2025 UITP Summit Kicks Off in Hamburg: Day 1 Recap

The global public transport sector has arrived in our host city Hamburg for the 2025 UITP Summit!

It’s a truly global event with over 10,000 attendees from 110 countries coming to talk all things public transport. In the next few days we will be hearing the insights from 340+ speakers at over 70 sessions and more than 400 exhibitors spread out over 30,000 square metres!

UITP also has a long history with Hamburg. As noted today by Dr. Anjes Tjarks, Minister for Transport and Mobility Transition of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, we first had a Summit here in 1891!

Just before day one of the Summit, a special President’s dinner was held, with remarks from both UITP President Renée Amilcar and Secretary General Mohamed Mezghani giving special thanks to previous UITP Committee Chairs for their contribution and leadership during their mandate.

The following day, UITP President Renée Amilcar was re-elected for a second term for 2025-2027, with an unprecedented 100% support from the General Assembly. This decision was confirmed on Sunday 15 June.

UITP is also pleased to announce that Gautier Brodeo of RATP Group, France, has been elected as Deputy President of UITP for the 2025-2027 term.

Fresh off her re-election, UITP President Renée Amilcar kicked off the opening ceremony with a look back at UITP’s recent achievements over the past two years, including bringing UITP for the first time to the floor of the UN General Assembly.

Public transport was championed as a solution to many of the challenges the world faces, including climate change. She also praised Hamburg as a host – a host city which shows that sustainable mobility can be at the centre of urban life.

She also emphasised that public transport is “not just about systems and schedules, it’s about people”, and that leadership in public transport must reflect the communities we serve.

Ulrich Lange, Parliamentary State Secretary, German Federal Ministry of Transport noted that public transport is a backbone for infrastructure and economy, a driver of digitalisation and a striver for innovation.

In her keynote speech, Benita Matofska, author and changemaker, inspired attendees with her seven ways to achieve positive change. She began her remarks by making the point that the most important skill is the ability to change. Laying out these seven principles, from being adaptable, to being people friendly, and celebrating success, Benita went through how these principles are not only good for business, but also good for sustainability and to tackle our shared challenges.

Building upon this, she noted that it is critical to celebrate the success and benefits that public transport has to offer.

“To change the world, we need to change the narrative.” She emphasised that over 95% of what we hear daily is negative. “Optimism and positively drive change… positivity empowers and shifts people from feeling helpless to feeling they can make a difference.”

Overall, attendees took away the message that the future is an opportunity to creative positive impact, and that we should all embrace the idea that we are changemakers.

UITP Secretary General, Mohamed Mezghani, moderated a panel featuring UITP’s President, Renée  Amilcar; Dr Anjes Tjarks, Minister for Transport and Mobility Transition of Hamburg; Robert Henrich, CEO of Hamburger Hochbahn; Anna-Theresa Korbutt, Managing Director, Hamburg Transport Association (HVV); and Sascha Meyer, CEO, MOIA GmbH.

Panellists talked about the recovery from the pandemic, and the need to keep moving forward and to look to the future.

Robert Henrich highlighted projects on autonomous metro operations and moving from diesel to electric buses in the city since 2019.

Discussing the role of public transport authorities, Anna-Theresa Korbutt noted that HVV operates across three federal states and eight counties in Germany. Authorities are crucial in unifying services under one umbrella – and that’s highly beneficial for the end user.

Sascha Meyer of MOIA spoke of the established regulatory environment in Germany for autonomous vehicles. He however noted that we need to avoid country-specific and regional fragmentation.

To close the panel discussion, Mohamed noted: “Isn’t it refreshing to be in a city that is known for building bridges.”

In the next few days, the Summit programme will explore themes under six tracks, including Lifestyle, Net Zero Cities, Operations, People-Centricity, Sustainability and Technology.

There are also technical visits in Hamburg featuring autonomous U-Bahn testing and to experience Hamburg’s next generation metro system with a simulator. Alongside this, participants can also join a technical visit for the city’s ferry services featuring new multimodal real-time passenger information system for waterborne public transport.

A special thanks to our host city Hamburg which delivers some real best practices in sustainable and innovative public transport. And a special thanks to our sponsors!

To cap off day one, participants gathered for the opening day’s networking reception. Stay tuned for more in the coming days from the 2025 UITP Summit live in Hamburg!