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Abstract The specific features and requirements of island regions and rural areas make Mobility as a Service (MaaS) an attractive and evolving concept in the realm of Intercity/Rural/Island transportation. The primary goal of this research is to provide qualitative insights relative to the added value and development of MaaS for the previously mentioned transport services through a case study from Greece, a country with approximately 250 inhabited islands. In island settings, the primary societal motivation for MaaS is to enhance the accessibility of islands and improve individuals' access to multiple transport services. MaaS is found to have a strong potential to act as an enabler for more efficient transport and better accessibility to remote/island locations, acting in a complementary manner with currently applied “external” measures such as the Greek “Transport Equivalent”. To further assess the potential, development and impact of MaaS a focus group comprised by key-representatives from industry and academia stakeholders is created. The MaaS Ecosystem, as described by the experts, is comprised of the MaaS Provider, all the intercity/rural/island transport providers currently operating in the Greek market, MaaS Enabling entities (associations, regulators, investors, research institutions), the Integration Drivers and the customers. The issue of transport providers’ liability in case of disruptions and existing market regulations constitute, according to the results, an important challenge towards development of an Intercity MaaS, which needs to be addressed by legislative studies in a pan-European level. Most likely user groups for Intercity/Rural/Island MaaS are young people and digitally educated people, whilst less likely patronage groups are the elderly and “vulnerable” population groups. Relative to the external environment, high degree of fragmentation of the intercity transport industry combined by “autonomous” behavior of actors (“silo effect”) appears to be the greatest threat towards MaaS whilst anticipated capital investments in infrastructure and vehicles, which are foreseen in the proxime future, are the greatest opportunities.

Automation in transport and digitalization will affect both transport users and its workforce. Focusing on the latter, this paper aims at analyzing barriers, gaps, opportunities, and success and failure factors of transport automation on the labor force, through the perceptions and contributions of employees and employers, as well as of stakeholders from the private, public, and private–public sectors. In a nutshell, the study aims to understand workforce-related barriers and facilitators associated with the implementation of automation. This has been achieved through input derived from the organization of five focus groups, one poll and one extensive questionnaire survey administered to the participants of the 2nd WE-TRANSFORM EU H2020 funded project Workshop, and to project partners’ stakeholder contacts. The analysis of the results indicated that the transport sector’s automation has been evolving at a different pace per sector. An interesting conclusion is that the challenges do not concern all categories among the workforce in the same way. Challenges related to loss of jobs and related repercussions are bound to affect groups within the workforce, which may be constrained by regulatory age limits, or vulnerable, if in part-time employment without access to retraining, which may be the case of workforce members near retirement age or of women limited due to family obligations to part-time employment. The study’s limitations are related to the size of the sample and how representative it is of all stakeholders in the transport sector, including policymakers, regulators, and unions. Future directions should focus on exploring the long-term impacts of automation on the labor force and identify strategies to mitigate the negative effects on vulnerable groups.

A network of low-cost sensors operates at six islands in the Aegean Sea (Lemnos, Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Syros and Rhodes) providing real-time PM2.5 concentrations to the public. In the present study, the effect of the prevailing meteorological conditions on the local air quality was examined. For this reason, data about wind direction, dry and wet temperature, wind speed and sunlight were provided by the Hellenic National Meteorological Service for the period from January to September 2022. The analysis of the hourly PM2.5 concentrations revealed different air quality patterns on each island, as well as seasonal changes for the same islands (e.g., higher concentrations in Samos during the cold period). Temperature was found to contribute significantly to the PM2.5 measurements since it affects the anthropogenic activities related to emissions. For instance, higher temperatures in winter result in limited residential heating needs.

The objectives of this study are to analyze, explain, visualise, and deliver insights into the passenger ferry transport system of the Aegean Archipelagos. The strong points of this system, its weaknesses, and the competition and complementarity from air are discussed. Policy testing and new configurations are offered through a transport simulation model developed for a specific area. An example is given for the efficiency of new connections through two insular minor transfer hubs aimed at improving network integration and interconnection among the islands of Aegean Archipelagos. The transport system of the area is described using vast information gathered and processed adequately in a detailed transport model. Transport and tourism statistics integrated into the model were used to estimate travellers to the islands segmented into domestic and foreign tourists during the peak summer season. Advanced public transport modelling techniques and multimodal assignment algorithms were used to simulate trip interchanges and to identify the important transfer hubs of the area. Reference surveys on mobility patterns from mobile phone records and on travel preferences were combined to complete the modelling process and for cross-evaluation.

This article assesses the potential of Mobility as a Service in passenger maritime transport from the supply perspective by collecting and analyzing data provided by interviews to key experts in passenger transport from both industry and academia. “Mobility as a service” in passenger maritime transport (also in this article referred as “Maritime MaaS”) describes the integration of passenger maritime services with land mobility into a single mobility service delivered through a unique platform for planning, booking, ticketing, and payment. The scope of this article is to explore the potential interest of mobility service providers to develop a MaaS that has as a backbone coastal shipping at the Aegean Archipelagos, in Greece. The Maritime MaaS ecosystem with its key actors is identified, while the perceived challenges, opportunities, and benefits envisaged by the adaptation of this innovative concept from urban transport to the maritime sector are recorded. Computer-assisted interviews were performed at a panel of 17 experts representing different types of decision makers. Participants were selected according to their current industry position or their academic profile. A content analysis with the use of NVIVO was conducted, followed by a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis based on the experts’ input, in order to assess the MaaS business environment. Results indicate that the maritime transport sector is relatively ready to adopt MaaS from a technological readiness perspective, while land transport seems to be in a lower level of technological readiness. PAYG (pay as you go) MaaS business model is preferred than a “MaaS package” model by most stakeholders. Finally, main challenges toward MaaS implementation are the discrepancies in reliability of service among different transport modes and the ferry fleet operational flexibility ceilings that are imposed by legal framework for ferry routings in Greece.

The COVID-19 pandemic shocked the global society and caused significant disruptions on various levels of economic and social activity, apart from the purely humanitarian and health perspective. International community and national goverments introduced a series of restrictions and other measures to minimize the spread of the virus. This paper provides insight from Greece, focusing on activities and time-use, statements towards mental health and overall wellbeing of citizens during the spring lockdown period of 2020. The analysis is based on data from more than 400 individuals collected through an online survey, which included psychometric attitudes and mental health scales, activity participation and time-use, as well as socio-economic variables and reactions to COVID-19 measures and overall situation. We present results and a respondent segmentation, by employing a latent class cluster analysis, which provides useful insight into the mental health, wellbeing of individuals during the restrictions period and information regarding the activities of the various segments of the population before and during the lockdown. Main findings include the identification of three distinct clusters of the respondents, “Relaxed”, “Worried” and “Cautious” which demonstrated some heterogeneity time-use allocation and activity patterns and feelings/mental health during the lockdown. This is one of the first papers to present activity and time-use data for the 2020 lockdown period in Greece by developing a segmentation approach of the participants based on mental health scales and indicators. Such exploratory efforts are useful in identifying different population segments that may react to government restrictions in a heterogenous way and may exhibit varying mental health statuses.