November 15th 2019

All your sustainable transport in one app with Hely

Hely was founded by NS in early 2018 and offers partial transport in Amsterdam, Delft, The Hague, Haarlem, Rotterdam and Utrecht. Hely’s activities go hand in hand with those of Next Urban Mobility, a similar initiative of Pon with mobility solutions for companies and individuals in Utrecht, The Hague and Amsterdam. The combination, which will be merged under the name Hely, aims to make the use of partial transport as easy as that of a private car or bicycle.

Wide range Despite the many suppliers of electric shared cars, shared bicycles and other forms of sustainable partial transport, their use is still relatively low. Hely wants to make this use easier by offering a wide range of vehicles from different mobility providers, with only one subscription. The various means of transport are available in a nearby hub. The Hely app allows users to book, use and pay for transport. Tailored to what they need at that moment.

Growing mobility, less space Cars are often at a standstill for a large part of the time, are a significant cost for car owners and take up a lot of parking space. In new housing developments, less parking space is provided to make more room for green spaces. A shared car can replace more than ten private cars. Moreover, an electric bicycle or e-scooter is often better suited to shorter journeys in congested cities. With growing mobility and increasingly scarce space, municipalities, businesses and project developers are therefore looking for solutions to make mobility more sustainable, improve quality of life and offer travelers flexibility.

Complete mobility solutions Tjalling Smit, NS Board of Directors: “NS wants to give passengers easy access to mobility. Our aim is not only to offer a good train journey from station to station but also to contribute to the accessibility of the Netherlands. Hundreds of thousands of passengers are already enjoying using the public transport bicycle. With Hely, we go a step further and provide complete mobility solutions that make life easier for travelers and improve the quality of life in neighborhoods. By joining forces with Pon, we are bringing the advantages of a car and public transport together.”

Mobility of the future Janus Smalbraak, CEO of Pon Holdings B.V.: “Thanks to our many years of experience in passenger transport, we know how and when people want to travel and which means of transport suits them. With Hely, we can accelerate the development of sustainable transport, simply by doing it. With our knowledge of car and bicycle use and our knowledge of the public transport passenger of NS as the largest transport operator in the Netherlands, we expect to be able to respond even better to the needs of passengers and to make a contribution to the mobility of the future.”

Specific groups Hely first focuses on hubs for specific groups of users, such as the residents of a neighborhood or the employees of a company. Hely plans to open 30 to 40 new hubs in the major cities in the coming months. Public hubs will also be developed at a later date, for example at railway stations.

The proposed decision by NS and Pon is subject to the suspensive condition of approval by the relevant competition authority.