The Nemu (Nordic Ecosystem Mobility Unlimited) project consortium has received funding from Nordic Innovation to further seamless, integrated and people-centric mobility in the Nordic countries. The three-year project will use open mobility data to allow planning, booking, payment and navigation of multimodal journeys across regional and national borders – with key partners Entur (Norway), Matkahuolto (Finland), SFMCON (Denmark) and Nordic+ (a collaboration between Nordic ITS organisations). Nemu will be the first major user of open mobility data sourced through multiple national access points (NAPs). The ambition is to showcase how Nordic mobility companies and other public and private stakeholders can share data to optimise operations and support a more climate-efficient and profitable mobility sector in the Nordics and beyond.
The Nemu project
Today, we can navigate the world by air travel using one travel agency app including booking, ticketing and payment in the currency we prefer. We can also navigate from anywhere to anywhere, even across borders using the built-in GPS in a car or on an app. But if we want to use more sustainable and shared mobility on land or sea, there aren’t any easy, end-to-end, digital planning, purchase and navigation services available that can compete with the borderless navigation using the car’s GPS. We must rely on our own skills and abilities - and plenty of time - to figure out how to get a ticket, book a ride or - even more difficult - make and navigate a multimodal travel plan. No wonder that the use of the car and air travel is increasingly popular.
The European Union is addressing the lack of Europe-wide multimodal planning and navigation through the Multimodal Travel Information Services (MMTIS) regulation which calls for access to open mobility data from all modalities through NAPs. Shortly, the booking and payment of mobility services through Mobility as a Service (MaaS) agents will be governed by the EU regulation known as Multimodal Digital Mobility Services (MMDS). The NAPs are beginning to get populated with open mobility data, but the true value of the MMTIS and MDMS regulation will first be recognised when MaaS providers actually use the data. While regional and national MaaS implementations may be facilitated both by public and private actors, it is unclear how cross-border MaaS schemes will evolve. The Nemu project is poised to address the challenges for more sustainable, shared, seamless, borderless mobility in the Nordics through a Living Lab with real travellers.
Open trip planner
The open trip planner for the Nordics is designed to find optimal multimodal travel plans – even across borders – in a single travel planner service. Travel plan suggestions include pricing between any two addresses in the Nordics. It consolidates NeTEx and Siri open mobility data from NAPs in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. It will be an open service for MaaS providers.
Seamless mobility across borders in the Nordics and beyond is an important part of the EU single market both for commuting and for business travel and leisure/tourism. While it is easy to use a private car or air travel to cross borders in the Nordic region, the use of digital planning and navigation of other land or sea-based mobility modes is very fragmented and within national borders. The Nemu project will focus on how to seamless bridge national borders through a single digital service using shared and more sustainable mobility choices.
“We must rely on our own skills and abilities - and plenty of time - to figure out how to get a ticket”
The project is, by nature, transnational. It aims at validating the use of open mobility data from several NAPs in the Nordic countries to deliver multimodal multinational travel information services of real value to citizens in the region. To support cross-border multimodal travel planning, a travel planning service supporting the whole Nordics will be made available to the project by Entur. The Nordic travel planner can be used to plan multimodal trips between any addresses in the Nordics including pricing using NeTEx data from NAPs. The project shall formulate a strategy for how to facilitate third-party booking, seat reservations, payment, ticketing and validation of multimodal trips from one MaaS agent in one go. The strategy shall look towards the preparatory work for the MDMS regulation for how to standardise third-party booking, validation and payment of multimodal cross-border travel plans.
The strategies formulated will allow cross-border multimodal discovery, planning, booking, payment and navigation in one go for:
1.The Oslo-Gothenburg, Malmö, Copenhagen corridor (train & bus as minimum)
2.The Helsinki – Stockholm – Oslo corridor (train, bus & ferry)
The benefits for long-distance travellers are that it will be easier to discover and plan multimodal cross-border journeys. And a single commuter ticket for multimodal travel will make cross-border commutes seamless. It is the ambition for the project that the established MaaS services will expand into viable commercial operation and create first benchmarks on how open mobility data can be used to make use of sustainable multimodal travel - accessible to all - without prior knowledge of regional (or other countries’) public transport systems and ticketing methods.
During the project, travel patterns in the two cross-border corridors will be analysed before and during the intervention. The programme is navigating unchartered territory and is likely to find problem areas which will need further exploration and innovation. Nordic+ open mobility rig will closely monitor progress on the project and prepare further proposals to fulfil the ambitions of enabling use of sustainable ground and sea mobility options between any two addresses throughout all Nordic countries.
While the Nordics is the home of good rail and road infrastructure and a wide variety of shared mobility options, there are no digital services that will support travel planning across national borders in the Nordics. The Nemu project will be pioneering the value of use and combination of open mobility data through NAPs to make it possible to roam around in the whole Nordic region just as easily as we are used to doing in our home regions.
How will this create something unique?
The Nemu project will create the first fully-fledged multimodal, cross-border mobility service in the Nordics – and Europe. The service will use open mobility data distributed through the National Access Points from several Nordic countries and follows up on the emerging EU mobility directives. The most significant innovation is the ability to plan, book and pay for mobility in and between Nordic countries in a single service using native languages, paid in one go in the home country’s currency. In fact, planning of cross-border multimodal journeys will go from hours of hard labour to a few minutes of easy planning - and fully compete with the booking of air travel or using a car and GPS navigation.
“Nemu will create the first fully-fledged multimodal, cross-border mobility service in the Nordics – and Europe”
Background to the Nemu project
The Nemu project was initiated by Nordic+ as a follow-up action after the Nomad project. (Nordic+ was established during the lifespan of Nomad and constitutes the same stakeholders: all the ITS associations in the Nordics including Estonia). The Nemu project uses the findings and results of Nomad - listed as a minimum number of criteria that need to be in place to make cross-border multimodal MaaS and roaming work – as a platform:
• A shared understanding of the MaaS concept and societal goals (including the joint Nordic Vision 2030)
• Sharing of data in a free, standardised and unbiased way
• Clearing house functions for both private and public transport providers
• Fair models for cost and revenue sharing for all transport providers - this might include the sharing of public subsidies with private transport providers
• Standards for the exchange of data, organisational aspects, and mobility operations (including the Odin project’s work on NAP and mobility operations)
• Adoption of local currencies and language
• Borders, concession areas and other boundaries should not limit transport operations
• A responsible unit/authority for cross-border and cross-boundary mobility in the Nordics
The first six bullet points will be addressed directly in Nemu and will certainly help solve the last two. In addition to the Nomad results and findings, Nordic+ will serve as a network with access to a community of mobility entities and experts – and with the capacity to run projects, demonstration and pilots. Nordic+ is a purpose-driven innovation ecosystem, also known as a rig. The Nemu project is seen as the first step as a part of a larger picture/evolution towards seamless sustainable multimodal mobility throughout the Nordics - also known as MaaS roaming.
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Nemu: who’s who?
Nordic+ is a network of Nordic and Baltic ITS associations which share a vision of connected and sustainable mobility, reachable for all user groups across regions from cities to rural areas. The network contains more than 300 companies, start-ups, authorities, academia and research organisations throughout the region. They have a track record of stimulating innovation, advancing connected and sustainable mobility in the Nordics – as evidenced in the Nomad project. Nordic+ is the project owner for the Nemu project.
Entur is owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and is intended to offer basic public transport services within travel planning and ticketing on competition-neutral terms. Entur is leading the use of open source data to provide easy access to information about multimodal travel options, including purchase of combined tickets in Norway. In the Nemu project, Entur is the main driver for adherence to standards and pioneering how to facilitate sales of cross-border multimodal journeys in one go.
Matkahuolto is a private Finnish public transport service provider, focusing on sustainable mobility services, tickets and timetables. Matkahuolto acts as a MaaS agent selling own- and third-party mobility services in Finland – where the MaaS market is open by law. Through the Nemu project, Matkahuolto will use the same approach as Entur as far as possible to demonstrate the value of using the same standards and open source components to deliver good services to end users.
SFMCON is a Danish company which helps mobility scheme stakeholders create integrated and smart MaaS solutions, allowing seamless journeys from A to B, combining use of both public and private operated shared vehicles. SFMCON delivers the technical lead role of the Nemu project.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Smart mobility consultant Søren Sørensen is part of the Nordic+ team representing ITSDanmark - where he is chairman of the board – and he is Nemu project manager
