The Evolution in Transport Operator’s Corporate Structure: Ownership and Governance

Outsourcing is wide used practice from large companies in the supply chain sector, especially, in transport industries, where world-wide the market deregulation is a continuing tendency towards cost control, service quality and emission mitigation. Many specialists and dedicated suppliers are already emerging with offers to take over parts of the transportation chain, while the booming of start-up companies promote a variety of data-driven applications towards operation efficiency, emission mitigation and revenues generation. Working capital and procurement cost could be more variable and transportation services are more on-demand response than ever in the past and by taken the benefits the digitalization era the shape of transportation business is changing fast, where non-transport revenues leverage by use of data are key driver of the transport companies’ business strategy. The balance between insourcing and outsourcing activities are a key challenge for transport sector and this chapter highlights innovation and success factors for the transport industry taking into consideration the digital era wave and best practices, providing recommendations and guidelines to managers, planners and decision makers

Population viability and conservation strategies for the Eurasian Black Vulture (Aegypius monachus) in Southeast Europe

The Eurasian Black Vulture is a globally threatened raptor that in Southeast Europe only occurs in an isolated population in Greece. We examined the population viability for the species under demographic fluctuations and conservation scenarios. The current population showed no possibility of extinction for the next 100 years. However, simulated scenarios showed that the most important factor affecting the viability of the species was medium and high poisoning, leading to 94.8% and 100% probability of extinction, respectively. Furthermore, high reduction of supplementary feeding highlighted an 18.6% extinction possibility. Also, a high increase of wind farms in the area may result in 17.4% extinction possibility. Additionally, the non-establishment of the feeding station in 1987 in the study area would have resulted in an extinction risk of 7%. The species can be translocated to the Olympus National Park by releasing 80 juveniles over 10 years. The implementation of the conservation scenarios concerning the establishment of a supplementary feeding site network, and the reintroduction of the Eurasian Black Vulture in its historic range, along with the elimination of threats posed by poisoning, low food availability, and wind farms would increase the probability of the species persistence and allow the population to become a source for dispersal across Southeast Europe

Accessibility-based reranking in multimedia search engines

Traditional multimedia search engines retrieve results based mostly on the query submitted by the user, or using a log of previous searches to provide personalized results, while not considering the accessibility of the results for users with vision or other types of impairments. In this paper, a novel approach is presented which incorporates the accessibility of images for users with various vision impairments, such as color blindness, cataract and glaucoma, in order to rerank the results of an image search engine. The accessibility of individual images is measured through the use of vision simulation filters. Multi-objective optimization techniques utilizing the image accessibility scores are used to handle users with multiple vision impairments, while the impairment profile of a specific user is used to select one from the Pareto-optimal solutions. The proposed approach has been tested with two image datasets, using both simulated and real impaired users, and the results verify its applicability. Although the proposed method has been used for vision accessibility-based reranking, it can also be extended for other types of personalization context

Comparative evaluation of airports productivity towards tourism development

The link between tourism and aviation is at the top of the agenda of many academic institutes, professional associations and regulatory authorities, mainly, because of the both industries high competitive business environment resulting demand volatility and business unpredictability. Airports serving tourist destinations are essential counterpart of the tourist demand supply chain and their productivity impact essential the mobility cost, the connectivity and the region’s attractiveness. This paper deals with the airport productivity assessment towards regional development (RD) for regions heavily dependent on tourism. The methodological approach promotes two essential steps: (a) the introduction of a set of key performance indicators (KPI) providing essential messages towards airport’s contribution in tourist regions and (b) a performance benchmarking for a group of airports with similar characteristics serving high demanded tourist destinations. The assessment methodology is based on a multi-objective unweighted analysis, introducing six KPIs to provide messages towards airport productivity contribution in RD, in the scale of strategic planning. The assessment framework uses a sample of seven islands constitute very attractive European tourist destinations for summer holidays and the assessment outputs provide key messages to planners, managers and decision-makers towards aviation and tourism interaction

QUANTITATIVE EVALUATION TAXONOMY FOR TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS

In most of the cases the decision to invest in a transport infrastructure is not simple, mainly, because the complications in planning process, the amount of capital need to invest before the business establishment and the high number of stakeholders involved in decision process. The decision process is more complicate in large transport infrastructures, where the project survivability strongly related to regional development prospects and the transport business targets in medium-long time horizon. Also, different expectations from authorities and stakeholders lead to significant conflict between authorities and local communities about the advantages and disadvantages to develop large transport infrastructure projects. This paper deal with the methodology approach to support strategic decisions about develop a new large transport infrastructure project. According a systematic approach, the analysis framework where the decision key issues are evaluated and the key messages to decision makers are presented. Conventional wisdom is to present a systematic approach appropriate to apply is relevant projects, providing the essential tool to support decisions at level of strategic planning. This paper attempts to fill gaps faced by stakeholders and decisions makers in the evaluation and decision making process of developing large transport infrastructure projects

Sustainable Development Variables to Assess Transport Infrastructure in Remote Destinations

The assessment variables of the accessibility and the sustainability of access infrastructure for remote regions may vary significant by location and a wide range of factors may affect the decision process. In this paper, the environmental disturbance implications of transportation system to key demand and supply variables impact the economic system in remote destination are descripted. According to a systemic approach, the key sustainability variables deals with decision making process that have to be included in strategic plan for the critical transport infrastructure development and their relationship to regional socioeconomic system are presented. The application deals with the development of railway in remote destinations, where the traditional CBA not include the external cost generated by the environmental impacts that may have a range of diverse impacts on transport infrastructure and services. The analysis output provides key messages to decision and policy makers towards sustainable development of transport infrastructure, especially for remote destinations where accessibility is a key factor of regional economic development and social stability. The key conclusion could be essential useful for relevant applications in remote regions in the same latitude

Decision Framework for Cross-Border Railway Infrastructure Projects

Transport infrastructure assets are key components of the national asset portfolio. The decision to invest in a new infrastructure in transports could take from a few years to some decades. This is mainly because of the need to reserve and spent many capitals, the long payback period, the number of the stakeholders involved in decision process and –many times- the investment and business risks are high. Therefore, the decision assessment framework is an essential challenge linked with the key decision factors meet the stakeholder expectations highlighting project trade-offs, financial risks, business uncertainties and market limitations. This paper examines the decision process for new transport infrastructure projects in cross border regions, where a wide range of stakeholders with different expectation is involved. According to a consequences analysis systemic approach, the relationship of transport infrastructure development, economic system development and stakeholder expectation is analyzed. Adopting the on system of system methodological approach, the decision making framework, variables, inputs and outputs are defined, highlighting the key shareholder’s role and expectations. The application provides the methodology outputs presenting the proposed decision framework for a strategic railway project in north Greece deals with the upgrade of the existing railway corridor connecting Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria

Competitor Analysis to Quantify the Benefits and for Different Use of Transport Infrastructure

Different transportation modes have key operational advantages and disadvantages, providing a variety of different transport options to users and passengers. This paper reviews key variables for the competition between air transport and other transport modes. The aim of this paper is to review the competition between air transport and other transport modes, providing results in terms of perceived cost for the users, for destinations high competitiveness for all transport modes. The competitor analysis variables include the cost and time outputs for each transport option, highlighting the level of competitiveness on high demanded Origin-Destination corridors. The case study presents the output of a such analysis for the OD corridor in Greece that connects the Capital city (Athens) with the second largest city (Thessaloniki) and the different transport modes have been considered (air, train, road). Conventional wisdom is to present an easy to handle tool for planners, managers and decision makers towards pricing policy effectiveness and demand attractiveness, appropriate to use for other similar cases

Evaluation Framework for Investments in Rail Infrastructure Projects

Transport infrastructures are high-cost, long-term investments that serve as vital foundations for the operation of a region or nation and are essential to a country’s or business’s economic development and prosperity, by improving well-being and generating jobs and income. The development of appropriate financing options is of key importance in the decision making process in order develop viable transport infrastructures. The development of transport infrastructure has increasingly been shifting toward alternative methods of project financing such as Public Private Partnership (PPPs) and hybrid forms. In this paper, a methodological decision-making framework based on the evaluation of the financial viability of transportation infrastructure for different financial schemes is presented. The framework leads to an assessment of the financial viability which can be achieved by performing various financing scenarios analyses. To illustrate the application of the proposed methodology, a case study of rail transport infrastructure financing scenario analysis in Greece is developed