Hitachi Rail’s smart digital transport app has entered commercial service in Genoa, Italy.

The 360Pass app, connecting Genoa’s entire public transport infrastructure, is available to all 600,000 citizens and the 3.5 million annual visitors, following an agreement with the city’s transit authority, AMT.

Having completed a successful year long trial, the 360Pass app, known as GoGoGe in Genoa, should transform multi-modal transport across the city. The service offers every person living or visiting Genoa the possibility to plan, book and pay the cheapest fare for multimodal trips by integrating the city’s public and private transport system. It is available from this month and is free to download.

The service offers users the possibility to plan, book and pay for multimodal trips by integrating the city’s public and private transport system. In total, 663 buses, 2500 bus stops, the metro line used by 15 million people a year, two funiculars, one historic hillside railway, ten public lifts and two suburban bus routes that span 50km, have been connected. App users also have the power via the touch of a button on their mobile phones to hire an electric car, pay for parking or find an e-moped.

The app ensures passengers have access to the fastest and most convenient multi-modal route options and real-time journey updates. It also allows passengers to check how busy bus services are through the app and choose less crowded services as desired. Underlining the value of this, a recent study commissioned by Hitachi Rail on global attitudes to public transport found that 73% of people would be more likely to travel on public transport if they could see live information on crowding levels on services.

The app has eradicated the need to queue to purchase a traditional paper ticket, or download multiple apps for different transport services. The 360Pass connects 5G Bluetooth sensors placed on services and stops around the city to identify when a passenger with the mobile app has boarded, how far they have travelled and when they disembarked. This allows users to pay the best possible fare even when using different transport means.

In addition to the commercial launch, through a partnership with Trenitalia (Ferrovie dello Stato Group), app users will be able to travel on regional and intercity trains as well as public transport in the Ligurian capital. Users will also now be able to get the best weekly rate for their trips.

The app will automatically detect when the cost of the user’s travel across the city’s bus, tram and metro services has reached that of a weekly travel card: €17.50. At that point, it will be possible to travel free of charge for the rest of the week and no further costs will be charged to the user. This will enable regular transport users to make substantial savings. For example, a passenger that takes the bus and metro to work and back five days a week would automatically save €12.50 with the weekly travelcard.

“This is a major achievement in our ground-breaking work to digitally connect a city’s entire public transport infrastructure,” said Alessandro de Grazia, head of smart ticketing at Hitachi Rail. “Our completely-free to use, 360Pass app transforms how people travel. For the first time, a person can plan, book and pay for a multi-modal journey involving inter-city trains, trams, buses, metros and e-scooters all through one app. Its power and simplicity are helping the city reduce emissions and congestion.”

Ilaria Gavuglio, president of AMT, added: “It’s an issue of great satisfaction to have made GoGoGe available to all people. It is the first example of an app providing MaaS [mobility-as-a-service] in Genoa, and is the result of great teamwork between AMT, municipality of Genoa, Hitachi Rail and MyCicero. It is an advanced technology that allows the user to move around our territory in the most practical, simple and innovative way possible. Just by using their smartphone, people can move around the city choosing the transport mode that best suits their needs – our transport system, electric cars or train – at the best possible rate. Also, thanks to GoGoGe, we are designing the mobility of the future, based on intermodality, simplicity, convenience and sustainability.”

Since July 2022, Hitachi Rail has been using its smart mobility suite called Lumada Intelligent Mobility Management to connect public and private hire transport digitally in Genoa via its 360Pass app. The GoGoGe app is the result of a partnership between Hitachi Rail, AMT and the municipality of Genoa, aimed at encouraging the use of public transport and the hiring of electric vehicles by offering ways to meet the last-kilometre needs of Genoa’s passengers.