Customers, entrepreneurs and the City have all expressed their wishes for more dynamic ticket sales for water transport. The MaaS in Water Transport project is a step towards this goal. In this project, a ticket sales interface for route tickets in water transport is being implemented together with maritime operators.
The MaaS interface produced by us expands the possibilities of ticket sales in water transport further, since it opens up the sales services of third parties in addition to the ticket sales of the transport operator. In its current form, tickets are mainly sold via the operators’ own channels: online shops, kiosks and on board the vessels. When they have integrated into our interface, transport operators can also offer their ticket products to be sold by other operators, such as MaaS providers and tourism businesses.
In addition to the sales of single tickets and cross-sales between operators, the interface also brings travel chains and service packages closer to the operators in maritime Helsinki. One of the key goals of the project is supporting maritime companies in developing new business. Wider ticket sales and new service entities make island destinations more accessible to both residents and visitors and also support the profitability of the operations.
The network project will succeed through cooperation
The MaaS in Water Transport project has received funding from the Innovation Fund, which will cover the work stages of Forum Virium Helsinki and the Solutions Office of the City of Helsinki Culture and Leisure Division. The project’s key contributors include the operators, ticket system providers and MaaS providers who will participate in the definition and implementation work related to their own products and services.
Forum Virium Helsinki is in charge of the project management: it starts, facilitates and encourages the project’s progress. The Solutions Office of the Culture and Leisure Division will implement the interface.
The project is divided into three work stages:
- implementing the MaaS interface for water transport
- creating a management model for the interface
- preparing the conditions for a business ecosystem.
The project will produce a MaaS interface, prepare policies on shared means of presenting transport data, and produce a suggested structure for ticket data. The project will also provide observations of the technical and business-related qualities of MaaS operations, and their needs for future tendering of the City’s water transport. The aim of the management model control model is to ensure that the interface continues to benefit the parties connected to it even after the project period.
Benefits for the City of Helsinki
The MaaS project for water transport is a part of the Helsinki Maritime Strategy Project. The goal is to support the business development and innovations of the maritime operators through digitalisation, which will also make the maritime destinations in Helsinki more attractive to residents and visitors.
Partners
MaaS Global Oy / Whim
System and platform providers:
In addition to these operators, knowledge and talent will also be contributed at various stages of the project by the City’s data and interface experts, experts on MaaS operations and related business models, representatives of the operators in charge of the islands’ management, and the City’s operations connected to the sea, in consultative roles.
Project period
1 January 2021 – 31 December 2021
Funding
The project has been granted funding of EUR 235,820 from the Innovation Fund, of which the share of Forum Virium Helsinki is EUR 135,820, and proportion allocated to the Solutions Office of the City’s Culture and Leisure Division is EUR 100,000.
For more detailed information on the Maritime MaaS API’s implementation, please see our wiki: https://fvh.io/j6wsu
The MaaS concept
MaaS (Mobility-as-a-Service) is a general concept for services that combine various means of transport in one place (such as public transport, taxis, electric scooters, bicycles, cars). MaaS aims to meet the customer’s mobility needs at any one time through supply – the customers themselves choose which mode of transport is the most suitable for them, without them needing to own a specific vehicle. MaaS needs open interfaces to successfully combine various modes of transport for customers.
The current Act on Transport Services requires that transport operators (particularly in road and rail transport) open up their ticket system interfaces so that tickets can also be sold through third-party services. The City of Helsinki sees MaaS as a part of future transport systems, and water transport is a clear component in this entity.
Photo: City of Helsinki