Data on passenger flows are necessary for a good insight into the use of public transport by the traveler. In this way, mobility policy can be better shaped, both for public transport itself and for the connection with other transport modalities. The latter can also include the development of new products and services for door-to-door travel such as MaaS.

Currently, this information is only available on request from the concessionaires. The House of Representatives was previously informed about the intention to draw up an outline memorandum on possible regulations to make information about passenger flows more accessible. The State Secretary Vivianne Heijnen intends to impose an active and passive publication obligation for concession holders of information about passenger flows within the limits of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Competition Act.

The active publication obligation relates to the publication of figures on passenger kilometers and numbers, the number of passengers getting on and off the train at stations and stops, as well as numbers on the origin and destination of travelers. The passive publication obligation relates to specific information that cannot all be included in the active publication obligation and for which an application must be submitted to the concession holders. The proposed legislation consists of two phases.

The first phase is a regulation in the Passenger Transport Decree 2000 that obliges individual concessionaires to make information about passenger flows available for each concession. The second phase is an amendment to the Passenger Transport Act 2000 to make cooperation across concession boundaries mandatory for the provision of regional and national information on passenger flows. Heijnen of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management aims to have these regulations come into effect within two years.