This week we broke cover on what we have recently done for the Smart Data Challenge.

At the Smartex Limited Ticketing Card Forum [TCF] in Cardiff on Wednesday 24th September Hayden Sutherland demonstrated our Open Transport Smart Data Dashboard product to an audience of industry experts.

If you would like to see this product in action… contact us.

Open Transport is passionate about communicating our aims and activities. We have therefore created a monthly ‘Smart Data 4 Transport” (online) meeting that invites senior representatives from UK Government, including Department for Business & Trade, Department for Transport and Crown Commercial Service, as well as data and transport industry specialists and stakeholders such as ITS UK and The Open Data Institute.

This forum provides a consistent and transparent way of giving members of the transport & mobility sector and associated interested parties oversight on the progress of our work on the Smart Data Challenge and our plans for full Smart Data scheme adoption. It is also useful as a means of communicating any wider Smart Data ecosystem news and updates.

If you are interested in attending this call, please contact us:
contact@opentransport.co.uk

The Open Transport Initiative is one of 10 finalists in the Smart Data Challenge.

Our prototype application uses multiple sources of transport and journey data, consumer financial data and open data around CO2 emissions of transport modes to create the first working personalised transport data dashboard for customers, to make informed, efficient travel decisions while minimising environmental impact.

The application is can be found at: https://www.opentransport.org/

If you would like more information contact@opentransport.co.uk

This week we have been busy migrating our Open APIs to a different account. This means that the URLs have changed, some contact information has changed and therefore we have incremented both versions for complete traceability and transparency:

Old versions

Operator API
https://app.swaggerhub.com/apis/open-transport/operator-info/1.1.0

Customer API
https://app.swaggerhub.com/apis/open-transport/customer-account/1.0.2

New versions

Operator API
https://app.swaggerhub.com/apis/opentransport/operator-info/1.1.1

Customer API
https://app.swaggerhub.com/apis/opentransport/customer-account/1.0.3/

Notes:

1. There are no other changes (breaking or otherwise) created as a consequence of this change
2. We have also changed the URLs on our API web page to reference the new versions: https://opentransport.co.uk/open-standard/

We will also soon be closing down the old account and the new ones will be the only versions available.

As always…

Amendment process:
If anyone would like to consider any additions or changes to these, please see our published amendment process:
https://opentransport.co.uk/2020/02/03/amendment-process-for-our-open-standards/

Usage policy:
Both API specifications are published as Open Standards using the Apache 2.0 license. This means our work is free for anyone to use, copy and even change (as long as an accompanying Apache 2.0 license is used, the work of The Open Transport is clearly attributed and any modifications are explained)

The Smart Data Challenge Prize was announced in January 2025 and has sought to find teams that can:

Identify Smart Data use cases that utilise multiple datasets from sectors across the economy, and build prototypes, demonstrating their market feasibility and potential to deliver real-world benefits for consumers and businesses (pending implementation of Smart Data schemes).
Smart Data Challenge website

Open Transport has been announced as one of ten finalists, each receiving £50,000 in grant funding to utilise multiple datasets from sectors across the economy, and build prototypes, demonstrating their market feasibility and potential to deliver real-world benefits for consumers and businesses.

Our own proposal seeks to use multiple sources of transport and journey data, consumer financial data and open data around CO2 emissions of transport modes to create the first working personalised transport data dashboard for customers, to make informed, efficient travel decisions while minimising environmental impact.

You can read more about it here.

Context:

The Smart Data 4 Transport meeting held on April 1, 2025, brought together key stakeholders from various sectors, including transport, data governance, and procurement. The discussion focused on the implementation and implications of Smart Data initiatives in the transport sector, particularly in relation to the ongoing Data Use and Access Bill and the Smart Data Challenge. Participants included representatives from public & private sector, and the Open Transport Initiative Advisory Board.

Agenda:

The meeting covered several main topics, including:

• Introductions of participants and their roles.
• Overview of smart data and its distinction from open data and smart ticketing.
• Updates on the Data Use and Access Bill and its implications for the transport sector.
• Discussion of the Smart Data Challenge and the submission made by the Open Transport Initiative.
• Future plans for the Smart Data Forum and governance models for smart data schemes.

Key Figures:

• 27.8 billion: Estimated GDP value across UK from Smart Data
• £600,000: Total prize pool for the Smart Data Challenge.
• £50,000: Individual prize amounts available through the Department of Business and Trade for demonstrating cross-sector Smart Data use cases.

Topics discussed:

1. Understanding Smart Data:
   Hayden Sutherland provided a definition of Smart Data, emphasizing that it involves secure sharing of customer data with their permission, contrasting it with Open Data, which is freely available under open licenses. Smart data is not to be confused with smart ticketing, which involves payment methods for transport.
   
2. Data Use and Access Bill:
   The Data Use and Access Bill is currently in its report stage and aims to extend the principles of Open Banking to other sectors, including transport. The bill will enable the establishment of smart data schemes across various industries, requiring secondary legislation for specific implementations.
   https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3825
   
3. Smart Data Challenge:
   • The Smart Data Challenge, which ran from January 15 to March 14, 2025, aimed to identify and develop smart data use cases. The finalists will be announced in May.
   • Open Transport Initiative’s submission was discussed, which focuses on integrating Smart Data with Open Banking data to demonstrate interoperability and customer data sharing, linked with CO2 data.
     https://smartdata.challenges.org/
     
4. Governance Models for Smart Data:
   The meeting touched on the need for effective governance models for smart data schemes and recent cross-sector interviews being conducted.
   
5. Challenges Identified:
   • The fragmented nature of the transport sector, where multiple payment methods and data sources exist, complicates the integration of smart data.
   • The need to ensure that the system accommodates various user demographics, including those who rely on cash transactions or have limited access to banking or transports & mobility accounts (e.g. younger or older people)
     
6. Future Implications:
   The discussion highlighted the importance of anticipating future regulatory changes and designing systems that are compliant with GDPR and other data protection regulations.

In conclusion, the meeting underscored the potential of Smart Data to transform the transport sector by enabling secure, user-centric data sharing and fostering innovation through reducing barriers to entry. The upcoming Smart Data Forum and continued engagement with stakeholders will be crucial in advancing these initiatives, but participants agreed that the introduction of such a scheme would be a long-term initiative.

The Smart Data roadmap (published 11 months ago by the previous UK Government) outlined the “Next steps to creating a Smart Data economy in the UK in banking, energy, finance, home buying, retail, telecommunications and transport“. It also identified the transport sector at the earliest stage of Smart Data Scheme Development: Identification

So currently the travelling customer lacks a unified way to accurately consolidate, view and use their transport data across multiple, or even single, modes of transport. Nor can they integrate granular travel data into existing Smart Data services, such as Open Banking.

This lack of integration and interoperability results in insufficient information at all levels, hindering the customer’s decision making, limiting their travel choices (which could be cheaper, faster, more qualitative or greener transportation) and minimising the potential for journey personalisation.

Why?

Well the fragmented, nebulous* and often deregulated nature of the transport sector makes it one of the most complex to implement. Also, the monopolistic practices of some large transport technology providers are helping to lock-in their customers, assisted by their use of bespoke integrations and proprietary standards.

The Open Transport Initiative was specially set-up to create and support the adoption of customer account data sharing (AKA “Smart Data”) across the transport & mobility sector. We believe that the implementation of shared & interoperable account data across all providers and modes will enables individual consumers and small businesses to access and share their data simply and securely with trusted, authorised third parties [ATPs] who can offer innovative services to them.

* what modes of transportation are actually transport or mobility?
Walking, car parking, cable cars?
Hint: Yes to all the above!

Today was a further meeting of the “Smart Data 4 Transport” group, which launched back in December 2024.

The topics of the group this month were:

• Brief introductions from group members
• A recap on the term Smart Data and where this sits on the Data Spectrum
• An update on the Smart Data Challenge launched in January 2025
• An overview of the Smart Data Forum in London, planned for June 2025
• An update on the progress of the Data (Use and Access) Bill through parliament

If you would like to be included in future meetings. please let us know:
contact@opentransport.co.uk