Railways and Transport Laboratory

Menu

Dr Xenia Karekla

Senior Researcher

PhD (UCL), MSc (Imperial College London), MEng (NTUA)

Contact Details

Address: Office 120, NTUA Campus, Iroon Polytechniou 5, GR-15773 Athens, Greece.
Email: xkarekla@mail.ntua.gr
Phone: (+30) 210 772 1370
Scopus: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=36154518300

Profile

Dr Xenia Karekla is currently a Senior Researcher at the Rail and Transport Laboratory at the National Technical University of Athens. She has extensive knowledge on urban mobility, transport accessibility and stakeholder engagement, as well as in the development of modal shift strategies and active travel plans and in the evaluation of transport interventions. Her academic interests focus on transport behaviour change and the understanding of the person (driver, passenger or pedestrian) when interpreting mobility trends. Her professional ambition is to improve societal health and well-being and to transform future mobility, whilst tackling global challenges. 

Dr Karekla’s professional experience was developed in the UK and spans across both academia and the private sector. She advised Transport Authorities and Local Governments in the UK and the EU and published 20 articles in internationally acknowledged journals and conferences.

Holding various job responsibilities along her career path, from research and teaching assistant to project and bid manager, Xenia has been involved in multi- and inter-disciplinary projects that had a direct impact on transport policy and tool development. Indicatively, she worked on:

  • innovative research, e.g., she defined a bus acceleration threshold to reduce passenger hospitalisation from imbalance and proved the feasibility of developing an exoskeleton for people with physical impairments.
  • strategy development, e.g., she developed modal shift strategies that transferred knowledge between China, Chile and the UK, developed Local Cycling and Walking Plans to increase active travel in Cornwall and developed a Healthy Cities protocol that enables local authorities to identify alternative transport solutions that would increase people’s health.
  • advisory support projects, e.g., she proved that platform humps increase metro accessibility which inspired Transport for London to apply such changes across their system, and suggested regeneration plans that reduced severance and enabled the economic growth of less attractive areas.
Professional Experience
  • 2024-present: Senior Researcher, Railways and Transport Laboratory, Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Greece
  • 2022-2024: Associate Director (Sustainable Transport Team), Create Consulting Engineers Ltd, UK
  • 2019-2022: Senior Transport Planning Consultant, AECOM, UK, EMEA
  • 2011-2019: Research Associate, University College London, UK
  • 2010-2013: Research and Teaching Assistant, University College London, UK
Education
  • PhD in Improving Accessibility of Public Transport Systems, UCL (2016).
  • MSc in Transport, Imperial College London and UCL (2009).
  • MEng in Civil Engineering, NTUA (2008).
  1. Karekla, X., & Fang, C. (2021). Upper body balancing mechanisms and their contribution to increasing bus passenger safety. Safety Science, 133, 105014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2020.105014
  2. Karekla, X., Gkiotsalitis, K., & Tyler, N. (2020). The impact of a passenger-safety-driven acceleration limit on the operation of a bus service. Accident analysis & prevention, 148, 105790. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2020.105790
  3. Karekla, X., & Tyler, N. (2019). Reducing non-collision injuries aboard buses: Passenger balance whilst climbing the stairs. Safety Science, 112, 152-161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2018.10.023
  4. Karekla, X., & Tyler, N. (2018). Maintaining balance on a moving bus: The importance of three-peak steps whilst walking on the lower-deck. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 116, 484-496. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2018.06.022
  5. Karekla, X., & Tyler, N. (2018). Maintaining balance on a moving bus: The importance of three-peak steps whilst climbing stairs. Transportation research part A: policy and practice, 116, 339-349. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2018.06.020
  6. Karekla, X., & Tyler, N. (2018). Reducing non-collision injuries aboard buses: passenger double support time whilst walking on the lower deck. Safety Science, 105, 128-133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2018.10.023
  7. Karekla, X., Fernandez, R., & Tyler, N. (2018). Environmental Effect of Bus Priority Measures Applied on a Road Network in Santiago, Chile. Transportation Research Record, 2672(8), 135-142. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361198118784134
  8. Karekla, X., & Tyler N. (2014). The need for an invisible wearable walking support: it’s what the users want!, ARG note, Vol. 1 (7), ISSN: 2054-4561.
  9. Karekla, X., & Tyler, N. (2012). Reduced dwell times resulting from train–platform improvements: the costs and benefits of improving passenger accessibility to metro trains. Transportation Planning and Technology, 35(5), 525-543. https://doi.org/10.1080/03081060.2012.693267
  10. Karekla, X., Fujiyama, T., & Tyler, N. (2011). Evaluating accessibility enhancements to public transport including indirect as well as direct benefits. Research in Transportation Business & Management, 2, 92-100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2011.06.010
  11. Yannis, G., Papadimitriou, E., Karekla, X., & Kontodima, E. (2010). Mobile phone use by young drivers: effects on traffic speed and headways. Transportation planning and technology, 33(4), 385-394. https://doi.org/10.1080/03081060.2010.494030

  1. Karekla, X (2020). Passenger Safety: The impact of smoother bus acceleration on passenger experience aboard London buses, European Transport Conference.
  2. Karekla, X and Gkiotsalitis K. (2020). Operational characteristics of a bus service and their modification due to a safety-driven acceleration limit, Transportation Research Board, Washington DC, USA.
  3. Karekla, X and Fernandez, R. (2018). Environmental effect of bus priority measures applied on a road network in Santiago, Chile, Transportation Research Board, Washington DC, USA.
  4. Karekla, X and Fernandez, R. (2017). Reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions in a bus route: a case study in the Latin American context, European Transport Conference, Barcelona, Spain.
  5. Karekla, X. (2016). Active public transport modes and their effect on societal growth, ETEK (204).
  6. Karekla, X. and Tyler, N. (2015). Gait and balance of moving bus passengers, 14th TRANSED conference, Lisbon, Portugal.
  7. Karekla, X. and Tyler, N. (2012). Sustainable bus design focused on improved accessibility, 13th TRANSED conference, New Delhi, India.
  • Public Transit Planning, Coordinator, 8th semester, Civil Engineering, Transport Orientation (Mandatory course), NTUA (Seminar on Accessibility and Inclusive Design of Public Transport Systems)
  1. Fang, C., Grip behaviour study on double-decker bus, UCL,  09/2018.
  2. Wang, D., Investigating the effects of gaps on mobility restricted passengers, UCL. 09/2016.
  3. Douglas, E., Microscopic study of passenger performance over gaps at the train-platform interface, UCL. 09/2012.
  1. InclusiveSpaces, European Commission, H2020, Innovation Action, WP Leader, National Technical University of Athens, 2024-2027
  1. Quality Control of Railway Operations in Greece based on the European Standard EN 13816:2002, 2023-2026
  1. Won the European Friedrich List Prize for pushing the boundaries of transport science and contributing towards a pan-European transport system for her PhD work (2017).

Expertise

Engineering Areas

#Public Transport
#Active Travel
#Passenger Safety
#Urban Planning
#Accessibility

Methodologies

#Statistics
#Surveys
#Stakeholder and Public Engagement
#Biomechanics

Social Sciences

#Micro-mobility
#Public Health and Wellbeing
#Safety
#Inclusivity and Ageing
#Behavior Change