RNTP 2025 in Orléans: Revisiting the National Public Transport Meetings

Autonomous Shuttle in Action: A Remarkable Success at RNTP 2025

The WeRide autonomous shuttle transported over 440 passengers in just 2.5 days. This project involved Keolis, Beti, WeRide, Renault, SNCF, and Macif, providing a 3.5 km open road route. The journey included roundabouts, traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, and 1 km of shared path with pedestrians and cyclists, showcasing the technology's maturity on the ground.

Among the passengers were notable figures such as Philippe Tabarot, the Minister of Transport, Jean Castex, President of SNCF, François Durovray, former Minister of Transport, as well as several Mobility Organizing Authorities.

The demonstration's positive outcome confirmed the readiness of the technology. Keolis reaffirmed its role as an expert and integrator, ready to support its subsidiaries and territories in deploying automated mobility services.

Keolis Interventions at RNTP 2025: Innovations and Perspectives

Artificial Intelligence: Arnaud Julien, Digital, Data and Innovation Director of the Keolis Group, presented how artificial intelligence is transforming mobility. Participants discovered that AI is no longer a promise but a reality already integrated into Keolis networks, operations, and tools, altering the conception of mobility to make it safer, more fluid, inclusive, and sustainable.

Zones of Activity and Performance Mutualization: Sonia Benouaret, TAD/PMR Expert at the Keolis Group, and Pierre Caillaud-Dubart, Deputy General Manager of Mobility, Agglomération du Grand Annecy, discussed the challenges related to zones of activity and performance mutualization with on-demand transport.

Passengers and Employees: Lydie Jaillier, HR Director of the Keolis Group, emphasized the importance of experience symmetry between public transport users and employees. She highlighted that service quality cannot exist without optimal working conditions for employees.

Digital Accessibility: Abdellah Chajai, Marketing, Innovation, Sustainable Development and Engagement Director, unveiled solutions for accessing public transport with a click, focusing on the need to adapt the offer to less served areas.

Keolis Interventions at RNTP 2025: Distinctions

Two “Challenges of Back-to-School in Public Transport” trophies rewarded the Group's innovations:

• Keolis Tours and the SYNDICAT DES MOBILITES DE TOURAINE for Mon Guide Fil Bleu, a senior support service.

• Keolis Perpignan Méditerranée and Perpignan Méditerranée Métropole for the Sankéo story campaign that enhances mobility offerings.

Congratulations to the teams!

Review of RNTP 2023

7,000 visitors attended the RNTP, National Public Transport Meetings 2023, which took place in Clermont-Ferrand from October 17 to 19. Three days of insightful exchanges at the Keolis stand and throughout the exhibition: innovations for the mobility of tomorrow in energy transition, safety, passenger experience, autonomous vehicles... Focus on the highlights, in five chapters.

Energy transition: Hydrogen in the spotlight at the RNTP 

The push toward decarbonized mobilities brought together the entire public transport sector. At the RNTP in Clermont-Ferrand, numerous innovations showcased the growing role of hydrogen.

The announcement of a hydrogen bus line experiment by Keolis in the Clermont-Ferrand area was a prime example, featuring 14 "retrofit" vehicles (diesel buses converted to green engines) on a major line in the area.

Retrofit—towards hydrogen, electric, or hybrid solutions—was gaining importance. The movement showed no signs of slowing down: three governmental decrees were published in October 2023 to facilitate its development.

Notably, Solarbus photovoltaic solutions developed by Europart were entering their industrialization phase. These involved photovoltaic panels installed on the roofs of vehicles or depots. Keolis's Danish subsidiary had co-led an experiment on this use case as early as 2022.

Passenger experience: Advancements in dynamic signage

More than ever, new technologies were used to provide end-to-end comfort for passengers. Driven by the Movin’On community, the "SmartShuttle" project, involving Orange, Saint-Gobain, and Bertolami, aimed to create a mobility service for employees that promotes rest, concentration, and collaborative work. In other words, turning transport into valuable time. This project featured a highly developed prototype presented at exhibitions, highlighting interior space ergonomics, enhanced sound insulation, and information projection on glass walls.

Targeted passenger information was also progressing, thanks to dynamic systems displaying multiple pieces of information on a single screen. This was the case with the bus stop signaling system developed by BusPas (Canada), which relies on artificial intelligence to deliver the right information at the right time to the right person (bus waiting times, number of bikes available at the nearest station, etc.).

In terms of accessibility, Biped offered a very innovative individual guidance device for visually impaired people. A harness equipped with a 3D camera analyzes the environment, using a sound system to guide the person. Finally, in Italy, Ruspa had created seats with a distinctive design to instantly identify spaces reserved for people with reduced mobility.

Safety: More visible signage  

To protect pedestrians and cyclists, highly visible road markings encourage caution. Presented at RNTP 2023, Luminokrom is a French technology featuring photoluminescent paint that secures nighttime movements for up to 10 hours (already used in Creil by Keolis Evrard). The company Flowell, a specialist in interactive luminous markings, develops several high-impact signaling solutions, such as green and red LED strips positioned on either side of pedestrian crossings for enhanced safety.

Autonomous mobilities: this transport solution is already taking shape

One of the highlights of the RNTP in Clermont-Ferrand was Keolis's demonstration on its booth of on-demand transport aboard level four autonomous vehicles. There are 5 levels of vehicle autonomy: from level 4, no operator is needed on board. From Norway to Turkey, experiments in real conditions were becoming increasingly operational. Importantly, manufacturers were diversifying models (buses, 6-meter vehicles, small sizes) for multiple uses adapted to different areas. In Monheim, a small town in eastern Germany, 9 level 3 shuttles already provided regular city-center links. This level means an operator is on board but only takes control if necessary.

And more: Innovation of all kinds!  

With nearly 200 exhibitors and 7,000 participants from the mobility sectors, the RNTP demonstrated the vitality of innovations at the core and periphery of transport. Three trends were confirmed in 2023:

• The offer of traditional and electric bikes in self-service was growing with original solutions (Fifteen bikes that "attach" to each other to connect to a single charging station).

• Bike carrying systems (attached to the back of buses) were beginning to industrialize (become widespread).

• The emergence of companies specializing in recycling and reusing bus materials and components: bags made from fabric from old bus seats, etc.