In October 2023, we asked Joana Cunha, an engineer at the Strategy and Innovation Department of Carris to talk to us about the Lisbon case study.

What is Carris doing in TANGENT?

As the public bus and tram operator in the City of Lisbon, CARRIS is participating in the TANGENT project to solve a very relevant problem that we face nearly every day: how to deal and manage service changes, interruptions and disruptions. In practice we will help deploy and test the TANGENT functionalities in real-world applications. Projects like TANGENT are of upmost importance to improve our offer and enhance the level of service provided to our customers.

What do you do at Carris?

I am a Project Manager in the Innovations Team of CARRIS. In our team, we collaborate daily in innovation projects and actively explore novel ideas that could help us meet our customers’ expectations, enhance our services, and make our operation more sustainable.

What are the benefits for Carris in working in an EU-funded project on traffic management?

EU-funded projects give Carris the opportunity to gather knowledge from the best players from the industry and academic institutions which will help us develop and assess potential improvements we can implement in our services. Traffic management is an important factor in the success of our operations as it enables us to comply with the planned services and meet our users’ expectations, particularly during disruptive events.

What has been your biggest challenge in the project, and have you overcome it?

A project with so many partners from different cities comes with challenges and difficulties. In the case of TANGENT, I would say the biggest challenge was the collaboration and data sharing due to the high number of entities. This is a complicated and delicate issue due to data privacy regulations or technological systems. This obstacle is being managed, notably through the active engagement of all entities.

How will Carris continue the work it has achieved once the project is over?

CARRIS aims to use the tools developed to keep improving our operations, and notably to learn from past events and devise strategies to tackle them and minimize their impacts on our service. Moreover, the in-depth knowledge of the system gained throughout the project will help us find new avenues to explore different traffic management strategies.