Author(s)

ANDREAS KOEHLER

Abstract

The objective of the research project ReKoMo (“Regional Cooperation- and Mobility-Platform”), funded by the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, is the development and prototypical implementation of a provider-neutral regional platform for inter-modal transport. Organizational structures and models of cooperation are being developed to achieve a close link between complementary mobility services like car and bike sharing with public transport. The technical basis for this targeted integration of mobility services is a multi-client enabled platform which especially allows smaller local and regional mobility providers to participate and offer their services to an enlarged range of customers. The connectivity of different regional mobility platforms in perspective allows a transregional scope of the ReKoMo-approach, enabling the customer of a platform to use mobility services of other connected platforms as well (roaming). The article describes how the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV), the regional transportation authority for the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main-Area, defines its future role as an integrator of inter-modal transport, thereby strengthening its core business public transport. Organizing and operating a platform that provides its customers comprehensive information, booking and payment of inter-modal travel chains is a vital component of this strategy. Intended to become a productive system, the development of a prototype within the research project serves to gain experience with aspects like customer requirements, system architecture, design of the graphical user interface, cooperation with service providers or legal and data protection obligations. The prototype consists of a mobile app and the corresponding background system. The app enables a customer to register for all the integrated mobility services online and at once (single sign-on), allows him to buy tickets or book services for the entire inter-modal travel chain and provides him with a collective invoice for all the provided services he used in a defined billing period. With the research project ending in September 2018, a field test with selected test customers will take place in the Rhine-Main-Area this summer to evaluate the prototype and to derive conclusions for the future productive system.

Keywords

inter-modal transport, platform, public transport, car sharing, bike sharing, complementary mobility, service chain, regional transportation authority