Erik Jenelius

Erik Jenelius is full Professor in Public Transport Systems and Head of the Division of Transport Planning within the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering at KTH. Erik has a MSc in Engineering Physics at KTH, received his PhD degree in Infrastructure in 2011 and became Docent in Transport Science in 2017.

Jenelius is steering group member of Centre for Traffic Research (CTR) and Strategic Research Area TRENoP (Transport Research Environment with Novel Perspectives). At KTH he is also Digital Futures Faculty, Climate Action Faculty and ITRL Faculty member. He is an Associate Editor of IEEE Open Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems and is on the Editorial Advisory Boards of Transportation (Springer), Transportation Research Part C (Elsevier) and npj Sustainable Mobility and Transport (Springer Nature).

In September 2024, Jenelius was ranked among the top 70 scientists internationally (top 1 in Sweden) in the field of Logistics and Transportation for citation impact the previous year (Ioannidis 2024).

Research

A short film about Jenelius' research.

Erik Jenelius' research focuses on developing our transport systems towards sustainability, climate neutrality and resilience, while also ensuring they are efficient, inclusive, and reliable. Private car travel consumes significant resources in terms of energy and space, leading to negative impacts such as emissions, barriers, and traffic accidents. Jenelius' work is dedicated to creating a more resource-efficient system that emphasizes collective travel, micro-mobility, and active modes of transport.

A key aspect involves enhancing our understanding of people's travel patterns and needs, a field where automatic data sources like digital ticketing systems, GPS tracking, and mobile apps open new opportunities. Technological advancements also facilitate new forms of systems, such as demand-responsive autonomous vehicles in public transport, which require analysis and design to achieve their full potential.

Other critical areas for Jenelius include addressing crowding in vehicles and at stations, improving punctuality, and increasing resilience to disruptions through planning, traffic management and real-time information.

Current projects

ResPT: Investigating Swedish public transport resilience from an engineering and socio-ecological perspective (2024-2027). Funded by Swedish Energy Agency (grant no. 2023-205216).

Modelling of micromobility (M3): Continuation project on parking and route choice (2024-2026). Funded by Swedish National Transport Administration (Trafikverket) (grant no. TRV 2023/57724).

Multimodal Traffic Management 2 (MMTL2) (2023-2026). Funded by Swedish National Transport Administration (Trafikverket) (grant no. TRV 2023/62202).

AlgoTransit: Algorithms for sustainable and efficient public transport (2023-2025). Funded by Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (Vinnova) (grant no. 2023-01224).

CAPA-CITY: Identifying capacity gaps to support urban and regional development (2023-2024). Funded by Region Stockholm (grant no. RS 2022-0210).

Pilot for the Validation of New Data Sources for Estimating Public Transport Route Choice (VaNDKoll) (2023-2024). Funded by Swedish National Transport Administration (Trafikverket) (grant no. TRV 2022/107935).

The effect of crowding and comfort in public transport on travel choices: empirical prestudy (2023-2024). Funded by Swedish National Transport Administration (Trafikverket) (grant no. TRV 2022/33324).

Beredskapshänsyn i transportsystemet (BULT) (2022-2027). Funded by Swedish National Transport Administration (Trafikverket) (grant no. TRV 2022/33589).

SMART 3 - Simulation and Modeling of Automated Road Transport, Part 3 (2022-2025). Funded by Swedish National Transport Administration (Trafikverket) (grant no. TRV 2022/8287).

Sustainable and Integrated Urban Transport Systems - HITS2024 (2020-2024). Funded by Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (Vinnova) (grant no. 2020-00565).

Impact

Jenelius collaborates with industry and administration in both research and innovation projects and education. He regularly provides state-of-art knowledge and advice to companies and public actors in his areas of expertise.

Jenelius' research group collaborates with the Region Stockholm Public Transport Administration to develop, implement and apply analysis methods for automated public transport data, especially ticket validations (the Access system), passenger counts, vehicle positions and timetables. More about the impact of this work.

In the course Public transport systems, buses and rail, Erik collaborates with the Region Stockholm Public Transport Administration. Region Stockholm contributes with project assignments and lectures. The Region's involvement provides students with knowledge that they can use in their future working lives. More about this collaboration.

Jenelius has participated in roundtable discussions on transport system resilience at OECD International Transport Forum and is part of Swedish Transport Administration's scientific council on passenger transport models. He has represented academia in delegations led by Business Sweden and the embassies to Indonesia and Mexico, and he is recurrently employed as expert evaluator for international science funding councils.

Teaching

Erik Jenelius is course responsible, teacher and examiner for the Bachelor level course AH1025 Public Transport Systems, Buses and Rail. The course provides a basic knowledge of the condition, design, management and control of a public transportation system. Environmental impact, market, vehicle systems, planning, financing and organization are treated on a general level. He is also course responsible, teacher and examiner for the Master level course AH2173 Public Transport, which covers more advanced aspects of public transport planning, operations, analysis and evaluation.

At the PhD level, Jenelius is course responsible, teacher and examiner for the course FAF3816 Scientific Engagement in Transport Science. The course is designed to encourage students to participate in a sufficient amount of scientific communication activities, to communicate in oral and written form original research results and their societal implications to others, and to supervise other students in theoretical and/or practical projects.

Jenelius also regularly supervises theses at the Bachelor, Master and PhD levels.