Planning Ltd, with whom we collaborate regularly, we were part of a team of international experts and conducted an analysis of the economic and financial sustainability of the current and proposed mass transit systems. This technical assistance project in Turkey was financed by the World Bank in cooperation with the European Commission.

News from the MENA region

Our involvement in a Bus Rapid Transit project in Kuwait is in its final stages now. As a sub-consultant to Transmotion, a Kuwait-based traffic and transportation consultancy, we developed a Public Transport Strategy for a new city.

As part of a consortium led by PPM, we ended as number 2 in a bidding process for a Public Transport Investment Programme in the city of Tripoli (Lebanon).

Last February, we paid a visit to Dubai and met with several consultancies and with the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA). We have project references in Dubai (from some years ago), and this field trip gave us the opportunity to ride the Dubai Metro, the Dubai Tram, RTA’s buses and the monorail. We also deepened ourselves in Dubai’s plans for self-driving mobility, and we published a blog about it titled ‘Public transport in Dubai: the future is autonomous’.

See you in Stockholm!?

My colleague Petra van den Boorn and I will attend UITP’s Global Public Transport Summit in Stockholm from 9 to 12 June. We hope to meet you there, and please drop me a message if you would like to give a reaction to this newsletter!