ViaVan’s fourth shared ride service launches in Milton Keynes

ViaVan has announced the launch of its shared ride service in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire – the fourth launch of the shared-ride scheme.

This launch follows the successful debut in Amsterdam and London earlier in 2018 and its partnership with Berlin’s public transit authority, BerlinerVerkehrsbetriebe (BVG).

“ViaVan was formed to reengineer urban transit in Europe,” said Chris Snyder, CEO of ViaVan. “Milton Keynes is an innovation-forward area and we’re delighted to launch this ground-breaking on-demand service, providing residents with a convenient, affordable and congestion-reducing dynamic transportation alternative.

“Over the next few years, we’re increasingly going to see cities and towns asking how they can provide their residents with transportation that provides the same ease and convenience as private car ownership, and yet still achieves the same environmental and congestion-reducing benefits of mass transit,” said Snyder. “ViaVan is the solution, a platform that integrates with existing transit infrastructure and enables residents to seamlessly travel within the greater London-Milton Keynes area.”

The service will utilise Via’s algorithm to route Mercedes-Benz Vito Tourers, allowing passengers to seamlessly book a shared van through the ViaVan app. Via’s world-renowned dynamic ride-pooling technology, developed initially for New York City, has powered more than 35 million shared rides globally throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Steve Hayes, Head of Transport at MK Council, added: “Milton Keynes is a great place for transport initiatives with its fast moving grid roads, unique Redway network and a history of trialling new technologies like the driverless pods.

“MK Council is very proactive towards transport innovation and working in partnership with innovative, commercial companies so ViaVan fits in perfectly with our aims to offer a wide range of travel options to everyone. Sharing journeys is something we fully support as one of our key objectives is to reduce our carbon footprint and reduce traffic growth.”

Currently in the UK, Via’s technology powers services in Liverpool and Sittingbourne in partnership with Arriva, and in Oxford in partnership with Go-Ahead. Since launching in London in April 2018, ViaVan has already provided more than 2.5 million shared rides.

Simon Neill, Sales Director, Mercedes-Benz Vans UK Ltd, said: “We are very proud to be working closely with our ViaVan colleagues to help Milton Keynes benefit from this service. The bundling of rides will play its part in helping to ease the traffic and at the same time, many commuters will see a real benefit in terms of end-to-end mobility.”