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What is the difference between MaaS and Public Mobility?

Both terms describe bringing modes together into one journey. They differ in emphasis — and the difference explains why FINOMAD prefers one of them in public.

In preparation

Draft — to be expanded before launch.

Both terms describe the same underlying ambition: bring separate modes of transport together into one coherent journey. They differ in emphasis, and the difference is worth stating plainly.

MaaS is a service proposition. Its centre of gravity is the commercial relationship between a provider and a customer — the bundle, the subscription, the app that sells the trip.

Public Mobility puts the emphasis on the system rather than the product. Who can participate, on what terms, and whether the layer that connects operators is open to everyone or controlled by whoever built it first. Those questions decide whether an integrated journey stays available when a commercial arrangement changes.

FINOMAD’s statutes name both. Statutory objective (g) refers to integrated mobility services such as “Public Mobility” or “Mobility as a Service (MaaS)”, and that wording is reproduced verbatim wherever legal accuracy requires it. Everywhere else on this site, we say Public Mobility.

  • public-mobility
  • maas
  • explainer

Related reading

  • Important standards in Public Mobility

    GTFS, TOMP-API and the Beckn protocol each answer a different question. Together they describe the plumbing an open mobility ecosystem needs.

  • Why the shift from MaaS to MaaF?

    Mobility as a Feature describes mobility embedded in services people already use. Here is what is driving the shift, and what it means for open infrastructure.

  • What is MaaS?

    Mobility as a Service explained: where the term came from, what it usually means in the industry, and why FINOMAD’s statutes name it.

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