Tampere has a unique Living Lab environment for urban transport
Business Finland is funding Tampereen Raitiotie Oy’s Lyyli Living Lab development environment through the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) funding program, which is part of the Sustainable Growth Program for Finland. Lyyli Living Lab is an inclusive RDI environment for the development, validation, and the acquisition of market references of sustainable, rail-based, smart urban transport technologies and services.
Lyyli Living Lab is a real-life development and test environment for urban transport products and services. At its core, it is a tram car equipped with exceptional measurement devices, IT connections, and a data management and analytics system.
“The Lyyli Living Lab tram car is used on a daily basis for passenger traffic just like any other tram car. There are some details visible to the passenger that make it different from other tram cars. It enables us to experiment with new innovations in a real-life environment. Passengers are part of the team of developers that help us to transform ideas into final solutions,” says Ali Huttunen, Head of Rolling Stock at Tampereen Raitiotie Oy.
From the outside, Lyyli Living Lab looks like any other tram car.
Developing intelligent rail transport in cooperation
The operations of Lyyli Living Lab are coordinated by the Tampere Urban Rail Mobility Services (TURMS) innovation cluster, in which companies develop technology solutions for the international market. In the future, the companies will finance the cluster’s operations through partnership fees. Business Finland supports its operations in the early stages with innovation cluster funding. The aim is to ensure operating conditions while the partners are still unable to finance the operations completely.
We want to develop services and functionalities for the tram system that facilitate the everyday life of public transport users.
Lyyli Living Lab and the TURMS innovation cluster are part of a broader SmartRail ecosystem, which Business Finland has funded and supported for several years. The SmartRail ecosystem is a consortium of operators in the rail transport sector that develops intelligent rail transport technologies.
“The tram project in Tampere began in earnest when the procurement of equipment was confirmed at the end of 2017. At the same time, negotiations started with the tram car manufacturer Skoda Transtech to design a development environment around the tram system in Tampere that would promote the creation of urban transport services and solutions,” Huttunen says.
Finnish companies have long been involved in the development of rail transport services and solutions. However, breaking into international markets is challenging and requires considerable investments. Lyyli Living Lab wants to be involved in paving the way.
“Constructing the development environment has progressed hand in hand with the construction of the tram system in Tampere. We want to equip the tram system with services and functionalities that facilitate the everyday life of public transport users,” Huttunen continues.
VTT has played a major role in the TURMS project, providing the tram car’s Living Lab development environment and the related analytics and joint development tools. Only the IT connections serving the development environment and the electrical and data connections required by the measuring devices used by various operators have been built in the car itself.
Lyyli Living Lab is a fairly exceptional funding project for Business Finland, if only because it is a globally unique RDI environment.
“There are no corresponding Living Lab environments in use anywhere else in the world. This is an international development environment that is open to all and treats companies equally. Our goal is to increase the number of both domestic and international partners,” Huttunen says.
VTT has played a major role in the TURMS project, providing the tram car’s Living Lab development environment and the related analytics and joint development tools. Only the IT connections serving the development environment and the electrical and data connections required by the measuring devices used by various operators have been built in the car itself.
RRF funding in a key role
Lyyli Living Lab is designed to meet the needs of companies as well as public, research, and other organizations that develop transport and mobility technologies and services. These companies and organizations are partners in the TURMS innovation cluster and use the RDI environment. Without them, the project would have been unnecessary.
Without the RRF funding that we received through Business Finland, we would never have been able to get this project off the ground
“The partners are committed to the project, and the project is on a solid foundation financially, thanks to the RRF funding received through Business Finland. According to Business Finland’s terms and conditions, at least half of the costs must be covered by the partners themselves. Business Finland has granted the project a maximum of EUR 366,000 from the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility for the funding period extending to the end of 2025,” Huttunen explains.
“Without the RRF funding that we received through Business Finland, we would never have been able to get this project off the ground. Getting the project started required sustained effort from everyone involved.”
Towards international markets
Business Finland’s cooperation with Tampereen Raitiotie demonstrates that it is able to fund activities that differ from conventional research and development activities also through innovation clusters, for example. The potential for similar arrangements may also exist elsewhere.
“Lyyli Living Lab is part of a larger entity with more than 30 organizations behind it. So far, the rail sector has been domestically driven. We now want to help Finnish operators to enter international markets,” says Olavi Keränen, senior advisor at Business Finland.
The main goal of Business Finland is to make the group of organizations participating in the ecosystem more international.
“Skoda Transtech is a key player in this large consortium. It operates internationally and has already been able to attract other operators. Therefore, Skoda Transtech is a direct contact with the international markets,” Keränen says.
According to Keränen, one concrete lesson from Lyyli Living Lab and the innovation cluster behind it is that when the underlying ecosystem is real and genuine, things move in the right direction. It is easy and meaningful for Business Finland to participate in a project like this.
“When the parties manage get an ecosystem like this into a working state, cooperation becomes systematic and sustained. Personally, I am pleased that we are seen as a genuine partner in this project, not just as a funder and a party monitoring the spending of money,” Keränen says.
Ali Huttunen considers the TURMS project to be important both to Tampere and to himself.
“The City of Tampere has set its own ambitious carbon neutrality goal, and the tram is an important part of this equation. At Tampereen Raitiotie, we want to be involved in promoting public transport and make getting around easier and more attractive to everyone. It is extremely rewarding to be able to develop solutions that make the everyday lives of city residents easier in a concrete way.
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