UK: Transport for Wales has awarded Hitachi a contract to provide a bespoke Mobility-as-a-Service digital planning and booking system covering public transport in Wales.
The app and back-office will cover rail, local bus, TrawsCymru regional bus and Fflecsi demand-responsive bus services, as well as micromobility bikes and e-scooters and other demand-based mobility options. While many existing MaaS deployments elsewhere focus on cities, the TfW system will also include rural areas. It will also include cross-border services into England.
The contract is worth £2·59m over five years, with an option for a two-year extension.
’This exciting and ambitious project will deliver a digital solution that will help our customers plan point-to-point journeys using different modes of public transport’, said TfW Chief Customer & Culture Officer Marie Daly on September 11.
‘It’s all part of our longer-term plans and aspirations to provide our customers with one network, one timetable and one ticket.’
Following the acquisition of Thales’ Ground Transportation Systems business in May, Hitachi Rail’s ticketing technology now handles more than 50 million multimodal transactions a day worldwide.
The company said the Welsh system would draw on its experience of rail ticketing in Japan and various transport initiatives in Italy, as well as its expertise in AI and its Microsoft Azure framework agreement. The design will also benefit from behavioural science research undertaken in partnership with Goldsmiths, University of London.
‘This strategic partnership with TfW will benefit from the breadth of mobility, digital and behavioural science expertise that exists in the Hitachi Group’, said Hitachi Rail Commercial Director Justin Southcombe. ‘Hitachi can combine the latest in cutting-edge digital technology, with deep knowledge of managing some of the world’s most popular transport systems, to better connect journeys.’
