Single journey-booking to make car-travel obsolete is aim in Manchester

An initiative to develop a system where travellers could book one journey using many different modes of transport is getting underway in Manchester.

The TravelSpirit consortium's website has launched after enthusiasm from the DfT, which is a board member of the consortium, and "progressive city region authorities" in Alto Adige and Helsinki - which pledged to make personal car travel obsolete by combining private and public data from all providers of mobility. The idea came from discussions between Transport for Greater Manchester and the Open Source Initiative on how to create a so-called smart city with seamless, integrated mobility, inspired by changes in travel brought by taxi and ride-sharing apps. 

Similarly, Uber in the U.S has launched a new service to integrate public transport and taxi journeys and there is evidence suggesting that those ride-sharing, car-sharing or taxi-hailing use public transport more and cars less.

An official launch event for TravelSpirit is to be held in June at MediaCityUK in Manchester with the aim of establishing a business plan for the "mobility as a service infrastructure resource" for transport operators and authorities.