A door-to-door travel platform for planning multi-modal trips in Europe

TThe TRIP platform guides travellers step-by-step through trip planning, incorporates behavioural nudges like traffic-light-style environmental labels, and connects multiple stakeholders via a federated, decentralized system. These eco-labels have been effective in helping users understand the relative sustainability of various transportation choices, encouraging shifts from high-emission modes, such as air travel, to lower-impact options like rail. A federated optimization algorithm enables the platform to create complete, personalized, multi-objective itineraries that include public transit, private vehicles, and shared (micro-mobility) services.

Studies with 445 participants confirmed that the TULIPS TRIP platform improves user awareness and supports sustainable travel decisions. Travelers prioritize speed, cost, and comfort, but environmental considerations are increasingly important, particularly for air and train travel. Clear CO2 information, combined with intuitive visual cues and prompts, successfully guides users toward greener choices, demonstrating measurable potential for emission reductions.

For full adoption and replication, participation from all transport operators is crucial, supported by standardized, open data sharing. Compliance with open standards and MDMS regulations ensures interoperability. At the same time, policy support and funding from EU programs, such as Horizon Europe and the Connecting Europe Facility, help scale the initiative. Standardized, environmental labelling, and collaborative data exchange among mobility providers will further promote sustainable travel habits. Despite data limitations during testing, TULIPS shows that integrated, user-focused, sustainable multimodal travel planning is possible, impactful, and ready to support Europe’s shift toward low-emission, door-to-door mobility.

A demo video of the prototype can be viewed here.