Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Councilor Censi: "Proud that our city can experience this revolution in transport"

Milan, February 8 2022 – Milan has been selected to be one of the Italian cities that will be able to test MAAS4ITALY's innovative local transport solutions in the field, as well as being the one chosen for the Living lab to immediately experiment with innovations in terms of mobility. To finance these projects it will have a total of 10,3 million euros available.
The Lombard capital is thus part of the selection of the three leading cities that will introduce, in the context of local transport systems, the Mobility as a service (MaaS) paradigm thanks to the financing made available by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR).

MaaS is in fact a new mobility concept that involves the integration of multiple public and private transport services (for example e-bikes, buses, car sharing, trains, taxis, planes, scooters), accessible to the user through a single digital channel. These services operate through "digital intermediation platforms" which enable various functions - such as information, travel planning and booking, unified payment for services, post-trip operations - capable of responding in a personalized way to all mobility needs.

The objective is to facilitate, through digital services, access to transport modes even for the weakest sections of the population, ensuring greater accessibility, multimedia and sustainability of travel.

The project presented by Milan was also selected for the testing of a "Living lab" (unique in Italy), i.e. a system that integrates research and innovation processes in real conditions.

This is an operational experiment on already active public transport lines, which can encourage the development of new services for citizens, improving the safety, reliability and resilience of the TPL system.

In particular, Milan has nominated the route of line 90-91 to achieve three strategic objectives: connectivity, inter-modality and citizens' needs. Along this line, technologies for autonomous driving will be tested, interchange systems with a MaaS perspective in some stations and the possibility of carrying out tests for self-driving cars by car manufacturers or other operators.

The PNRR has made 2,5 million available for each leading city to experiment with MaaS and 800 thousand euros for the digitalisation of public transport. Furthermore, the 7 million euros made available for the testing of the Living lab were allocated to Milan.

"I am proud that our city can experience this revolution in the transport system – commented the councilor for Mobility Arianna Censi –. Our Administration has long had among its objectives that of sustainable, integrated and accessible mobility, aimed at improving the quality of life of citizens. And this can also be achieved thanks to technological innovation, leading to the decongestion of traffic and the improvement of the associated air pollution".