The European Platform of Transport Sciences held its annual general meeting at Széchenyi István University, demonstrating the leading role of the Győr-based institution in this field. The event was attended by almost 200 participants, half of whom were experts from home and half from abroad.

It is a tradition that every year the Department of Transport of Széchenyi István University organises a conference for Hungarian professionals in cooperation with the Association of Transport Sciences. The special feature of this year's conference was that the European Platform of Transport Sciences (EPTS) held its annual general meeting and congress in conjunction with the conference. The University of Győr is the first rural HEI in Hungary where this took place.

"The fact that Széchenyi István University was able to host this prestigious international event is a testament to the outstanding role it plays in technical fields, including transport science. According to feedback from foreign guests, our institution was an excellent host", emphasized Dr Balázs Horváth, Head of Department and Dean of the University’s Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Transport Sciences.

The event was opened by Sebastian Belz, Secretary General of EPTS and Dr János Tóth, Secretary General of the Association of Transport Sciences. Over the two days, almost 200 people attended the programmes, almost equally divided between national and foreign professionals. After the opening presentation, a round table discussion took place with representatives of the Austrian Railways (ÖBB), PTV Austria, Szeged Transport Company and MÁV-Start, who discussed the future of public transport. Viewers were also able to join the discussion on their smartphones, and vote on the issues discussed before the experts' answers.

Sebastian Belz, Secretary General of EPTS, welcomed the guests.

The rest of the event included four parallel sessions with presentations in English and Hungarian. These were followed by interesting technical discussions. The atmosphere was enhanced by a concert of the University choir and orchestra, composed of students of the University’s Faculty of Performing Arts and Design, which was made even more exciting by the conducting and expert music interpretation of conductor Gergely Ménesi, associate professor.

At the closing dinner of the first day, representatives from Prague received the wandering flag, which will fly in the Czech capital for a year, signalling that the EPTS General Assembly and Congress will be held there next year. On the second day of the Győr event, the section presentations continued and the programme concluded with a visit to Pannonhalma and a wine tasting.

As a result of several months of organisation by the staff of the Department of Transport at Széchenyi István University, all the presentations were available at the time of the congress in the form of several scientific ISBN publications, which the organisers registered in the Hungarian Archives of Scientific Works for the authors.

The traditional wandering flag was handed over from Győr to Prague.