At the Web Summit 2022, FREE NOW, Europe’s Mobility Super App, announced a significant achievement: users may now book public transportation services using its app in addition to taxis, private automobiles, eScooters, eBikes, and eMopeds. As a result, FREE NOW provides all transportation options from a single point of contact, solidifying its position as Europe’s top mobility platform with the most travel possibilities in a single app. The first partnership allowing the use of public transportation via the FREE NOW app was forged in Germany with Rheinbahn.
Users of the FREE NOW app will be able to purchase tickets directly for all Rhine-Ruhr Public Transport Association tariff zones for buses, trams, and underground trains (VRR). With this connection, FREE NOW can now provide on-demand mobility in one of Germany’s most significant metropolitan areas. In actuality, the partnership with FREE NOW gives access to the greatest urban transportation area in Europe, with about 1,100 lines, 7.8 million residents, and a region of about 7,300 square kilometers. This comprises significant German cities like Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen, Bochum, and Wuppertal.
Users will first have the option to purchase single tickets, day passes, and 48-hour passes. Integration of technology has already started. The relationship with the Dutch aggregator Tranzer makes ticket sales feasible. For 2023, additional collaborations with transport businesses in Germany and throughout Europe are planned.
Since 2020, in collaboration with major mobility operators in Germany and Europe, FREE NOW has steadily increased its own mobility offering for its subscribers. The FREE NOW app utilizes technology to connect more than 400,000 vehicles across Europe. This includes carsharing, eScooters, eMopeds, and eBikes in addition to ride-hailing services like taxis and private vehicles.
FREE NOW’s CEO, Thomas Zimmermann, offers the following insight on the new alliance:
“We’re happy to be the first private mobility platform in Europe to be able to provide our users with public transportation tickets in the continent’s largest metropolitan transport area and population center. This is a crucial next step for us, and we’re introducing end-to-end ticketing for various modes of transportation in our app for the first time. In order to successfully alter transportation in Europe, it is essential to link various mobility solutions. FREE NOW, a partner in public transportation, actively encourages this. Our objective is to increase the sustainability, intelligence, and connectivity of urban mobility in Europe.”
The chief financial officer of Rheinbahn, Susanne Momberg, explains:
“We want to make travel easy. That’s why we like to work with a wide variety of partners in the mobility industry to create a diverse and modern offering. Now that selected VRR tickets are available in the FREE NOW app, our passengers can buy public transport tickets easily, and benefit from FREE NOW’s offering at the same time.”
Country Director DACH at Tranzer Leila Laidani continues:
“We are delighted to count FREE NOW, the largest European mobility platform, among our partners and to bring its users access to public transport tickets. In line with our philosophy of ‘all green mobility, for everyone, anywhere, anytime’, millions of users now have direct access to tickets for Germany’s largest transport association. Even more offers will be introduced in the near future. This is another significant step in our mission to make sustainable mobility as easy and convenient as possible, helping to transform travel.”
The new travel option is particularly intended for remote workers who visit their place of employment only infrequently, as well as for business or leisure travellers. For instance, in cities they visit occasionally, approximately 30% of all FREE NOW travelers utilize the app. As a platform with operations all over Europe, the business may, over time, enhance both the alliance for environmental protection and public transportation.
To reserve and pay for public transportation, FREE NOW customers do not require the creation of a new account -they simply use their current customer account.
