Positions 02 Feb 2023

Multimodal Digital Mobility Services Initiative

The aim of the European Commission with the announced Multimodal Digital Mobility Services initiative (MDMS) is to integrate public transport and rail services to achieve seamless multimodal passenger transport. CER members share the ambition of improving international ticketing, as shown by the CER Ticketing Roadmap, putting the passenger in focus. The key precondition for achieving this goal is an open and balanced market. Against this background, we believe that some policy options put forward in the MDMS initiative overly favour digital platforms, with detrimental effects.

With this paper we set out CER’s position as regards the upcoming legislative proposal from the European Commission. First the vision of the railway companies for improving the travel experience for rail passengers is sketched out. Then, we describe the way the sector’s Ticketing Roadmap initiative contributes to achieving the goals of MDMS. The key principles that should guide the sharing of data by railway companies are laid out in part 5 of the document. We conclude with a discussion on data exchange, including the question of the costs associated with sharing data in the context of Public Service Obligations (PSO).

The paper is available to download below.