Analyzing the goals and challenges of a regional Mobility as a Service project : A case study of the Maas in Skåne market pilot

Sammanfattning: This thesis revolves around the concept of Mobility as a Service, one of the main contemporary topics in urban transport. Although the concept is still in its infancy, it is widely embraced by cities and urban regions as a way to achieve societal goals such as reduced private car use, lower CO2 emissions, and create more livable cities. A specific definition of MaaS is still lacking, but generally, it involves the integration of multiple mobility modes into a single one-stop-shop platform, thus striving to make traveling easier and more flexible. This thesis focuses on the case of the market pilot MaaS in Skåne in Sweden, a collaboration between six actors in the public and private sector that aims to integrate additional mobility services with Skånetrafiken’s existing transport offering. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to existing research on MaaS by exploring the goals and challenges of MaaS in Skåne and their effects on the envisioned implementation of the project. Semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in combination with information from document analysis are used to gather the necessary data about the project. The findings from the data collection are analyzed using the frameworks of experimental governance and public-private partnerships as a theoretical foundation. The results reveal that the main goals of the pilot project concern generating more knowledge for future MaaS projects, increased flexibility for individual travelers, and testing if MaaS can impact travel behaviors to become more sustainable. The primary challenges for the pilot relate to issues of complex integrations within a short time frame, a lack of experience with MaaS in the public sector, issues of responsibility. Furthermore, there is a lack of service coverage throughout the region, and important challenges related to finding a sustainable business model to achieve commercial viability are purposefully being overlooked. The thesis offers a starting point for further practical research as the pilot continues and how its challenges can be overcome.