The West Midlands region in the UK is to pilot Mobility as Service (8356 MaaS) to its residents. The service, Whim by Finnish MaaS operator MaaS Global, will be launched in the West Midlands metropolitan area in early 2017. The launch follows a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), transport service providers National Express and SilverRail, Birmingham City Council and MaaS Global. Other transport companies will be welcomed onboard the Whim service in the future.
The MaaS concept means providing a single service for residents’ daily mobility, which can be used either on a subscription or pay-as-you-go basis. In the West Midlands, MaaS aims to transform how over 5.5 million people get from A to B, including commuters in Britain’s second most populous city, Birmingham.
Kaj Pyyhtiä, the co-founder and CXO of MaaS Global, sees enormous potential in the region: “This is an incredibly exciting location for us to start our first international operation. With their open and forward looking approach, Transport for West Midlands, and local transport service providers from National Express and SilverRail to Enterprise are the true enablers of bringing MaaS to the UK. The ongoing support of Transport Systems Catapult has also been invaluable – we simply couldn’t have found better partners.”
MaaS is already in operation in Helsinki, Finland, where MaaS Global has launched the Whim mobile app, initially for a limited group of test users.
Whim, which will be released in Birmingham and West Midlands metropolitan area in spring 2017, will integrate public transport, rental cars, taxis, trains, bikes and more to take people door to door as easily as possible. It has proven immensely popular in Finland, with a growing list of users on the waiting list before next year’s public launch.
Councillor Roger Lawrence, lead member for transport for the WMCA, sees MaaS as a means to encourage people to consider how they get about other than with the private car. “Mobility as a Service can transform how people get about this region and by doing so help free up our roads and tackle the congestion which costs this region billions of pounds a year,” he says.
Whim is planned to be launched in the West Midlands metropolitan area in early 2017. Pre-registrations to use Whim are now open on the <%$Linker:2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal Whim website Visit www.whimapp.com/uk website false http://www.whimapp.com/uk false false %>.
The MaaS concept means providing a single service for residents’ daily mobility, which can be used either on a subscription or pay-as-you-go basis. In the West Midlands, MaaS aims to transform how over 5.5 million people get from A to B, including commuters in Britain’s second most populous city, Birmingham.
Kaj Pyyhtiä, the co-founder and CXO of MaaS Global, sees enormous potential in the region: “This is an incredibly exciting location for us to start our first international operation. With their open and forward looking approach, Transport for West Midlands, and local transport service providers from National Express and SilverRail to Enterprise are the true enablers of bringing MaaS to the UK. The ongoing support of Transport Systems Catapult has also been invaluable – we simply couldn’t have found better partners.”
MaaS is already in operation in Helsinki, Finland, where MaaS Global has launched the Whim mobile app, initially for a limited group of test users.
Whim, which will be released in Birmingham and West Midlands metropolitan area in spring 2017, will integrate public transport, rental cars, taxis, trains, bikes and more to take people door to door as easily as possible. It has proven immensely popular in Finland, with a growing list of users on the waiting list before next year’s public launch.
Councillor Roger Lawrence, lead member for transport for the WMCA, sees MaaS as a means to encourage people to consider how they get about other than with the private car. “Mobility as a Service can transform how people get about this region and by doing so help free up our roads and tackle the congestion which costs this region billions of pounds a year,” he says.
Whim is planned to be launched in the West Midlands metropolitan area in early 2017. Pre-registrations to use Whim are now open on the <%$Linker:
