Dr. Daniel Herfurth

Dr. Daniel Herfurth heads the Transfer Platform “SPNV-Monitor“, funded by the University's Excellence Strategy. The platform is going to periodically monitor the performance of short-distance rail services (German abbreviation: SPNV) in Germany. It aims at a systematic review of service levels combining both, administrative and technical data.

Daniel worked on his doctoral thesis at the Chair of Prof. (em.) Dr. Wolfgang Seibel. In his thesis, he analysed the impact of diverging administrative structures and strategies on service quality of short-distance rail services. His attempt to uncover the “The Logic of Politics in the Technical Sphere” (title of his dissertation) laid the foundation of the current Transfer Platform “SPNV-Monitor“.

Daniel studied Politics and Public Administration at the department and completed semesters abroad at Berne University in Switzerland and at the Free University of Bolzano in Italy. He gained practical experience with public institutions of the federal and the state government body as well as with private sector consultants for public services. In academia, Daniel is regularly invited as a speaker to conferences on mobility (latest invite: 14^th  German Public Transport Conference). In the context of the UN Paris Agreement, he developed an alternative tool to evaluate emission-reduction technologies on an effectiveness basis for the Federal Ministry for the Environment and Nature Protection (BMU).