European transport services alliance formed

Finnish transport minister Anne Berner said the new alliance would place “strong emphasis on pilots and test beds as well as fully reforming our transport regulations”

Finnish transport minister Anne Berner said the new alliance would place “strong emphasis on pilots and test beds as well as fully reforming our transport regulations”

Twenty European organisations have formed a new alliance with the aim of placing users at the core of transport services, offering them “tailor-made mobility solutions based on their individual needs”.

The initiative, named the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Alliance, was announced at the ITS World Congress, taking place this week in Bordeaux, France. 

MaaS builds on preliminary work at last year’s European ITS Congress in Helsinki, where it received political support from the Finnish government.

The idea was conceived by Sampo Hietanen, CEO of ITS Finland. He said: “MaaS is a new approach to changing mobility markets. It relies on existing and developing transport services and has huge chance for global scaling”. 

The initiative will enable easy access to the most appropriate transport mode or service to be included in a bundle of flexible travel service options for end users, said Hietanen.

Members of the alliance include: Transport for London, Aalborg University, AustriaTech, Ericsson, ERTICO – ITS Europe, the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications, ITS Finland, ITS Sweden, ITS Ukraine, IRU, Connekt, National Mobile Payment Plc (Hungary), Vinnova, University of Tampere, MOBiNET and Xerox.

Announcing the new programme, Anne Berner, the Finnish Minister of Transport and Communications, said: “Mobility as a Service and intelligent automation, Internet of Things and open data are at the core of our transport policy at the Finnish Government.”

Berner said the alliance would place “a strong emphasis on pilots and test beds as well as fully reforming our transport regulations”.  

She said that Mobility operators were about to start piloting projects, including automated vehicles in arctic conditions. “In Finland we believe this is a superb environment for testing. As a government we strongly support innovation and we also see it important that we do collaborate. This is why we are inviting you all to join the Alliance and for all of you to participate – it is time now to make the transport sector the most advanced sector in digitalisation.”