How can public transport operators share data with private service providers while maintaining control over sensitive information? The Barcelona Use Case 1 of deployEMDS demonstrates how trusted data sharing can support innovation, more efficient transport operations and better mobility planning.
The Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona brought together mobility stakeholders to explore how data can support more connected and efficient urban transport systems. As part of the Governing Mobility Data session, EONA-X highlighted its involvement in deployEMDS, the European Mobility Data Space pilot project.
Jim Ahtes from i2CAT then presented the Barcelona Use Case 1, offering a practical example of how a regional mobility data space can help public and private organisations collaborate while maintaining control over their data.
From a data platform to a trusted ecosystem
The Barcelona pilot builds on a data and services platform established by ATM, the metropolitan transport authority, for eight public transport operators managing bus fleets across Barcelona and its surrounding municipalities.
The platform helps fleet managers harmonise the planning and operation of their services, while supporting compliance with regulatory requirements.
However, the potential of mobility data extends beyond the operators themselves. Private companies, including SMEs and innovative service providers, can use quality mobility data to develop new analytics and decision-support solutions. These could support everything from predictive maintenance to improved transport planning.
Accessing this data is not straightforward. Transport operators may be competitors, and their operational data can contain commercially sensitive information. Sharing it therefore requires more than technical connectivity: it needs a framework that enables organisations to collaborate while retaining control over how their data is used.
Building trust into mobility data sharing
Through deployEMDS, the Barcelona pilot aims to extend the existing platform into a trusted data ecosystem connecting public transport operators with private service providers.
The approach incorporates data usage policies, verifiable credentials, identity provision and traceability mechanisms. These elements help establish who can access data, under which conditions, and how its use can be monitored.
The pilot also explores the integration of complementary mobility data, including anonymised mobile network data, to provide a broader understanding of mobility patterns across the city and surrounding areas.
By combining trusted data exchange with standardised interfaces, exchange protocols and semantic interoperability, the ecosystem can facilitate more agile collaboration between transport operators and digital service providers.
Turning data into better mobility services
The Barcelona use case demonstrates how data sharing can support practical applications in public transport planning and operations.
Examples presented by Jim Ahtes included express bus route simulations, demand-responsive transport and modal split analysis. These solutions can help fleet managers assess different operational scenarios, understand mobility patterns and make more informed decisions.
The value created through the ecosystem is shared across its participants. Transport operators gain access to innovative decision-support solutions, while SMEs and service providers can develop and deliver applications using quality mobility data.
The objective is to establish a scalable public-private governance model that can support an expanding ecosystem of operators, data sources and mobility services.
A model for other regions
The Barcelona pilot also offers lessons for other regions looking to establish their own mobility data ecosystems.
As Jim Ahtes highlighted, many cities face similar challenges when it comes to public-private collaboration, data governance and the responsible use of AI. Establishing clear data usage policies, ensuring traceability and enabling trusted data sharing can help address these challenges.
The experience of deployEMDS shows how mobility data spaces can provide the foundations for more collaborative and innovative transport systems, with an approach that has the potential to be replicated and scaled across Europe.
The final phase of deployEMDS: more to come
The Barcelona use case is one of the practical examples demonstrating how the common European mobility data space can support real-world mobility challenges.
As deployEMDS enters its final phase, the project is building on the progress achieved across its pilots to consolidate its results and strengthen the foundations for future deployment.
The work does not stop here. The coming months will bring further insights, results and opportunities to explore how mobility data spaces can enable new services and support more connected transport ecosystems.