SPAIN: RENFE Operadora has awarded Siemens Mobility and Everis a five-year contract to develop and operate a multimodal Mobility-as-a-Service platform which will enable travellers to use a single app to plan, book and pay for trips by public and shared transport including trains, metros, buses, bicycles, car sharing and scooters.
The national passenger train operator predicts this will attract a minimum of 650 000 new customers to rail and generate 1·8 million additional trips, bringing it €156m of additional income over the five years and increasing ticket sales in the main corridors by between 3% and 4%.
RENFE said agreements would be sought with local authorities and public transport, micromobility, car sharing and payment technology companies to ensure the development of an ‘open, inclusive and integrating’ platform, covering many ‘different operators in the new mobility ecosystem.’
At a time of increasing competition, RENFE is looking to secure its role as the country’s principal rail operator. It also wants to become an integral part of customers’ door-to-door journeys by providing planning services, maps and information on alternative routes.
This would ensure that it retains a direct relationship with its customers, and benefits from emerging business models within a liberalised passenger transport market, even if the passengers do not use its own trains.
The first phase launching in Q3 2022 is due to cover 11 cities, expanding to 27 cities in Q1 2023. Additional functionality such as leisure and restaurant services and hotel reservations is due to be added from the end of 2023.
‘One of the world’s most ambitious MaaS projects’
Siemens Mobility and its Hacon, eos.uptrade, Bytemark and Padam Mobility subsidiaries will provide the core technology for the platform, while Everis NTT DATA will provide design, branding, marketing, commercial and legal services.
‘We are delighted to have been given the opportunity to accompany RENFE in their aspired transformation from a rail operator to an enabler of seamless door-to-door mobility’, said Andre Rodenbeck, CEO Rail Infrastructure at Siemens Mobility, on August 9.
‘Our intermodal software platform and digital solutions will help deliver one of the world’s most ambitious MaaS projects, which has the potential to set new benchmarks.’
