East Japan Railway Company joins MaaS Alliance

The MaaS Alliance, a Brussels-based public-private partnership driving the rollout of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) worldwide, is expanding its membership in Asia and has welcomed The East Japan Railway Company (JR East) as its newest member.

“Through the JR East Group Management Vision, “Move UP” 2027, we are looking to develop a “Mobility Linkage Platform” to help passengers collect information, purchase services and pay fares, as well as to implement seamless travel experiences and shorten travel time. Our company has been promoting activities to establish MaaS business; by joining MaaS Alliance, JR East hopes to foster relations with the other MaaS actors around the world and study business models in addition to dispatching information on the MaaS ecosystem characteristic to Japan,” said Yuji Fukasawa, JR East President.

“It is a great honour to become a member of MaaS Alliance, which gives us opportunities for exploring the potential of MaaS business. We hope to share our concepts of MaaS with the alliance members to suggest a Japanese MaaS framework other than those in European countries,” added Yuichiro Tokunaga, JR East Executive Officer, Director General in charge of MaaS.

In order to advance the MaaS business, East Japan Railway Company has established a MaaS Strategy and Design Department in their Technology Innovation Headquarters, and has been planning related strategies since April 2019.

“We are pleased to welcome our Japanese colleagues in the MaaS Alliance. A major passenger railway company in Japan, moving 17 million passengers every day, JR East represents a valuable partner from whom we have much to learn a lot and will share best practices and business models to further develop MaaS worldwide. JR East is also a great asset for us in strengthening the strategic role of rail transport services in MaaS. On behalf of all the membership, I look forward to collaborating with them,” said Jacob Bangsgaard, ERTICO CEO and MaaS Alliance President.