Last year, DfTs Bus Open Data programme consulted on its proposal to make the provision of bus fare data in an open way compulsory. While the industry eagerly awaits the outcome of that, Transport for the North, as Richard Mason’s closing keynote at TRANSPORT Smart Class, North of England 2019 revealed, are already cracking on with their plans to revolutionise the provision of fares information in the North of England. TfN hopes to set the industry standard and are actually developing a Fares Data Build Tool in partnership with both the DfT and Traveline. It will be delivered first in the North, with potential to scale it nationally. Importantly, TfNs scope is more than just bus. Fares data needs to be simple and transparent across all modes of public transport – tram, light rail, ferry and bus. TfN’s proposed tool, Richard explained, will standardise all public transport data into the NeTEx format – the European technical standard for exchanging public transport information. The tool will then work in tandem with TfN’s Open Data Hub to make the information deliverable to passengers. In layman’s terms, this will help make multi-operator fares information more easily shareable, accessible and understandable for passengers in the North.
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