The government is examining whether Smart Data – meaning a framework that enables data holders to share data securely and in a standardised way – could help tackle long-standing barriers to data sharing across the transport sector, with the aim of improving journey planning, ticketing, freight operations and network management

https://www.interchange-uk.com/news/government-explores-smart-data-schemes-to-improve-transport-services-and-integration

“Better Connected: a strategy for integrated transport” a document published on 2 April 2026 by the Department for Transport [DfT] outlines the government’s long-term transport strategy for people in England.

In the section titled ‘Champion data and technology’ there is specific mention of Smart Data

“New market opportunities are arising too, with the Industrial Strategy recognising the importance of Smart Data, the secure, consented sharing of customer data with authorised third-party providers, to ensure businesses get more for their money and empower customers to make better use of the data that belongs to them. We will work with other government departments to utilise the £36 million investment set out in the Industrial Strategy to showcase the potential of Smart Data in transport.”

You can read the whole document here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/better-connected-a-strategy-for-integrated-transport

This week saw Hayden presenting at Transport Ticketing Global 2026 on the topic of:

“From Open Banking to Open Transport … Smart Data”

And then be part of a panel on future payment methods & financial approaches.

There was good attendance and a great subsequent discussion on the use cases and benefits of: Stablecoin, Central Digital Bank Currency [CDBC] and Open Banking.

Last week we held another of the ‘Smart Data 4 Transport’ group of organisations interested in Smart Data across the transport & mobility sector.

Key dates for Transport & Smart Data community are:

17 March 2026
Transport Ticketing Global:
“From Open Banking to Open Transport – Smart Data and Customer Data”

May / June 2026
Next in-person meeting – London or York?

Summer 2026
Smart Data Forum 2026
https://www.smartdataforum.org/sdf2026/

This week was first in-person meeting of the ‘Smart Data 4 Transport’ group of organisations interested in Smart Data across the transport & mobility sector.

Topics covered included:

• Welcome & introductions
• Smart Data definitions
• Wider Smart Data ecosystem news
• Smart Data Challenge – update
• Open Transport Advisory Board
• ODI update
• Future dates for diaries

Our next virtual meeting will take place at 11:00 on 5 March 2026.

If you would like to participate, please contact us: contact@opentransport.co.uk

In the Startup Coalition’s recent report, “License to Share: Maximising the value of data in the UK’s transport sector,” the Open Transport Initiative is highlighted as a key industry-led effort to standardize data sharing within the transport sector.

This paper, which explores how the Government can bring Smart Data to life in the UK, outlines our efforts in transport & mobility account data standardization and interoperability.

It specifically mentions our work in creating a common and open API specification for data exchange between different transport operators, local authorities, and mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) providers.

It also outlines the next Steps for an Open Transport Scheme as:

“Open Transport is an aspirational goal – but a significant amount of work would be required to identify the exact data sets, and data owners, required to make the scheme a success. Therefore, a first step would be for the Government to launch a call for evidence, focused on train ticketing.”

Last week the UK Chancellor announced a new driving tax in the Budget. Introduced from April 2028, pay per mile / pay-as-you-drive / road charging (or whatever it is eventually officially called) will mean that electric vehicle [EV] drivers will have a charge of 3p per mile, while plug-in hybrid drivers will pay 1.5p per mile.

Further clarification subsequently from The Treasury is that mileage will be checked every year, potentially at the MOT test and integrated into the existing DVLA Vehicle Excise Duty (car tax) system. However, the government is now consulting on exactly how the scheme will work. As in many cases, this annual total (current mileage minus last year’s mileage)

Take for example the following scenarios:

• Person A
  Leases a new electric car and returns it in 2 years (many company car schemes now allow staff to swap their vehicle every 24 months). Since the MOT test takes place when the vehicle is 3 years old and then annually… this person may never see an MOT tester.
• Person B
  Takes their hybrid vehicle out of the UK for a while – e.g. they live in Ireland and frequently drive between Northern Ireland and The Republic of Ireland. Meaning they only drive about 50% on UK roads
• Person C
  Buys a second-hand electric car a month before its MOT is due and which has done a high milage in the previous 11 months.
• Person 4
  Has their hybrid vehicle stolen and driven without their consent for a period of time. When it is eventually returned to them, it has a higher mileage.
• Person 5
  Scraps their electric vehicle mid-year

In each of these cases, it is likely that the owner (AKA the registered keeper) could be presented will an annual bill different to their actual usage of their vehicle or even no bill.

Plus, there’s the additional consideration that billing someone annually for all distance covered could present them with a large bill once a year – when currently the HMRC, TV licensing and even the DVLA themselves allow you to pay by smaller increments (e.g. monthly for your car tax).

However, we think that any UK-wide vehicle tracking and charging mechanism can be made more accurate and fairer by the introduction of a vehicle-based Smart Data sharing scheme.

How?

Well imagine the following…

1. A centralised online service where a vehicle owner could register and associate themselves with their vehicle (s).
2. A secure online account where they could easily view and / or save driving all data. E.g. journeys made, duration & time of day and maybe even the types of roads driven (motorways, a-roads, etc.)
3. An online payment service, where users could pay regularly (e.g. monthly) or when they chose, plus even the ability to credit their account – in the say way that some people top-up phones or pre-pay for their travel using Account-Based-Ticketing [ABT] or Mobility-as-a-Service [MaaS] schemes.
   (Perhaps paying for their car tax or even driving fines in the future?)
4. A way to consistently link this service with different accounts from other transport providers and modes of transport (e.g. rail, bus, metro, etc.) as well as potentially to their bank account via Open Banking (e.g. to associate driving with related fuel purchases, toll charges, previous payments, etc.).
5. A data-driven recommendation engine that could suggest alternative & more fuel-efficient routes (for hybrids), different or cheaper modes and even more scenic drives in the future.

This may seem like some utopian technology dream, but this is all possible using Smart Data, agreed standards for interoperability and a common way to share specific transport data.

Such a scheme would need to be implemented over the next 2 or so years to meet the planned April 2028 introduction date. But doing this is not that difficult, as a lot of the functionality described above has already been designed & developed… by us.

The UK is on the cusp of a significant transport data revolution. The Open Transport Initiative, dubbed the “Open Banking for transport,” aims to leverage user-permissioned, interoperable data to unlock over £1.5 billion* in national value annually. This push for a Transport Smart Data scheme across the entire UK means a fundamental step change in efficiency, user experience, and the fight against carbon emissions across the nation’s transport network.

Despite the immense potential of such a scheme (touching 60 million travellers and nearly 800 billion passenger kilometres each year) the UK transport sector remains incredibly fragmented. Unlike financial services, our sector’s data:

1. Operates in silos (typically locked by both the mode of travel and the initial technology choices made by a handful of large system suppliers)
2. Lacks unified and adopted standards for interoperable customer account sharing**
3. fails to comply with the mandatory requirement for GDPOR data portability.

This all makes system integration difficult, limits commercial confidence and creates significant barriers to market entry.

We want to change that!

The article written our own Marcus Mayers in Cities Today explains further what we are up against and our plans:
https://cities-today.com/uk-push-for-open-banking-for-transport-aims-to-unlock-1-5bn/

*The estimated £1.5 billion annual value comes from potential outcomes like: lower commuter costs, reduced emissions, and improved accessibility. For example, achieving just a two percent shift from car to rail could cut 1.6 million tonnes of emissions yearly, while a one percent network efficiency gain could save around £1 billion.

** Although we have created and published our own free Open API Specification for Customer data sharing to help such adoption: https://opentransport.co.uk/open-standard/

Use Cases are a helpful way of making things more understandable (especially technical solutions). We therefore often get asked for different Use Cases for our work, so we created the following examples:

• UC1 : Consolidated Mobility Dashboard
  • UC1.1 : My Transport CO2
  • UC1.2 : My Transport CO2 + Actionable Insights
• UC2 : Interoperable Transport Discounts
• UC3 : Interoperable Vehicle Telematics
• UC4 : Freight Tachograph Interoperability
• UC5 : Automatic Multi-Modal Delay Repay

You can also see our short video explaining these example Use Cases in more detail.

From the start or our work to standardise customer transport account data sharing, we have created a common definition of a modes of transport.

The 16 modes we currently recognise are:

1. on foot
   for complete end-to-end journey mapping
2. cycle
   includes both human-powered pedal cycle and ebike, typically rented or shared but also possibly privately owned for complete end-to-end journey mapping
3. moped & motorbike
   shared & privately-owned self-powered vehicles, for complete end-to-end journey mapping
4. scooter
   includes human and electric/battery powered where passenger steps in/on
5. other micro-mobility
   includes Segway and any motorised self-balancing personal platform and also electric unicycles
6. car
   includes any vehicle where the driver is also a passenger, such as: car / van vehicle rental, car pool & car club
7. bus
   includes any vehicle typically greater than 8 seats.. such as a mini bus
8. tram
   includes any guided vehicle such as a streetcar and also trolleybuses that are limited by overhead power lines
9. metro & subway
   includes any light rail transit and their interconnecting systems
10. train
    includes local overground services, funiculars, intercity, Eurostar / TGV, etc.
11. water bus
    includes river buses, typically just passenger service, typically with multiple stops e.g. Thames Clipper
12. water ferry
    includes passenger only and also passenger & vehicle water-based transport
13. air
    includes aeroplane, helicopter, etc.
14. car parking
    includes on-street & off-street
15. taxi
    includes any non-commercial vehicle where the driver is NOT a passenger
16. suspended cable car
    includes any aerial cable cars, such as London “Emirates Air Line” and New York Roosevelt Island Tramway