Empowering the entire passenger journey – “hands free” (Guest blog by Hitachi Europe)
For cities and transport operators, never before has the focus on connecting the entire customer journey been more important.
Providing better public transport from the passenger’s perspective through digital initiatives such as MaaS (‘Mobility as a Service’) – is encouraging people to shift away from congestion-causing cars.
Congestion costs cities billions annually in lost productivity. In 2022 the Mayor of London issued a report saying Traffic on London’s roads cost London’s economy £5.1bn a year.
Congestion is also a killer. According to BCG, 1.3 million people die on our roads annually, not including the impact of poor air quality on public health.
This will only get more serious as our cities grow.
According to UITP, cities have 80% of the world’s GDP, 70% of the world’s population by 2050, and are responsible for 70% of global CO2e emissions.
Solving these problems with smarter mobility creates a triple win scenario.
Passengers win by accessing more convenient, end to end journeys; Transport operators win by being able to better plan schedules and optimise maintenance costs; and society wins because better public transport means greener, safer and healthier cities.
To do achieve that, we have to use digital technology to put every passenger first.
Power to the Passenger Experience
What if you can eradicate the need to use any traditional form of ticket or to even have to touch-in to use different transport services?
Hitachi has now pioneered a Bluetooth-enabled mobile app called 360Pass where passengers access every mode of public transport in a city “hands-free”.
The system works by connecting to Bluetooth sensors that know when a passenger has boarded, how far they have travelled and when they disembarked. Users can take multi-modal journeys across bus, train, e-scooter and e-parking, without ever taking their phones out of their pockets. Based on the journey they took the system ensures that only the lowest fare is charged at the end of each day.
No queuing to buy tickets, no fumbling for travel cards or bank cards hidden deep in coat pockets (and no chance of dropping them either). Users don’t even need to have their phone in their hand – the system knows that they are there (although personal data is anonymised and aggregated before it reaches the operator.)
The app also offers more personalised information and services, including the fastest and most convenient multi-modal route options and real time journey updates.
360Pass in Action
In the launch city of Genoa, Italy, Hitachi connected 663 buses, 2500 bus stops, the metro with over 15 million users per year, two funiculars, one historic hillside railway, 10 public lifts and two suburban bus routes that span 50km. Users can also hire an electric car, pay for parking or find an e-moped.
The pilot is being delivered in partnership with the city’s public transport operator, AMT, and the Municipality of Genoa. The programme aims to boost both public and private e-hire services and identify solutions to the “last mile” problem faced by passengers and public transport authorities around the world.
Over 7,000 Bluetooth sensors installed in Genoa allow the creation of a “digital twin” of the region’s transport and passengers’ end-to-end multimodal journeys. This real-time electronic map of how the city is moving is a powerful tool to allow operators to optimise services and better accommodate changes in passenger demand.
So it’s certainly true: for cities and transport operators, never before has the focus on the entire customer journey been more important. And doing so has the potential to deliver benefits far beyond.
Learn more about Hitachi Rail’s Smart Mobility offer here.
Get involved with our work
All of techUK’s work is led by our members – keep in touch or get involved with our work on transport and infrastructure by joining our groups.
