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Enabling MaaS in the IP4 Ecosystem

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - MaaSive (Enabling MaaS in the IP4 Ecosystem)

Berichtszeitraum: 2021-01-01 bis 2021-07-31

Preventing climate and environmental impacts is a strategic priority for the European Union in next decades. Therefore, combining and integrating different transport solutions into an easily accessible and comprehensive mobility service can create opportunities to reduce demand for travel by low-occupancy private vehicles, as a way to reduce urban traffic and their negative effects. A door-to-door integration of modes, including suburban and long distance rail, could also encourage people to use rail as one of their preferred choices. In addition, digitalisation as well as the use of smart phones, mobile web applications and social media is also reshaping users’ behaviour and habits in relation to transport.
However, nowadays the lack of interoperability between different transport modes and information systems impede the capacity to perform a door-to-door journey as a seamless and hassle-free multimodal journey. Travellers have to deal with different tools, procedures and interfaces to book a multimodal journey across the Europe, and even in a same country.

The MaaSive project was launched in November 2018 as a part of Shift2Rail’s Innovation Programme 4 (IP4) with the objective of not only enhancing and providing extra functionalities to the existing IP4 ecosystem (developed by the previous IP4 projects) enabling door-to-door seamless multimodal travelling. This has been specifically demonstrated in the areas of Travel Shopping where the challenge of pan-European journey planning using one fully integrated network with all transport modes was tackled by simplifying the integrated network to reduce the complexity and enabling the calculation of travel solution approximations leading to a 2-Step Journey Planning approach.
The project work on a digital Travel Companion focused on enabling location-based experience using Hololens and use of mixed-reality solutions to improve passengers’ experience was demonstrated by showcasing the ease in which mixed reality composer can be used by any MaaS operator and/or TSP.
The Demand Responsive Transport mode integration with public transport was also developed during the MaaSive duration.
Finally, the MaaSive project emphasised the compatibility of IP4 ecosystem with the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) approach, which has been illustrated by the creation and application of Mobility Packages. These have demonstrated how multimodal trips can be promoted easily by the TSPs and/or MaaS operators.

The project has successfully concluded in July 2021, and the presentations from final dissemination conference showcasing project results can be downloaded from the Results and Publications section of the project website.
To watch the event, please follow these links:
Part 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F14BiqMa6Hs
Part 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c1GyKBplco
Among many realised benefits, the MaaSive project has successfully looked into enabling Demand Responsive Transport within the IP4 ecosystem, to bring the benefit to passengers located in areas which lack regular public transport options. Additional area researched to be benefiting passengers was enabling Multi-User Capabilities, such as: Travel Sharing (to enable following travellers on their journey, e.g. parents seeing their kids journeys), Travel Arranging (where Travel Arranger can book travel on behalf of a person), and Travel in Groups (enabling groups defining and group booking). A combined benefit for passengers and travel service providers, was creation of the Mobility Package Orchestrator in the CMMP that would allow the purchase of Mobility Packages through the Travel Companion. As for the Travel Companion itself, MaaSive’s Travel Companion connects to the augmented reality (AR) devices that allow to search, connect and launch the location-based experiences (LBE). Our Mixed Reality Composer is an easy tool to create mixed reality experience for travellers. Finally, The MaaSive project proposes validation and inspection technologies in order to foster interoperability at media level and work towards the reduction of interaction between the traveller and the infrastructure. And example of that is our Inspection Mode functionality. It reads and presents ticket information, allowing fast inspection (with intuitive colour coding) and “inspection” number, which in the end enables catching fare dodgers.

The MaaSive project results have been successfully presented to the industry and scientific audiences throughout the project duration (including during the Shift2Rail Innovation Days event, and project final showcase event). This was done in close collaboration with the Open Call project Shift2MaaS dedicated to supporting the use of S2R IP technologies via the preparation and execution of pilots with several Travel Services Providers in Europe, as well as COHESIVE and CONNECTVE projects. The MaaSive results in the area of Travel Shopping, Booking and Ticketing, Trip Tracking and digital Travel Companion will be developed further within the final IP4 Call For Members project - ExtenSive.
The most significant benefit of the present Action is focused on the integration in the urban area thanks to the MaaS approach and complete multimodal and customer-centric services for co-modal journey covering all categories of transport mode: Scheduled, Shared, Private, and On-Demand (long distance and urban).
The MaaSive Project approach takes into account existing S2R acquis (both in engineering and legal aspects) and enlarges its scope through further complementary developments within the most crucial (for combined public and private transport) aspects, i.e.: Travel Shopping, Booking & Ticketing, Trip Tracker, Travel Companion and Business Rules. Foreseen in the project activities are expected to benefit the one unified seamless urban transport environment by means of enhancement of existing and filling in the missing links between different transport modes.
The level and the coverage of the services provided to the travellers will is increased with more modes, extensive set of services in the different TDs, up to date technologies to interact with the user: travelling will become more easy, efficient and pleasant and therefore should indirectly increase the number of travellers.
Within dualistic approach both the travellers (passengers) and transport operating companies benefit from the way different ITS technologies are implemented. In this particular case MaaSive Project shows its potential value by addressing not only rail but also other modes of transport, offering solutions for holistic transportation services.
Moreover, thanks to the enriched set of services accessible on the “web of transport”, every transport actor can get an unprecedented visibility on the market place for its co-modal travel offer.
Access to these services is not limited and can be granted to all transport actors willing to use enriched Shift2Rail ecosystem.
Trip Tracking Principal Architecture
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DRT-integration-within-IP4
Seamless Multimodal Travel