On Wednesday, the 28th of September 2022, the final conference of Phase 2 of the PE4Trans project was realized in Thessaloniki, Greece, entitled “Sustainable mobility and citizens’ engagement: Two driving forces towards a low-carbon economy”.

In the form of a high-level political event, it took place at the premises of the City Hall of Thessaloniki with the participation of over 65 attendees, while attracting the attention of local TV channels. Among the participants were invited high-level representatives of key stakeholders of the participating territories, invited speakers, all project partners, and general public interested in the topics. Three (3) speakers were connected online due to certain restrictions on traveling to Thessaloniki.

This event comprised a great opportunity for fruitful discussions, interesting presentations, and exchange of experiences regarding the challenges as well as solutions on sustainable mobility in the crisis era (COVID-19 pandemic, energy crisis, climate change, war) among participants from Poland, Germany, England, Spain, and Greece. In parallel, the role of active citizens’ engagement on these challenges, was discussed and examined in depth through the lessons learnt that derived by the PE4Trans project and the interactive World Café session that was realized during the final event.

As a closure to the event, a technical visit was organized by the host partner, AUTh, at the premises of the Center of Control and Operations of the new metro in Thessaloniki. The attendees had the exclusive opportunity to visit the “heart” of the new metro transport mode of the city, equipped with the latest technology. A presentation was delivered about the characteristics of the driverless wagons that will operate in the system and the challenges during its construction due to numerous archaeological findings, some technical information was provided by the engineers that run the last tests before its official launch, as well as a visit took place at the control room with the most modern systems for real-time remote management.