The 'Metroliners' arrive: you can now charge your scooter with the metro's braking

The electrification of urban, community, and individual transport in cities like Barcelona implies the adaptation of safe circulation routes, parking lots, and optimal charging points. And planning all that sustainable mobility by taking advantage of the synergies between the different systems involved makes it much more intelligent.

This is what Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) is demonstrating at the Ciutadella-Vila Olímpica metro station, where it has installed 9 lockers to store electric scooters and charge their batteries with the energy generated by the braking of the convoys. This recovers a train force that would otherwise be lost. "It is another example of the commitment to self-consumption: the recovery of surplus energy that is lost in the metro service's own activity," specifies TMB president, Laia Bonet. The initiative, named Metrolinera, is part of the Metro and Bus Energy Efficiency and Saving Plan presented by the public company. The lockers allow users to combine the use of personal electric vehicles and public transport in their journeys, knowing that they can leave the scooter in a safe place and also recharge it.

In addition to the Ciutadella-Vila Olímpica station, there are already two more points in the city of Barcelona where this smart locker service is offered. These are the Ciutat de la Justícia, where there are two installations, with 6 and 4 lockers respectively, and the L'illa Diagonal shopping center, also equipped with two locations, with 5 lockers in each.

To access this service, users must download the mobile application app.mylock.es, which allows them to locate the places where the lockers are located and, once there, on its digital screen, one of the three available rates is selected: for short (1.80€/h), medium (0.90€/h) or long (0.45€/h) custody, which is charged by the minute. With the QR that will appear in the mobile app, the locker is opened and closed. The brain that makes it possible is the software created by engineers Iban Xirau, Roger Comas, and Idan Anidjar, and economist Marc Aguiló from MyLock, a startup conceived in Barcelona Activa.

Moving with freedom

Smart solutions for new mobility is the company's motto, which, without the support of external investors or funding rounds, with only 25,000 euros of capital contributed by the partners themselves, develops a business model with two differentiated lines. On the one hand, they look for locations in private or public spaces, such as transport stations, shopping centers, libraries, cinemas or universities, where they agree with their managers to install modular lockers that serve their clients, students or passengers, and it is the users of the lockers who pay for the minutes of use.

The other business line is the one MyLock closes with companies, gyms, coworkings or offices that buy the lockers and, monthly, pay for maintenance and software license. "In May of this year we took the first step outside Catalonia with the installation of 60 lockers in two coworkings in Marbella, and last month we installed another 150 distributed in 8 modules in different offices in the capital of Armenia, Yerevan," explains Xirau. With three upcoming installations in Georgia, Malta and Madrid, with orders for 250, 120 and 650 lockers, the revenue forecast for the end of this year is expected to reach 100,000 euros.

The four partners, who complete their team with two more professionals in the design and marketing area, would also like to explore the installation of their lockers as a package collection point, in collaboration with courier and online commerce companies. "We only need the locations. For example, if we did it with a chain of stores or supermarkets, locating collection lockers in a space in their stores could lead to taking advantage of a shipment collection to enter and shop in their establishment," explains MyLock co-founder, Iban Xirau.

The software they have created allows them to customize the application to offer promotions or discount coupons to specific groups, adapt it to user fingerprint recognition, or other customer demands. The other sector they would like to land in is tourist luggage who, with lockers like theirs, can free themselves from suitcases and purchases to enjoy more agile mobility and make better use of their time, in Barcelona, or in any of the destinations where they can implement this other service.