Luca Mariorenzi (Passenger Expert Group Chairman) and Fabrice Setta (Senior UIC Distribution Advisor) introduced the first UIC innovation workshop of 2020 within the Passenger Service Group activities. It was the first workshop in the initiative to be held entirely by videoconference, as more than 30 participants joined the meeting online representing CER, CFL, CIT, CP, DB, DB SYSTEL, Eurail, FSTechnology, IOKI, Japan Rail, MAV-START, NUGO, OEBB, SNCB, SNCF, Trenitalia and UIC.
Stefano Scarci (EY) took the floor to give an introduction of the Mobility-as-a-Service concept. The presentation included an in-depth look into why MaaS could represent a potential game-changer of the industry, an explanation of the MaaS models currently being developed, an overview of current best practice and a discussion on challenges and opportunities surrounding MaaS, also in view of the post-Covid-19 context.
Annika Brahmann and Christian Münnich (DB) presented “Ecosystem Management and Partnerships at DB”. DB has set a goal to become a driver for a sustainable, efficient and customer-centric mobility system. In order to achieve this goal, DB is increasing its efforts in developing partnerships and cooperation. In line with the objectives, DB has established a unit called “DB New Mobility” with the ambition to offer one-stop integrated mobility for orderers (passenger transport authorities) and municipalities.
Renzo Iorio (nugo) gave a presentation on “MaaS platforms in the post-Covid-19 mobility & tourism, an EU challenge”. As part of FS Italiane Group, nugo started operations in 2017 offering a door-to-door planning & shopping solution, gathering offerings by several providers, with the aim of enabling integrated multimodal mobility. The presentation outlined the idea of a European Maas, as a common, consistent support for an efficient mobility to better serve EU citizens and to avoid dilution of transport providers’ value added by third parties.
Amir Shehadeh (IOKI) presented “Multimodal Mobility: Solving the first-and-last-mile problem”. IOKI is a wholly owned DB subsidiary that offers solutions for smart mobility, enabling the integration of on-demand services into the existing public transport system. Moreover, its mobility analytics and consulting division offers services in the domain of public transport system analysis, intelligent solutions for public transport systems, planning for new mobility services and for urban and regional infrastructure.
In the afternoon session, participants split into three groups in order to participate in breakout sessions. The newly created groups met in separate virtual rooms. Thanks to a virtual collaboration workspace, they carried out brainstorming sessions about how to improve future collaboration on key topics surrounding MaaS: (1) Beyond Covid-19, (2) The Role of Rail and (3) Actions by UIC.
The workshops will continue throughout 2020, with the next one planned for 11 June on “Reinventing the passenger experience through design thinking”, whilst the following workshop is planned for 26 November on “Internet of Things and 5G”.
