Imagine if instead of juggling separate apps for buses, trains, bike-sharing, and ride-hailing, you had one single app that planned your whole trip, booked everything, and charged you once. That's what MaaS4EU built — a "mobility hub" platform that bundles all transport options into one service, like a Netflix subscription but for getting around. They tested it in 3 real cities across Europe — Manchester, Budapest, and Luxembourg — covering everything from daily commutes to cross-border trips between Luxembourg and Germany.
Cities worldwide face gridlocked roads, fragmented transport options, and travelers forced to juggle multiple apps and tickets to get from A to B. Transport operators lose riders to private cars because switching between bus, train, bike, and taxi is too complicated. There's no single system that bundles all mobility into one seamless, bookable service — and no proven business model for making it work across operators and borders.
The project built a complete Mobility-as-a-Service platform including an integrated "API of APIs" connecting multiple transport providers, a dynamic journey planner with supply-demand optimization, personalized trip recommendation services, data analytics APIs for handling large-scale mobility data, and data privacy/security services. All components were demonstrated through MVP and final product pilots in 3 European cities covering urban, intercity, and cross-border travel.
If you are a transit authority struggling with declining ridership and fragmented ticketing across operators — this project developed an integrated MaaS platform tested in 3 European pilot cities that bundles all transport modes into a single booking and payment interface, making public transport the backbone of a seamless door-to-door service.
If you are a shared mobility operator looking to reach more customers without building your own trip-planning app — this project built an 'API of APIs' that integrates multiple transport providers into one platform, letting your service appear alongside buses, trains, and taxis in a single journey planner tested across urban and cross-border routes.
If you are a technology company building mobility solutions and need proven architecture for multi-modal integration — this project delivered a complete MaaS platform with data analytics APIs, dynamic journey planning, personalized recommendations, and data privacy services, all validated through MVP and final demonstrations in 3 pilot regions across 9 countries.
The project was publicly funded research, so the core platform architecture and findings are accessible through project deliverables. Licensing terms for specific software components would need to be negotiated with the consortium lead NETCOMPANY SA. Based on available project data, no commercial pricing model has been published.
The platform was designed for scalability across urban, intercity, and cross-border scenarios — demonstrated in Manchester (UK), Budapest (Hungary), and the Luxembourg-Germany region. The 'API of APIs' architecture was specifically built to integrate new transport providers, suggesting it can be adapted to additional cities. However, each deployment would require local operator agreements and data integration.
IP is shared among the 18-partner consortium under standard EU Horizon 2020 rules. NETCOMPANY SA (Belgium) coordinated the project and would be the primary contact for licensing discussions. With 10 industry partners and 5 SMEs in the consortium, multiple parties may hold rights to different platform components.
The project specifically addressed enabling policy and regulatory requirements for MaaS across the EU. Data portability, management, security, and privacy services were developed as dedicated platform components. The data privacy services were designed with privacy-enhancing principles in mind.
Based on the project timeline, the MVP was demonstrated first, followed by refined final demonstrations — suggesting a phased rollout is possible. The full project ran over 3 years across 3 pilots, but a single-city deployment using the existing platform would likely require less time. Integration with local transport operators is the main variable.
The project built a unified MaaS travel ontology and an 'API of APIs' that connects to data sources and services of transport and travel service providers. Dynamic journey planning and supply-demand optimization modules handle real-time coordination. Data analytics APIs process the big data generated by the platform.
The project closed in October 2020. NETCOMPANY SA continues as a technology company and may offer commercial support. The 51 deliverables produced include detailed technical documentation that could support independent implementation by qualified teams.
The MaaS4EU consortium of 18 partners from 9 countries is heavily industry-weighted at 56%, with 10 industry partners and 5 SMEs — a strong signal that the project was built for real-world deployment, not just academic study. The coordinator NETCOMPANY SA is a Belgian private company (not an SME), suggesting commercial capacity to sustain results. With 4 universities and 1 research organization providing the science backbone, plus 3 "other" partners likely including transport authorities and a ministry of transport (mentioned in the objective), the consortium covers the full value chain from research to regulation to implementation. This composition makes the outputs more trustworthy for business adoption than a purely academic project.
NETCOMPANY SA (Belgium) — contact via company website or EU participant portal
Want to explore how MaaS4EU's platform architecture or pilot learnings could apply to your city or transport business? SciTransfer can arrange a direct introduction to the project team and provide a tailored technology brief.
