Last October 16th, the second Italian Regional Stakeholders Meeting took place as a virtual event, due to the current travel restriction imposed by the containment of Covid-19 virus spread, with the main objectives of providing Italian stakeholders with a status quo of the PriMaaS project results achieved to date as well as to discuss around two main themes, namely prospects and technical solutions developed by stakeholders fostering system interoperability and data sharing, and possible governance model approaches for the widespread of common MaaS solutions.
There was a high-level participation and exceptional enthusiasm from 20+ stakeholder representatives from across the Country that took part to the event. Meeting participants consisted of Interreg Italy-France Maritime MOBIMART project coordinator (Tuscany Region), Local Public Administrations, Public Transport operators, IT/ITS organizations and mobility solution developers. Following an initial presentation on the PriMaaS vision and reporting on the highlights of the first Interregional Exchange of Experience event that took place in Tampere, Finland in January 2020, an overview of the project-level transport operators survey was given to provide the full picture of transport and mobility services currently operating in the PriMaaS project regions and how these can be integrated sustainably within the whole MaaS ecosystem.
The event was indeed a great opportunity for validating the results of the survey concerning transport services operating within Liguria region. INTERREG EUROPE – PRIMAAS: NEWS REPORT TEMPLATE 4 A concise survey relating to barriers and enablers for the wide MaaS implementation was also administered to participants; the results highlighted unclarity in National laws with regard to the roles to be played by Public Transport and sharing services within MaaS ecosystems; a potential lack of participation from operators to join MaaS solutions due to brand image issues; complex relationships among the whole MaaS value chain that might hinder the creation of efficient business models.
The first session addressed the topic of “Governance and policies for the dissemination of MaaS” where experiences and ideas from stakeholders were offered by participants. To introduce the session, an interactive survey highlighted the importance of the Public Sector to play a proactive role in MaaS implementations and, particularly, to ensure that the transition process towards MaaS diffusion favours the achievement of sustainability goals. Moreover, while there is a clear risk for stakeholders of being dominated by other involved parties, it was agreed that roles and responsibilities must be clearly set out by Public Authorities. Different perspectives and practical solutions were offered by participants relating to experiences and real challenges in implementing MaaS schemes in real world living conditions. These includes presentations focusing on governance-related aspects while targeting sustainable approaches to implement MaaS in the cities of Turin, Milan and Cagliari. The second session of the event tackled the issue of “MaaS and interoperability”, where the experience of the Interreg IT-FR Maritime MOBIMART project and many other stakeholders’ perspectives and solutions were given. All the stakeholders attending the meeting contributed to the exchange of ideas related to the MaaS vision, shared experiences, lessons learned, challenges they have faced and/or are facing today as well as solutions being implemented. Particularly, lively discussions occurred based on the findings and lessons learnt on MaaS deployment and interoperability issues by the Interreg IT-FR Maritime MOBIMART project and the recently finished H2020 IMOVE project; additional perspectives and concrete measures to pursue the MaaS paradigm were provided by local stakeholders such as the Public Transport operator in Genova (AMT Genova) and the Liguria Region’s in-house digital agency (Liguria Digitale). To conclude the meeting, an open discussion was held among all participants who agreed on the need to govern the transition process towards sustainable MaaS to ensure that technology does not overwhelm stakeholder’ activities and that the paradigm shift happens to our advantage. Additional interesting insights covered the need for training programs for Public Administrations and for revisiting public procurement procedures. Lastly, additional discussion points were launched for the next Italian stakeholder meeting to address.
