Challenges to inclusive mobility as a service: Findings from a stakeholder workshop in Lisbon

• Stakeholder-driven insights reveal governance and inter-municipal coordination as the paramount barrier to inclusive MaaS in Lisbon. • Participatory workshops uncover critical, context-specific mismatches between public governance priorities and private sector business models. • Barriers and requirements are deeply interdependent; weak governance undermines digital integration and exacerbates socio-territorial inequalities. • The study moves beyond generic barriers, providing a situated analysis of imp. • Findings caution that without proactive equity measures, MaaS rollout risks reinforcing existing spatial and social disparities. Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is widely discussed as a strategy to promote more sustainable and integrated mobility systems. However, its potential to reduce socio-territorial inequalities remains uncertain. While the literature identifies structural barriers, such as governance fragmentation, digital integration challenges, and financial viability, these analyses often remain at a general level. To complement these insights, we adopted a participatory workshop as a methodology, with stakeholders from the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, including operators, service providers, municipalities, authorities, and users. The discussions revealed how different actors interpret and prioritize barriers, exposing mismatches between institutional roles, coordination difficulties, and unequal digital and operational capacities. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the implementation of inclusive MaaS through the perspectives of those directly involved. The results not only align with the literature but also add contextualized dimensions related to leadership gaps, inter-municipal cooperation, and territorial disparities. Although focused on Lisbon, the insights may inform future approaches to MaaS implementation in other metropolitan contexts.