The European Commission is preparing a new legislative proposal on multimodal digital mobility services for a public consultation has started.
The consultation is open until 23 February 2022 and is divided into two sections. The first one brings together the views from citizens and travelers, while the second targets the experts and relevant stakeholders.
The proposal on the digital mobility services will facilitate journey planning and tickets procurement for journeys combining different operators or means of transport. This issue is often facing barriers in terms of lacking information and limited options, especially when travelling cross-border. Multimodal digital mobility services, such as Mobility as a Service (MaaS) applications, route-planners or ticket vendors, help to compare different travel options, choices and prices, and in some cases facilitate the purchase of mobility products.
With the public consultation, the EC intends to better understand the way citizens and stakeholders are using multimodal digital mobility services and what challenges and barriers they identify.
The Commission is inviting views on a set of preliminary identified potential policy issues, among other, the insufficient availability and accessibility of data, sub-optimal cooperation between transport operators and multimodal digital mobility services, lack of cooperation between operators, the limited availability of digital tickets, inadequate payment system interoperability and different licencing and distribution agreements. This consultation will support impact assessment that the European Commission is currently carrying out.
The initiative was announced in the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy and aims to address the market challenges involved in the development of digital mobility services. According to the strategy’s action plan on smart mobility (Flagship 6 – Making connected and automated multimodal mobility a reality), the EU needs to transform its legal framework to support multimodal travel information, booking and ticketing services, thus smart and interoperable payment services and tickets require further development.
The aim of the project is to better integrate public transport and rail services in a multimodal mix for a seamless passenger experience. Digital solutions can help make sustainable modes of transport more attractive for customers, helping the EU to deliver on its European Green Deal objectives.
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