There is little disputing the fact that mobility as a service has not yet lived up to its hype. And the industry’s largest automated fare collection system provider, Cubic Transportation Systems, said it believes that going forward, public transit services need to form the backbone of MaaS platforms, along with enabling more demand-responsive transport.
Cubic is not the only industry player saying that bus, rail and other forms of public transit should provide the “core” of mobility services in any successful MaaS platform. But Cubic, which is making its own play for the MaaS market, contends that most of the MaaS apps launched to date–and the MaaS concept itself–have been framed by private companies. That includes platform providers that mainly offer subscription-based plans, in which mobility services can be repackaged and brokered. And it also includes transportation network companies, such as ride-hailing companies.
“For the last six years, it’s always been about the commercial providers leading the discussion, and I’ve called that sort of MaaS 1.0,” Andy Taylor, senior director of global strategy at Cubic Transportation Systems, told Mobility Payments. Taylor, a former board member of the Europe-based MaaS Alliance and currently chairman of a committee of the Intelligent Transportation Society’s Mobility-on-Demand Alliance, added that there has been a shift in the industry. Public transit agencies now want to lead the discussion about how MaaS and mobility on demand could work.
