2020-2030 The Global Decade of RailMaaS
As we wrap up the 2021 European Union Year of Rail, at Iomob we thought it was a great time to reflect on how rail and multimodal mobility are poised to take a leading role this decade and beyond.
Quick question, what do you get when you combine intercity passenger rail and multimodal mobility? We call it RailMaaS for short.
One of the primary reasons for growing interest in passenger rail travel, and why the EU made 2021 the Year of Rail, is that the global community is finally waking up that we must act now to mitigate the worst case scenarios of climate change. During 2021, Iomob worked with other experts to evaluate the potential for Total Avoidable Emissions (TAE) if the world were to embrace multimodality at scale.
As can be seen from the Infographic, we project 368mn tonnes of CO2 could be avoided annually by switching from short haul flights and long-distance car journeys to multimodal passenger rail journeys (i.e. RailMaaS).
Iomob then turned its attention to London North Eastern Railway (LNER) which is one of the largest rail operators in the UK with a network extending from London to Aberdeen, Scotland. Iomob was invited to participate in LNER’s FutureLabs to initiate user testing for a RailMaaS experience in the UK. We continue to work with LNER with big plans for 2022.
Also in 2022, Iomob initiated a RailMaaS on the other side of the Atlantic, with Brightline Trains. Brightline Trains, the first private passenger rail operator in the US in a century, is taking RailMaaS to another level with what they call designed to enable low carbon door to door service in Southern Florida.
Brightline+ includes free shuttles for rail passengers powered by Via and Circuit while Brightline also acquired dozens of Teslas to offer subsidized EV ridehailing for premieum class passengers. Brighline has also digitized their parking facilities and subsidized a bikesharing service as part of the Brighltine+ vision. Leveraging Iomob´s RailMaaS technology, in Q1 2022, Brightline customers will be able to discover, route, book and pay for RailMaaS journeys whereby customers can rent a Brightbike, take their private car to a Brightline station for parking, choose a shuttle or Tesla and book high speed rail all through one digital interface, powered by Iomob.
Just last week the EU announced its ambitious plans to enable a Pan-European version of what we refer to as RailMaaS as part of the European Green Deal. Some of the details of this call include:
- a multimodal legislative proposal in 2022 to boost user-friendly multimodal ticketing
- ensure first/last mile connectivity through multimodal passenger hubs in all EU cities above 100,000 inhabitants on TEN-T network
Imagine during this decade if we can make real progress on a Pan-European cross-border RailMaaS solution allowing passengers to seamless travel between and within European cities combining a growing high-speed rail network with routing, booking and paying for a range of other public transit and shared mobility services in the 424 cities included in the TEN-T network?
This may seem futuristic, something from the metaverse, but we believe most of the building blocks are in place or will be to make this a reality. And not just in the EU, there is growing interest for RailMaaS around the globe. While Iomob has started with Brightline Trains in the US, for example, there are many other rail operators in the US, including Amtrak, who has just received $66 billion USD from the recently passed Infrastructure Bill.
Let’s make this decade the #DecadeofRailMaaS, providing a superior customer experience to accelerate our path to zero emissions from the transportation sector.
This article was originally published by Iomob Technologies OÜ.
