Report published on the way forward for MaaS

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Development of Europe’s Mobility as a Service (MaaS) market will rely on access to open data, open APIs and more flexible transport and mobility regulations, a new White Paper published by the MaaS Alliance says.

The Alliance is a public-private partnership which is hosted by ERTICO – ITS Europe and includes ITS (UK). Its new paper titled ‘Guidelines & recommendations to create the foundations for a thriving MaaS ecosystem’ gives recommendations for the next steps to be taken to foster the development of a MaaS ecosystem in Europe.

Currently, it says, the transport sector is ‘mode-specifically regulated’ which does not always favour the implementation of MaaS. In addition there is no ‘harmonised’ way in which MaaS operators are handled in terms of transport regulation in different EU Member States, which may hinder the emergence of new cross border services.

As a result there is a need for more flexible transport and mobility regulations and accessible open data, the paper says. When defining regulatory principles for a digitalized transport system, it is imperative to encourage the participation of all market players – both existing and new – to avoid stifling innovation, it adds.

“While designing and establishing the MaaS ecosystem, the principles of openness and inclusivity should be fully respected, meaning that the ecosystem should be open to all service providers and inclusive for all different kind of users,” the paper says.

Furthermore it highlights that open IT architecture and standardised sub-element features such as payment, ticketing, authentication and security will be enablers to maximise the development of the MaaS market.

ITS (UK) Secretary General Jennie Martin commented: “ITS (UK) works closely with ERTICO and takes a leading role in the Network of National ITS Associations hosted by ERTICO. This led to an invitation to join the MaaS Alliance platform when ERTICO set it up.

“ITS (UK) went on to lead the MaaS Alliance White Paper working group on legal and regulatory issues. Our Foundation Member the Transport Systems Catapult made a valuable contribution to this group as did the Finnish Ministry of Transport.

“We welcome the publication of the White Paper which moves forward the complex debate around MaaS and provides an overview of the field accessible to those outside the MaaS circle of experts.”