Multimodality, reinventing shared mobility

As a world leader in shared mobility, Keolis works alongside public transport authorities to build multimodal transport solutions that appropriately address social and environmental challenges. The aim is always to offer people ever safer, more sustainable, efficient and flexible mobility options to make communities better places to live and improve quality of life. As an expert in multimodality, Keolis develops complementarity between transport networks, combining the ‘mass transit’ capacity of public transport with the agility of individually tailored solutions.

As a leader in automatic metros and tram operations, Keolis operates more than ten modes of transport, ranging from passenger rail and bikes to buses and waterway shuttles. With on-demand transport (ODT), services for people with reduced mobility (PRM), carsharing, carpooling and car parks, the Group is today a leading figure in multimodality and France and around the world.

Multimodality consists of connecting several modes of transport to complete a journey. By linking up public transport, shared mobility and soft mobility, multimodal transport offers a one-stop response to social, environmental and territorial challenges.

In a public service perspective, multimodality helps address the diversity of passenger needs individually. It brings fluidity and flexibility to mobility choices, while shortening journey times and simplifying routes.

As a flexible and customisable solution, it makes communities more appealing places to live and work, with solutions adapted to different zones according to their density. By offering viable and sustainable alternatives to personal car travel, multimodality helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality.

At Keolis, collective mobility can only be effective if it is multimodal. Building on its extensive expertise, the Group works with local government decision makers to structure tailored, efficient and safe mobility solutions joined together in multimodal transportation hubs.

Keolis partners with public transport authorities to build mobility blueprints tailored to each community and leveraging the complementarity of means of transport, connecting them up to offer passengers a seamless journey. Mass transit modes combine with more individual and agile solutions, thereby serving both major travel corridors and the most remote parts of a community in accordance with passenger flows.

Keolis’s multimodal expertise is founded both on its proficiency in urban transport solutions (buses, automatic metros, trams, parking, etc.) and on its desire to offer alternative mobility modes (dynamic carpooling, real-time on-demand transport; bike share schemes, autonomous electric shuttles, etc.).

With the multimodal approach, Keolis offers transport solutions that are integrated to improve urban mobility and meet a wide range of passenger needs.

In France, Keolis Rennes has been responsible for operating the STAR network and its multimodal range of services that cater to the city region’s 43 municipalities and 413,000 inhabitants. This encompasses buses, metros, carpooling, on-demand transport and car parks, with a bike share service introduced in 2009.

In the east of the country, Keolis Dijon Multimodalité has been running all the transport services in the city since 1965. Today, these transport options include buses, trams, long and short-term bike hire, car sharing and on- and off-street parking.

Digital tech for connected multimodality

With digital tools, multimodality becomes simple and intuitive for passengers. Mobility as a Service (MaaS) apps  developed by Keolis allow passengers to plan their trip on their phone. Whatever modes of transport they choose, it only takes a few taps and clicks to check a route and timetables, find traffic information, and buy and validate a travel ticket.

In July 2024, Keolis Bordeaux Métropole Mobilités launched France’s first ever ‘level 3’ Maas application. This all-in-one app offers Greater Bordeaux’s residents and visitors the opportunity to plan, book, pay for and validate their journey and follow it in real time, whatever transport mode they use (bus, tram, bike and on-demand transport).

Nudging people to go multimodal

Keolis is a pioneer in the application of nudge theory in transport and has been testing a range of non-obtrusive incentive methods on its networks since 2021. The idea behind nudges is to influence passenger behaviour without making them feel forced or pressured. In Dijon, nudge signage was used effectively to increase multimodal habits. Coloured arrows and understandable pictograms encouraged passengers to shift across to transport solutions other than the tram, whose popularity had led to frequent overcrowding.