How children travel to school is influenced by factors such as distance, the traffic environment, access to public transport, and access to a car or bicycle. Children’s travel is also often shaped by the complex logistics of family life, where work, school and leisure activities need to be coordinated. National surveys show that children in Sweden are increasingly being driven to school by car, while cycling to school has decreased by around 48 percent since the 1980s/1990s and in 2024 was at its lowest level since the Swedish Transport Administration began its measurements in 2000 (Swedish Transport Administration, Attitydundersökning Barns skolvägar 2024; SOU 2023:29, Varje rörelse räknas).

Transport Analysis summarises the development as being driven primarily by perceived shortcomings in road safety and changing social norms, rather than by increasing distances to school. This development means that children miss out on an important part of their daily physical activity, which may contribute to more sedentary behaviour, poorer health and reduced independence. Increased car travel to school also contributes to more traffic, noise and air pollution around schools and may at the same time reinforce the perception that the journey to school is unsafe for walking and cycling.

The project studies På egna ben, Västtrafik’s five-week initiative aimed at encouraging more pupils in grades 4–6 to walk, cycle or use public transport to school. More than 450 classes from Västra Götaland, Halland and Skåne are taking part in this year’s programme. The initiative encourages children to walk, cycle and use public transport, giving them an opportunity to try new ways of travelling in everyday life.

The research project examines:

• the short- and long-term effects of the initiative on children’s travel to school and leisure activities;
• whether changes in children’s travel affect the travel habits of parents and other family members;
• how parents’ attitudes towards children’s active and independent mobility change;
• what barriers and opportunities families experience in relation to walking, cycling and using public transport more often.

Following families over time

The study combines surveys and interviews. Families’ travel habits are measured at three points in time: before the campaign in autumn 2026, immediately after the campaign, and approximately one year later. A control group of families not participating in På egna ben is followed over the same period. In addition, interviews are conducted with parents to gain a deeper understanding of issues including safety, everyday logistics, habits and social norms.

The project aims to provide better knowledge about how, and under what conditions, initiatives of this kind can lead to lasting changes in travel behaviour. An important part of the study is to investigate whether changes in a child’s journey to school also affect other trips made by the family, such as travel to leisure activities and parents’ commuting. The results can provide a basis for designing and scaling up future initiatives that promote active and independent mobility among children.

CESTAP is funded by the Swedish Energy Agency, with contributions from about 28 industrial partners and the three academic partners Lund University (coordinating partner), Luleå University of Technology and RISE. The vision of CESTAP is to transform the aviation and power generation sectors to run continuous combustion engines on 100% sustainable turbine fuels. CESTAP aims to establish a leading centre for research related to sustainable turbine fuels in Europe, with a specific focus on the Swedish prerequisites in terms of feedstock for future fuels. 

Sustainable future energy use rely on a shift away from fossil fuels, which in some sectors can be done with new non-combustion technologies like batteries or fuel-cells. Still, in some sectors like aviation, maritime transport, and peak-load and back-up power generation, combustion will be difficult to replace. These sectors rely relatively heavy on continuous combustion engines like gas turbines and jet engines, and they together currently contribute with close to 10% of the global anthropogenic CO₂ release.

To meet the needs of aviation and power production industries, the aim of the competence centre is to develop knowledge and technologies to produces efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective turbine fuels that ultimately can be used as true mono-fuels – completely replacing fossil fuels.

The most efficient use of resources requires a focus on sustainable turbine fuels, that can be used as mono-fuels. Compared to the present efforts spent on drop-in fuels this will be a comparatively large, but necessary, undertaking. To achieve success the development must include the full range of activities from feedstock characterization and chemical conversion process development, via fuel development and production, to engine modifications to facilitate the use of fuels with wider specifications. In this respect it is important to have a holistic techno-economic framework to evaluate concepts against. All these aspects are included in the scope of CESTAP.

Simultaneously as the biofuel demand in the road transport sector is expected to increase up to 2030, it is expected to decrease after 2030–40, due to increased electrification, requiring plants to switch their production from biofuels for the road transport sector, to other sectors e.g. aviation. Through data analysis and stakeholder interviews, this project will study the market and policy landscape for biofuel production in the EU until 2030 and how the industrial infrastructure for biofuel production can be used to facilitate the transition to biofuels in other sectors such as aviation and shipping. The purpose is to provide a basis for today's decision-makers in government and industry.

Macadam ballast in railway tracks

In a ballasted track, the loads from passing trains are transferred down to the railway embankment via sleepers. Sleepers are embedded in the ballast in the track superstructure at the top of the embankment. The ballast is subjected to high and repeated loads when the track is in operation. This leads to a gradual degradation of the aggregate grains that differs at different locations in the ballast layer.

The degradation processes are complex and depend not only on the loads but also on the basic properties of the chosen rock material, microcracks in the grains, grain shapes and grain size distribution, how the material is laid out and compacted in the track. The design of the substructure has an impact on bed stiffness. Degradation also occurs during track mainenance work, e.g. in conjunction with track alignment. The production methods of aggregates affect the quality of the aggregates and their resistance to degradation.

A literature review is conducted where the degradation mechanisms are studied and research on aggregate degradation is compiled. The relevance of today's requirements and standardized test methods is evaluated.

Availability of materials for high-speed lines

The geological conditions and existing aggregate quarries along the routes are described. Materials from a number of selected quarries are selected and evaluated using the test methods specified in the standard for railway ballast; EN 13450. The materials represent different ballast grades that have a spread in technical properties within today's requirements for railway ballast for conventional tracks that are not intended for high speed.