Short description: The Swiss Confederation wants to make it easier for people to combine different means of transport. In order for businesses to develop services such as mobile apps, they require access to data from various mobility and service providers. To make this exchange of information easier, the Confederation intends to offer a new public service in the shape of a national data infrastructure on mobility. Multimodal services will facilitate access to public transport, making it more attractive to new customers.

The most important requirement for improving multimodal mobility is making access to data easy and secure. This is essential if app developers and website operators are to provide consumers with integrated services, and mobility providers are to visualise their services and enable consumers to book them. Basic data on transport networks, means of transport and sales systems is not yet accessible in many areas. Active cooperation between app developers, mobility services providers and other data holders is rare and involves a lot of effort and expense for those involved.

The Swiss Federal Office of Transport is one of 14 partners from 6 countries (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland) in the Interreg-funded LinkingAlps project. The main objective of the project is to foster the shift from motorised individual transport towards low carbon mobility options including public transport (e.g. rail and bus) and alternative modes such as on-demand transport.

By using innovative tools and transnationally aligned strategies to link travel information providers, the project will increase options for low carbon mobility, offering seamless mobility chains for passengers. Travel information services across borders, operators and modes of transport will be shared among project partners to offer the best option for the end user. The approach includes pilot activities and tests for a decentralised, transnational journey planning system.

The project started on 1 October 2019 and will run until 30 June 2022. An analysis of  existing journey planners has been performed to understand user needs. Use cases for the proposed system have been defined and organisational and technical architectures designed for the pilot that is currently running.

Recommendations: Policy and Strategy Alignment (4); Digital Government Integration (6, 7, 8); Governance, Partnerships and Capabilities (18)