In a letter from Minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen and State Secretary Stientje van Veldhoven, the House of Representatives is updated on the latest developments regarding Mobility as a Service (MaaS). Four public transport operators, NS, GVB, RET and HTM, jointly submitted a request for platform builders to build a technical intermediate layer between mobility providers and app builders within the framework of MaaS.

Keep promises

The carriers have indicated that they endorse principles such as transparency and the sharing of data, according to Jan Willem Kerssies in the chain transport section of Public Transport Magazine.

“To this end, it will first be examined whether public transport parties are keeping promises and expanding the map range for MaaS providers and sharing data. We welcome the fact that public transport parties are preparing for MaaS, follow developments closely and consider it important that the above principles are actually adhered to. ”

The minister and state secretary hold talks on the aforementioned carriers and with regional commissioning authorities.

Several commercial carriers are not involved in the discussions about the MaaS platform. NS, GVB, RET and HTM believe that the Netherlands first needs a neutral platform to get the MaaS services off the ground. The other public transport companies can then join this.

MaaS API

Together with shared bicycle and shared car providers, an API has now been developed with which these mobility services can be made available. An API is a interface, a translation layer between different computer systems. To broaden the use of the MaaS API to public transport, talks are also being held with various public transport companies. Through consultation with the decentralized public transport authorities (DOVA), we collaborate with transporters to at least make barcodes, travel tickets by telephone available within MaaS.