Hitachi Rail’s world-first 360Pass app, connecting Genoa’s entire public transport infrastructure in a Mobility as a Service (MaaS) ecosystem, is now available to all 600,000 citizens and the 3,500,000 annual visitors, following a new agreement with the city’s transit authority, AMT.
Having completed a successful year long trial, the 360Pass app, known as GoGoGe in Genoa, will transform multi-modal transport across the city. The service offers every person living or visiting Genoa the possibility to plan, book, and pay the cheapest fare for multimodal trips by integrating the city’s public and private transport system. It is available from this month and is completely free to download.
The service offers users the possibility to plan, book, and pay for multimodal trips by integrating the city’s public and private transport system. In total, 663 buses, 2500 bus stops, the metro line used by 15 million p.a., two funiculars, one historic hillside railway, 10 public lifts and two suburban bus routes that span 50km, have been connected. App users also have the power – via the touch of a button on their mobile phones – to hire an electric car, pay for parking or find an e-moped.
The 360Pass app ensures passengers have access to the fastest and most convenient multi-modal route options and real time journey updates. It also allows passengers to check how busy bus services are through the app and choose less crowded services as desired. Underlining the value of this technology, a recent study commissioned by Hitachi Rail on global attitudes to public transport found that 73% of people would be more likely to travel on public transport if they could see live information on crowding levels on services.
The app has eradicated the need to queue to purchase a traditional paper ticket ever again; or download multiple apps for different transport services. The 360Pass connects 5G Bluetooth sensors placed on services and stops around the city to identify when a passenger with the mobile app has boarded, how far they have travelled and when they disembarked. This allows users to pay the best possible fare even when using different transport means.
The app will automatically detect when the cost of the user’s travel across the city’s bus, tram and metro services has reached that of a weekly travel card: 17,50 Euro. At that point, it will be possible to travel free of charge for the rest of the week and no further costs will be charged to the user. This will enable regular transport users to make substantial savings, for example, a passenger that takes the bus and metro to work and back five days a week would automatically save €12.50 with the weekly travelcard.
“This is a major achievement in our ground-breaking work to digitally connect a city’s entire public transport infrastructure,” says Alessandro de Grazia, group head of digital sales and smart ticketing, Hitachi Rail. “Our completely-free to use, 360Pass app transforming how people travel. For the first time, a person can plan, book and pay for a multi-modal journey involving inter-city trains, trams, buses, metros and e-scooters all through one app.”
A full case study of the trial features in Intertraffic World 2023
