Background information on Maritime MaaS project

The water transport MaaS project is a cooperative venture, funded for 2021 by the City of Helsinki’s Innovation Fund and carried out by the City’s innovation company Forum Virium Helsinki and the Solution Agency of the City’s Culture and Leisure Division, which have created a water transport ticket sales interface, Maritime MaaS API, together with water transport providers and MaaS operators. 

In summer 2020, the project was preceded by a limited POC, i.e. a proof of concept project, in which Forum Virium and Reaktor piloted an interface with one water transport provider and one MaaS operator. 

Of all the maritime operators, JT-Line Oy has been part of the work since the very beginning, while Suomen saaristokuljetus joined the project in 2021. MaaS Global has served as the MaaS operator in these solutions. 

The Maritime MaaS interface was transferred to production in June 2021, and we are now welcoming operators interested in utilising it: water transport providers, MaaS operators and others interested in the retail sales of water transport tickets. 

For cohesion’s sake, this project wiki refers to the interface and the project itself as the Maritime MaaS project.

Needs

Customers, entrepreneurs and the City have all expressed their need for more dynamic ticket sales for water transport.

Therefore, the Maritime MaaS project is based on a need to improve access to the islands and develop new forms of business through digitalisation and open interfaces, together with Helsinki’s maritime operators. 

The MaaS ticket sales interface produced by our project introduces more opportunities to sell water transport tickets by allowing third parties to sell tickets alongside transport operator-specific ticketing. In its current form, tickets are mainly sold via the operators’ own channels: online shops, kiosks and on board the vessels. Once integrated with our interface, transport providers will be able to offer their ticket products to be sold by other operators, such as MaaS service providers and travel companies.

In addition to the retail sales of individual tickets and cross-sales between operators, the interface also brings end-to-end travel services and service packages one step closer to the operators in maritime Helsinki. One of the key goals of the project is to help maritime companies generate new business. 

Wider ticket sales and new service entities will make island destinations more accessible to both residents and visitors, while promoting business profitability.

Objective

The aim of the Maritime MaaS project is to make the ticket sales interface an established part of maritime operators’ businesses. Retail ticket products can be sold on their own, or as part of end-to-end travel services or maritime service packages.

The higher the number of companies that offer their ticket products via the interface, the more business opportunities will become available to all its integrated users. Examples or real-life business use will steer the direction of the interface’s future development, and therefore it is vital for the interface to attract as diverse a userbase as possible.

Furthermore, the role of the interface administrator is an interesting one, and the project welcomes ideas and input regarding this role.

As part of the project, a roadmap for further development – a future roadmap – will be drawn up for the Maritime MaaS interface. It will describe the interface’s development opportunities and potential solutions based on the experiences gained during the first summer of operation.