Travel account aggregation doesn’t give the whole picture

The definition of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) is not uniformly agreed in the transport and transit industry. In fact, on the subject of self-service account provision, there is a significant device. Many MaaS aggregation platform vendors and some transport authorities/regulators believe in the utopian vision of a single mobility account for all transport providers. Whereas the individual …

Enforcing data consistency in the Open Transport specification

As part of creating the Open Transport standard, we have considered how the data exchanged via the API will be enforced on an automatic and day-to-day basis (in other words, without human intervention).Our concern is that without any enforcement the standard wouldn’t be trusted and therefore might not gain the full adaption it needs to. …

How to make Delay Repay for Rail much easier with an Open Transport API

For those who are not familiar with the term “Delay Repay”, it is an existing scheme across UK rail operators to provide financial compensation when there is a delay to a customer’s journey.  (You can also get a refund if your train journey is cancelled) But, although Delay Repay is a national scheme, some train …

Deciding upon an Open Transport look-up service

The team who are busy creating the Open Trasport API standard have recently spent time discussing whether there is the need to have a look-up of reference data for the standard. An example of this data would be a list of participating transport operators and their account locations (e.g. URLs). Unlike the global banking system …

Building the Transport Account API Roadmap

Taking the decision to create an Open API specification for transport account interoperability was a great first step. However we also appreciate that: 1. We cannot build out a complete API instantly, as it needs consideration and input from a number of different people (ideally subject-matter-experts for each relevant mode of transport / mobility) 2. …

Creating a joined-up picture of customer mobility

Each time a person uses a transport service they can create a trail of data behind them. This trail is particularly rich when technology is used as either the medium for purchasing (e.g. a credit card or online payment service) or when used for the actual transportation (e.g. a ride sharing app, a smartcard, etc.). …

Updated Draft Open API Specification 0.2

Following recent contribution from transport subject-matter-experts (SMEs) and technical specialists, we have now update the draft API Specification. This draft is currently at version 0.2https://app.swaggerhub.com/apis/open-transport/p-customer-account/1.0.2 Note: This API Specification is not yet at a peer review stage. If you would like to be involved please contact us

Why every Transport Authority should support an Open API for account interoperability

We believe that the use of an Open transport API will facilitate the standardisation of digital account integration for transport providers. Which will in-turn help to bring true interoperability of data, such as ticketing/purchase and journey information. But the private sector transport cannot implement this initiative alone. It requires universal support to make the change …

How does an Open Transport API support the aims of MaaS?

Mobility-As-A-Service (“MaaS”) is the concept that users of transport or transit services migrate away from personally owned means of transportation and adopt an on-demand & pay-per-use service instead. This shift in behaviour (and potentially billing) means a user can then choose their preferred trip based on: cost, time, environmental factors, convenience or a combination of …

What is the purpose of integrating Transport Accounts?

An Open Transport account standard can potentially be used for many different purposes (some of which we may not even know about yet). Some examples of account interoperability could include: Enable a customer to view the details of a joint rail & subway or a combined bus & ferry ticket Presentation of all transport permutations …