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18 Railway Traffic Information

18.1 Overview of service

18.1.1 Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) context

Railways have been in existence for many centuries. Primitive wagonways developed, often to transport coal from mines to the nearest rivers. By the late 1700s these had cast-iron plateways to reduce rolling resistance so that a horse could pull heavier loads and to act as guides.

The invention of the steam engine heralded the railway and transport revolution, changing the face of the world forever. In 1825 the Stockton & Darlington Railway, was built to link collieries near Shildon to the River Tees at Stockton via Darlington, in England was the world’s first public railway to use steam locomotives. It was authorised to use “moveable engines” and for the “carriage of passengers”. On 27th September 1825, Locomotion hauled a passenger-carrying steam train on a public railway for the first time in the world.

Standardisation became the key. The core building blocks for the future digitisation of information about rail travel were geographical referencing, a structured description of the movement of trains referring to this referencing and the means of purchasing travel, ideally across ownership and geographical boundaries. From the start railways were referenced, using a similar methodology to the mileposts and milestones associated with roads going back to Roman times. For the internal purposes of the sector this was perfectly acceptable, however it was to cause issues when it became desirable to associate the railway and notably the station, to the towns and villages that they served.

With the significant decrease in travel times having different time zones across a single country became impractical; for instance, Bristol which is 171 Km east of London noon is 11 minutes behind. Coming to a universal time across distance was the key to both operations and passenger information; a first example of standardisation. Equally there was a push in the 19th Century to standardise the gauge of track at 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1 ⁄ 2 in); this is generally the same across Europe for all conventional train systems, but of course there are exceptions.

With the advent of trains that crossed boarder in Europe standardisation is now key to all operations of the railway systems.

18.1.2 The scope of Railway Traffic Information

The scope of Railway Traffic Information is confined in an Intelligent Transport System to information to railway passengers. This information is drawn from timetables, fare tables, real time from the operation of the railway systems, (signalling, equipment types etc.), and other information/data. The scope of this piece does not include data on the operation and safety of the system if it is not used for passenger information; no information is provided for freight operations save where it impacts passenger services.

“Railway” includes all forms of rail guided transport from trams, light rail, metros, suburban rail services, longer distance heavy rail through to international long-distance high-speed rail.

18.1.3 Pre-trip services

For a passenger planning a trip which might involve both different modes of transport and indeed different organisations offering the same mode of transport. A trip is likely to involve combining the information from a number of timetables. This is nothing new, for instance in the 1800s in the UK George Bradshaw published timetables from the multitude of railway companies to allow a journey to be planned; the timetables were published monthly and grew to include some European services.

Naturally there are a plethora of different fares and fare types which must be considered if an optimal journey in terms of time and cost can be considered. Hence any pre-trip journey planning system need to contain timetables and fares in a manner which they can be used; standards enable this. Of course, things can change right up to and during a trip so that trip planner will be used to recast the trip in real-time when things change.

18.1.4 On-trip services

Once a journey has been planned and the optimum fare obtained it is vital that information on the running of a particular service element is available in a way that can assist the traveller.

The traveller in this case may not be familiar with the route choices or be a regular or frequent traveller on the route and so be able to make optimal choices within the fare restrictions in the case of disruptions. The optimal choice might be to change modes entirely.

18.1.5 Post-trip services

There will be occasions when historical information on performance of the trip elements are necessary to facilitate such things as compensation when things go wrong such as missed connections or significant delays. This post-trip information needs to be in an accessible form to allow easily navigable systems of claiming refunds.

18.2 Stakeholders/actors

18.2.1` Context

There are many actors in the standardisation of Railway Traffic Information services and the collection and collation of the data that feeds the passenger information services. These organisations are often interconnected, and it is difficult to establish a clear view of the hierarchy and authority in each area. The actors are often a mixture of public, public and private and private organisations. There are a number ISO, CEN and CENELEC committees that set standards in the Rail Traffic Information Area; these committees do take standards developed by the other organisations and take them forward to formal standardisation.

18.2.2 Standards bodies involved in Railway Traffic Information

18.2.2.1 CEN/TC278 Intelligent transport Systems

CEN/TC 278 is responsible for managing the preparation of standards in the field of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) in Europe. It serves as a platform for European stakeholders to exchange knowledge, information, best practices and experiences in ITS. ITS Standards TC278. The term Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) refers to efforts to collect, store and provide real-time traffic information to maximize the utilisation efficiency, provide convenient safe transport, and reduce energy by applying advanced electronics, information and telecommunication technologies into roads, automobiles and goods.

It is fair to say that CEN/TC278 historically has concentrated on ITS for roads except where rail impinges in the public transport sector.

Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) can significantly contribute to a cleaner, safer and more efficient transport system. Consequently, ITS have become the focus of a number of policy and legislative initiatives in Europe.

The European Commission has laid down the legal framework in order to accelerate the deployment of these innovative transport technologies across Europe. Furthermore, the European Commission has requested the European Standards Organizations to develop and adopt European standards in support of this legal framework. Not surprisingly there is considerable activity in this area by the standards organizations CEN, CENELEC and ETSI.

CEN/TC278 in particular its Working Group 3 (Public Transport) has 23 standards (EN, TS and TR) that are related to rail. There are none that relate to rail exclusively as they relate to public transport in general. Most of these standards are discussed in the Public Transport section of this EU-ICP document as they relate to road transport applications as well.

The WG3 family of standards that can relate to Railway Traffic Information are:

18.2.2.1.1 Transmodel

Transmodel-cen.eu is a dedicated website for EN 12896 covering both the 2006 version (Transmodel V5.1) and the new, not yet published, multipart version (Transmodel V6). The architecture is provided for download in HTML and Enterprise Architect formats.

LINK: Transmodel

Transmodel has a number of parts but standards some of which relate only to road vehicles. Standards relating to Railway Traffic Information are:

18.2.2.1.1.1 EN 12896-1:2016 Public transport - Reference data model - Part 1: Common concepts

LINK: EN 12896-1:2016

This part of the Transmodel standard introduces the series and provides a link to NeTEx and SIRI.

18.2.2.1.1.2 EN 12896-2:2016 Public transport - Reference data model - Part 2: Public transport network

LINK: EN 12896-2:2016

This part of the Transmodel standard concerns the public transport network model.

18.2.2.1.1.3 EN 12896-3:2016 Public transport - Reference data model - Part 3: Timing information and vehicle scheduling

LINK: EN 12896-3:2016

This part of the Transmodel standard concerns the timing information and scheduling. This is not necessarily relevant for Railway Traffic Data save that it may introduce data items that could be used.

18.2.2.1.1.4 EN 12896-4:2019 Public transport - Reference data model - Part 4: Operations monitoring and control

LINK: EN 12896-4:2019

This part of the Transmodel standard concerns the operation of a public transport mode. This is not necessarily relevant for Railway Traffic Data save that it may introduce data items that could be used.

18.2.2.1.1.5 EN 12896-5:2019 Public transport - Reference data model - Part 5: Fare management

LINK: EN 12896-5:2019

This part of the Transmodel standard concerns the fare management in a public transport system. This is not necessarily relevant for Railway Traffic Data save that it may introduce data items that could be used.

18.2.2.1.1.6 EN 12896-6:2019 Public transport - Reference data model - Part 6: Passenger information

LINK: EN 12896-6:2019

This part of the Transmodel standard concerns passenger information. This is relevant for Railway Traffic Data in that it introduces data items that could be used.

18.2.2.1.1.7 EN 12896-8:2019 Public transport - Reference data model - Part 8: Management information & statistics

LINK: EN 12896-8:2019

This part of the Transmodel standard concerns management information. This is relevant for Railway Traffic Data in that it introduces data items that could be used.

18.2.2.1.1.8 CEN TR 12896-9:2019 Public transport - Reference data model - Part 9: Informative documentation

A Technical Report with informative and didactical material to users

LINK: CEN TR 12896-9:2019

18.2.2.2 NeTEx

18.2.2.2.1 Context

LINK: www.netex-cen.eu

NeTEx is dedicated to the exchange of scheduled data (network, timetable and fare information). It is based on Transmodel V5.1 (EN 12896), IFOPT and SIRI (CEN TS 15531-4/5 and EN 15531-1/2/3 ) and supports the exchange of information.

NOTE NeTEx is a refinement and an implementation of Transmodel and IFOPT; the definitions and explanations of these concepts are extracted directly from the respective standard and reused in NeTEx, sometimes with adaptations in order to fit the NeTEx context. Although the data exchanges targeted by NeTEx are predominantly oriented towards provisioning passenger information systems and AVMS with data from transit scheduling systems, it is not restricted to this purpose and NeTEx can also provide an effective solution to many other use cases for transport data exchange.

18.2.2.2.2 CEN/TR 16959:2016 Public transport - Network and Timetable Exchange (NeTEx) - Examples, guidelines and explanatory materials

LINK: CEN/TR 16959:2016

This Technical Report provides a set of examples, white papers and explanatory material that makes it easy to understand how to use and deploy all parts of NeTEx. This will help EPTIS system providers and acquirers, providing functional scope, guidelines and terminology explanations needed to implement a system. It will also ease formalizing the requirements for the context of a procurement process. The NETEX parts follow:

18.2.2.2.3 CEN/TS 16614-1:2020 Public transport - Network and Timetable Exchange (NeTEx) - Part 1: Public transport network topology exchange format

LINK: CEN/TS 16614-1:2020

18.2.2.2.4 CEN/TS 16614-2:2020 Public transport - Network and Timetable Exchange (NeTEx) - Part 2: Public transport scheduled timetables exchange format

LINK CEN/TS 16614-2:2020

18.2.2.2.5 CEN/TS 16614-3:2020 Public transport - Network and Timetable Exchange (NeTEx) - Part 3: Public transport fares exchange format

LINK: CEN/TS 16614-3:2020

This Part3 of NeTEx, is specifically concerned with the exchange of fare structures and fare data, using data models that relate to the underlying network and timetable models defined in Part1 and Part 2 and the Fare Collection data model defined in Transmodel V51. See the use cases below for the overall scope of Part 3. In summary, it is concerned with data for the following purposes:

To describe the many various possible fare structures that arise in public transport (for example, flat fares, zonal fares, time dependent fares, distance-based fares, stage fares, pay as you go fares, season passes, etc., etc.).
(ii) To describe the fare products that may be purchased having these fare structures and to describe the conditions that may attach to particular fares, for example if restricted to specific groups of users, or subject to temporal restrictions. These conditions may be complex. To allow actual price data to be exchanged. Note however that NeTEx does not itself specify pricing algorithms or how fares should be calculated. This is the concern of Fare Management Systems. It may be used may be used to exchange various parameters required for pricing calculations that are needed to explain or justify a fare.
(iii) To include the attributes and the text descriptions necessary to present fares and their conditions of sale and use to the public. NeTEx should be regarded as being ‘upstream’ of retail systems and allows fare data to be managed and integrated with journey planning and network data in public facing information systems. It is complementary to and distinct from the ‘downstream’ ticketing and retail systems that sell fares and of the control systems that validate their use. See ‘Excluded Use Cases’ below for further information on the boundaries of NeTEx with Fare Management Systems.

All mass public transport modes are taken into account by NeTEx, including train, bus, coach, metro, tramway, ferry, and their submodes. It is possible to describe airports, air journeys, and air fares, but there has not been any specific consideration of any additional requirements that apply specifically to air transport.

18.2.2.2.6 CEN/TS 16614-4:2020 Public transport - Network and Timetable Exchange (NeTEx) - Part 4: Passenger Information European Profile

LINK: CEN/TS 16614-4:2020

This technical specification is a profile of CEN/TS 16614 series. It focuses on information relevant to feed passenger information services and excludes operational and fares information. NeTEx is dedicated to the exchange of scheduled data (network, timetable and fare information) based on Transmodel V6 (EN 12986) and SIRI (CEN/TS 15531-4/5 and EN 15531-1/2/3 ) ) and supports information exchange of relevance to public transport services for passenger information and AVMS systems.

As with most data exchange standards, defining subsets of data and dedicated rules for some specific use case is of great help for implementers and for the overall interoperability. This subset is usually called profile and this profile targets passenger information as only use case.

18.2.2.2.7 CEN/TR 16959:2016 Public transport - Network and Timetable Exchange (NeTEx) - Examples, guidelines and explanatory materials

LINK: CEN/TR 16959:2016

18.2.2.3 SIRI

18.2.2.3.1 Context

LINK: Siri

SIRI specifies a European interface standard for exchanging information about the planned, current or projected performance of real-time public transport operations between different computer systems.

18.2.2.3.2 EN 15531-1 Public transport - Service interface for real-time information relating to public transport operations - Part 1: Context and framework

LINK: EN 15531-1

Real-time information may be exchanged between a number of different organizations, or between different systems belonging to the same organization. Key interfaces include the following: - Between public transport vehicle control centres – generally, for fleet and network management. - Between a control centre and an information provision system – generally, to provide operational information for presentation to the public. - Between information provision systems – generally, sharing information to ensure that publicly available information is complete and comprehensive. - Between information provision systems – and data aggregation systems that collect and integrate data from many different sources and different types of data supplier and then distribute it onwards. - Between information provision systems and passenger information devices such as mobile phones, web browsers, etc.

The services separate the communication protocols from the message content (‘functional services’). This allows the same functional content to be exchanged using different transport mechanisms, and different patterns of exchange. Figure 1 below shows this diagrammatically. 1.1.2 SIRI communications SIRI provides a coherent set of functional services for exchanging data for different aspects of PT operation.

18.2.2.3.3 EN 15531-2 Public transport - Service interface for real-time information relating to public transport operations - Part 2: Communications

LINK: EN 15531-2

SIRI uses a consistent set of general communication protocols to exchange information between client and server. The same pattern of message exchange may be used to implement different specific functional interfaces as sets of concrete message content types. Two well-known specific patterns of client server interaction are used for data exchange in SIRI: Request/Response and Publish/Subscribe. — Request/Response allows for the ad hoc exchange of data on demand from the client. — Publish/Subscribe allows for the repeated asynchronous push of notifications and data to distribute events and Situations detected by a Real-time Service.

The use of the Publish/Subscribe pattern of interaction follows that described in the Publish-Subscribe Notification for Web Services (WS-PubSub) specification, and as far as possible, SIRI uses the same separation of concerns and common terminology for publish/subscribe concepts and interfaces as used in WS-PubSub. WS-PubSub breaks down the server part of the Publish/Subscribe pattern into a number of separate named roles and interfaces (for example, Subscriber, Publisher, Notification Producer, and Notification Consumer): in an actual SIRI implementation, certain of these distinct interfaces may be combined and provided by a single entity.

The delivery method may either be preconfigured and static for a given implementation, or each request or subscription may indicate the delivery method required by the client dynamically as part of the request policy, and the server may refuse a request if it does not support that method, giving an appropriate error code. The Interaction patterns and the Delivery patterns are independent aspects of the SIRI protocol and may be used in any combination in different implementations. For a given SIRI Functional Service type (Connection Monitoring, Stop Monitoring etc.), the message payload content is the same regardless of whether information is exchanged with a Request/Response or Publish/Subscribe pattern, or whether it is returned by Direct or Fetched Delivery. The SIRI Publish/Subscribe Protocol prescribes particular mediation behaviour for reducing the number of notifications and the amount of network traffic arising from subscriptions. The mediation groups the various subscriptions from a subscriber into one or more Subscriber Channels, and is able to manage notifications and updates for the aggregate. Only partial updates to the data set since the last delivery for the subscription need to be sent. The SIRI Communication protocols are designed to fail gracefully

18.2.2.3.4 EN 15531-3 Public transport - Service interface for real-time information relating to public transport operations - Part 3: Functional service interfaces

LINK: EN 15531-3

here are many potential ways for passenger transport operations centres to interact. The approach taken by SIRI is for an open-ended set of standard data structures, carried over a communications channel constructed using one of a small number of specific options. Part 2 of this European Standard specifies the communications channel. Part 3 specifies a number of functional modules, based on the ‘use cases’ identified in Annex B to Part 1: — Production Timetable (PT): this service enables the provision of information on the planned progress of vehicles operating a specific service, identified by the vehicle time of arrival and departure at specific stops on a planned route for a particular Operational Day. — Estimated Timetable (ET): this service enables the provision of information on the actual progress of Vehicle Journeys operating specific service lines, detailing expected arrival and departure times at specific stops on a planned route. There will be recorded data for stops which have been passed, and predicted data for stops not yet passed. In addition the Estimated Timetable service allows Vehicle Journeys to be cancelled, added or changed. — Stop Timetable (ST): this service provides a stop-centric view of timetabled vehicle arrivals and departures at a designated stop.

The distributor operator can plan how to guarantee the connection, either with the expected vehicle or a different vehicle. — Connection Monitoring (CM): this service is used to provide information about the expected arrival of a feeder vehicle to the operator of a connecting distributor service. The distributor operator can then manage the service to guarantee the connection, based on actual vehicle running. — General Message (GM): the SIRI "General Message” service is used to exchange informative messages between identified individuals in free or an arbitrary structured format. It enables messages to be sent and to be revoked. Messages are assigned validity periods in addition to the actual content.

18.2.2.3.5 CEN TS 15531-4:2021 Public transport - Service interface for real-time information relating to public transport operations - Part 4: Functional service interfaces: Facility Monitoring.

LINK: CEN TS 15531-4:2021

The SIRI Facility Monitoring service covers the exchange of information concerning the current status of facilities (corresponding to kind of Transmodel EQUIPMENT).

It provides a short description of the facility itself, the availability status and specifically the impact of the availability status for various categories of disabled or incapacitated people.

18.2.2.3.6 CEN TS 15531-5 Public transport ‐ Service interface for real‐time information relating to public transport operations ‐ Part 5: Functional service interfaces situation exchange: Situation Exchange

LINK: CEN TS 15531-5

The SIRI Situation Exchange service covers the exchange of information describing an incident, typically an unplanned event such as a disruption, but also planned events that affect public transport or its use, such as engineering works, or major public events that will affect the use or availability of transport. The SIRI-SX service was originally designed to be, as far as possible, consistent with the DATEX II and TPEG standards, which also include situation and public event representations.

18.2.2.2.4 OpRa

CEN/TR 17370:2019 Public transport - Operating raw data and statistics exchange

LINK: CEN/TR 17370:2019

The main focus of OpRa is the identification of Public Transport raw data to be exchanged, gathered and stored in order to support Study and Control of Pubic Transport Service.

The work continues to provide a CEN Technical Report, to document the results of an analysis to precisely define the scope of the following Technical Specification (TS) or European Norm (EN) definition work.

Particular attention on raw data identification is focused on actual and measured information, i.e. information which cannot be changed anymore in the future.

This information is mainly an output of the Transmodel (TRM) domains:

Part4: “Operations monitoring & control”; and,
Part 8: “Management Information and statistics“ focused on raw data for indicators calculation.

18.2.2.5 Other Relevant CEN/TC278 Standards

18.2.2.5.1 CEN/TS 17118:2017 Intelligent transport systems - Public transport - Open API for distributed journey planning

LINK: CEN/TS 17118:2017

This Technical Specification defines a schema for establishing an Open API for Distributed Journey Planning that can be implemented by any local, regional or national journey planning system in order to exchange journey planning information with any other participating local, regional or national journey planning system.

RTI 18.2 Stakeholders

RTI 18.1 Overview

18.2.3 CLC/TC9X Electrical and electronic applications for railways

18.2.3.1 Context

CLC/TC9X covers the standardisation of electrical and electronic systems, equipment and associated software for use in all railway applications, whether on vehicles or fixed installations, including urban transport.

LINK: CENELEC TC9X

CLC /TC9X Working Group 15 is mainly responsible for Liaison between CEN/TC278/WG3 and IEC/TC9/WG43&46 and Modtrain FIS.

Working group 15 has two subgroups:

WG15-01 - Workshop on railway ICT 2012; and,
WG15-06 ICT for Railways - 6th edition.

There are three standards relevant to Railway Traffic Information:

18.2.3.1.1 EN 62580-1:2016 Electronic railway equipment - On-board multimedia and telematic subsystems for railways - Part 1: General architecture.

LINK: EN 62580-1:2016

EN 62580-1:2016 specifies the general architecture of the On-board Multimedia and Telematic Subsystem (OMTS), which includes four categories of multimedia and telematic subsystems identified as: - Video surveillance/CCTV, - driver and crew orientated services, - passenger orientated services and - train operator and maintainer orientated services. This part establishes: - the boundary between the OMTS and the on-board communication system, as described by the IEC 61375 series, - the methodology to describe an OMTS in terms of abstract model, - the general principles and the basic requirements to specify the services provided/needed by each category, - the approach to ensure interoperability between services.

18.2.3.1.2 EN 62290-1:2006 Railway applications - Urban guided transport management and command/control systems - Part 1: System principles and fundamental concepts.

LINK: EN 62290-1:20066

EN 62290-1:20066 provides an introduction to the series of standards IEC 62290 and deals with the main concepts, the system definition, the principles and the main functions of Urban Guided Transport Management and Command/Control Systems (UGTMS).

18.2.3.1.3 EN 61375-1:2012 Electronic railway equipment - Train communication network (TCN) - Part 1: General architecture.

LINK: EN 61375-1:2012

EN 61375-1:2012 applies to the architecture of data communication systems in open trains, i.e. it covers the architecture of a communication system for the data communication between vehicles of the said open trains, the data communication within the vehicles and the data communication from train to the ground. The applicability of this part of IEC 61375 to the train network technologies allows for interoperability of individual vehicles within open trains in international traffic.

The main technical change of this new edition with regard to the previous edition consists of a new structure of the complete EN 61375 series. The EN 61275 series is in multiple parts, but later parts contain information on in-vehicle bus structures and testing.

18.2.4 IEC TC9 Electrical equipment and systems for railways

LINK: https://www.iec.ch/dyn/www/f?p=103:52:0::::FSP_ORG_ID,FSP_DOC_ID,FSP_DOC_PIECE_ID:1248,152250,280410

The IEC (International Electrotechnical Committee) Technical Committee - Electrical equipment and systems for railways prepares international standards for the railways field which includes rolling stock, fixed installations, management systems (including communication, signalling and processing systems) for railway operation, their interfaces and their ecological environment.

These standards:

cover railway networks, metropolitan transport networks (including metros, tramways, trolleybuses and fully automated transport systems) and magnetic levitated transport systems.
relate to systems, components and software and they will deal with electrical, electronic and mechanical aspects, the latter being limited to items depending on electrical factors.
deal with electromechanical and electronic aspects of power components as well as with electronic hardware and software components

The standards relevant Railway Traffic Information produced by IEC TC9 are in synchronism with those standards produced in CENELEC/TC9X namely the IEC 61375 – series and the IEC 62580 – series.

18.2.5 CEN/TC256 Railway applications

CEN/TC256 Railway applications is mainly concerned with the physical aspects of railways, the infrastructure and rolling stock.

LINK: CEN/TC256

There is one standard that is worth noting in the context of Railway Traffic Information.

EN 17355:2020 Railway applications - Communication device for urban rail - System requirements

LINK: EN 17355:2020

This document defines the following elements for urban rail rolling stock: - the functional requirements for a communication device between passengers and driver or operations control centre (OCC); - the dynamic behaviour of the communication device.

This document is applicable to the categories I to III of urban rail rolling stock defined in CEN/CLC Guide 26: - (I) Metros; - (II) Trams; - (III) Light Rail. NOTE 1 CEN/CLC Guide 26 defines metro, tram and light rail as public transport systems permanently guided at least by one rail, intended for the operation of local, urban and suburban passenger services with self-propelled vehicles and operated either segregated or not from general road and pedestrian traffic.

This document applies to urban rail rolling stock both with and without driver.

NOTE The communication device is different from the PAS, but it can share some parts of the PAS to achieve its functionalities.

NOTE The PAS is regarded as a safety relevant system whereas communication device is non-safety relevant aid to passengers.

18.2.6 ISO/TC204 Intelligent transport systems

18.2.6.1 Context

ISO/TC 204 is responsible for the overall system aspects and infrastructure aspects of intelligent transport systems (ITS). It standardises information, communication and control systems in the field of urban and rural surface transportation, including intermodal and multimodal aspects thereof, traveller information, traffic management, public transport, commercial transport, emergency services and commercial services in the intelligent transport systems (ITS) field.

LINK: ISO/TC204

ISO/TC204 conducts most of its public transport work in its WG8 - Public transport/emergency services. WG8 has 4 relevant standards with a number under development:

18.2.6.2 ISO/TR 24014-3:2013 Public transport — Interoperable fare management system — Part 3: Complementary concepts to Part 1 for multi-application media.

LINK: ISO TR 24014-3:2013

ISO/TR 24014-3:2013 describes how to implement Interoperable Fare Management (IFM) applications in a multi-application environment, and the additional roles and use cases that appear.

18.2.6.3 ISO 17185-1:2014 Intelligent transport systems — Public transport user information — Part 1: Standards framework for public information systems.

LINK: ISO 17185-1:2014

This Standard defines basic framework for user information provision for surface public transport users, from the viewpoint that the surface public transport users should be provided with proper static and real-time information when it is most desired and effective. In order to realize the desirable information provision, surface public transport information has to be efficiently gathered, processed, and provided to surface public transport users in an appropriate way by using currently available regional standards.

This Standard does not aim to define a new part of ISO 17185 that supersede current regional and national standards related to surface public transport. It aims to define the basic framework of surface public transport user information provision by esteeming existing regional standards and wisely using them.

This Standard does not aim to define specific information interfaces such as data format or a stop point numbering system. The currently available regional standards established by regional and national groups are suggested to be applied in that scope.

18.2.6.4 ISO 17185-2:2015 Intelligent transport systems — _Public transport user information — _Part 2: Public transport data and interface standards catalogue and cross references

LINK: ISO 17185-2:2015

ISO/TR 17185-2:2015 compares and contrasts public transport standards that were developed by different regions and countries. It uses the CEN Transmodel classes as a reference to compare standard data concept descriptions of public transport user information. The purpose of this Technical Report is to understand the concepts described by existing standards and specifications that cover public transport passenger information.

18.2.6.5 ISO 17185-3:2015 Intelligent transport systems — Public transport user information — Part 3: Use cases for journey planning systems and their interoperation

LINK: ISO 17185-3:2015

This Technical Report is to define high level general requirements of journey planning systems by standardizing use cases.

This part of ISO 17185 defines basic requirements for implementing the journey planning system, from the viewpoint that the public transport users should be provided with convenient tool to make his or her journey more efficient ones. In order to realize the desirable journey planning system, public transport information has to be efficiently processed and provided to public transport users in an appropriate way by using currently available regional standards.

This part of ISO 17185 does not standardize specific information interfaces such as data format or a stop point numbering system and so on, but currently available regional standards established by regional and national groups are suggested to be applied.

18.2.6.6 ISO/PWI TR 17185-5 Intelligent transport systems — Public transport user information — Part 5: Governance of mandatory public transport standards

LINK: under development

18.2.6.6 ISO/PWI TR 17185-6 Intelligent transport systems — Public transport user information — Part 6: Modelling stops and network topology

LINK: under development

18.2.6.7 ISO/PWI TR 17185-7 Intelligent transport systems — Public transport user information — Part 7: Conformance test of interoperable fare management system (24014-1)

LINK: under development

ISO/TC204 Working Group 10 – Traveller Information does contain a TPEG2 – Public Transport Information Services Work Item that may be of relevance.

18.2.6.8 ISO NP 21219-13 Intelligent transport systems — Traffic and travel information via transport protocol experts group, generation 2 (TPEG2) - Part 13: Public Transport Information Service (TPEG2-PTS)

LINK: under development

18.2.7 ISO/TC269 Railway Applications

LINK: ISO TC269

ISO/TC269 Standardization of all systems, products and services specifically related to the railway sector, including design, manufacture, construction, operation, and maintenance of parts and equipment, methods and technology, interfaces between infrastructure, vehicles and the environment, excluding those electrotechnical and electronic products and services for railways which are within the scope of IEC/TC 9.

All work in this area is undertaken in its SC3. Standardization of requirements and guidance relating to operations and services in the railway system and related equipment, which are required in and between railway stakeholders as well as at the technical interfaces between railway operators and railway users such as passengers and shippers in order to realize safe, reliable, convenient and sustainable railway transport.

At the time of writing (Jan 2021) here is only one standard under development that might be relevant to Railway Traffic Information.

ISO WD 24675 Railway Applications — Running time calculation for timetabling — Requirements

LINK: ISO WD 24675

18.2.8 ITU (International Telecommunications Union)

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for all matters related to information and communication technologies.

LINK: www.itu.int

It has a report which is updated frequently that gives an insight into communications in the Railway Sector. ITU-R M2442-0 (11/2019): Current and future usage of railway radiocommunication systems between train and trackside.

LINK: ITU-R M2442-0 (11/2019)

ITU-D SG 01 RAPPORTEUR GROUPS Contribution 37 - Best Practice Guidelines for the Transition to High-speed and High-quality Broadband Networks particularly mentions rail in its report.

LINK: ITU-D M2442-0 Rapporteur Groups Contribution 37

18.3 Industry “specifications”

There are a number of bodies, though not standardisation bodies in the classical sense do contribute to standards produce documents/specifications that can be fulfil the role of being considered as ‘standards’ within their sector.

18.3.1 The UIC (The International Union of Railways [Union International de Chemin-de-fer])

LINK: https://uic.org

The UIC is a worldwide professional association representing the railway sector and promoting rail transport. Its mission is to:

promote rail transport globally with the objective of responding effectively to current and future challenges relating to mobility and sustainable development;
develop and facilitate all forms of international cooperation among members and promote sharing of best practice;
promote interoperability and develop and publish solutions to railway system related issues (IRSs);
support members in their efforts to develop new business and areas of activity;
propose new ways to improve the technical and environmental performance of rail transport, increase competitiveness and reduce costs.

UIC promotes standards via its IRS (International Railway Solutions). They have issued The Guide to Standardisation – Edition 1 -2019.

The guide acknowledges the methodology for producing standards via ISO, CEN and CENELEC and the place of EU Directives but also proposes IRS, UIC Leaflets and TechRecs (technical documents drafted jointly by UIC and UNIFE) as voluntary standards. Many voluntary standards are quoted in European standards therefor making them legally binding or at least strongly recommended. The IUC considers itself to be a standards setting organisation.

The UIC Guide to standardisation details the large number of organisations involved in the standardisation process for railways.

The UIC also liaises with the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) and the OSJD (Organization for Cooperation of Railways) where “standards” are developed in cooperation.

International Railway Solutions (IRS) are a structured framework of standardised documents prepared and published by the UIC for use within the railway sector. They blend together a range of voluntary solutions to support the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the railway system and the services that the sector provides. There are different IRS categories: technical requirements, technical specifications, technical reports, state of the art, user guidelines, etc..

UIC IRS that are of interest for Railway Traffic Information are:

18.3.1.1 UIC IRS 90940 Data exchange with Driver Advisory Systems (DAS)

SFERA is intended to facilitate the use of Connected Driver Advisory Systems (C-DAS) for interoperable traffic by standardising the data exchange between on-board systems and Traffic Management Systems (TMS). The scope includes both ERTMS/ETCS Limited Supervision and Class B train protection systems. The format is also useful for Standalone DAS (S-DAS) by standardising data interfaces between Infrastructure Managers and Railway Undertakings.

18.3.1.2 UIC IRS 90918-0 Electronic seat/berth reservation and electronic production of travel documents - General regulations

IRS 90918-0 contains the general regulations for the electronic reservation of seats/berths and the electronic production of travel documents.

18.3.1.3 UIC IRS 90918-1 Electronic reservation of seats/berths and electronic production of travel documents - Exchange of messages

IRS 90918-1 describes the regulations and procedures to be observed when exchanging messages between a RU that issues travel tickets and reservation tickets and the electronic system of the RU which manages the necessary data for the issue of these tickets, in particular the inventories of seats available for reservation. It is supplemented by the following two leaflets/IRS:

UIC Leaflet 918-2 which describes the standard RCT2 that applies to all the travel documents prepared electronically (the only people allowed access to this IRS are the correspondents whose names are on the list held by the UIC Passenger Department);

ERA TAP TSI Technical Document B.6 which describes the standard RCT2 that applies to all the travel documents prepared electronically;

ERA TAP TSI Technical Document B.7 which describes the standard for home-printed tickets to be used in international carriage by train.

The arrangements contained in these IRS enable a RU to reserve seats from an inventory managed by another RU and to issue any travel document (in particular seat reservations and combined tickets) produced electronically from data transmitted by the electronic system of another RU.

Note: the term "seat" in this IRS is used to identify the group of services e.g. berth, bicycle, seats, etc. but can also be used to address a seat

18.3.1.4 UIC IRS 90918-4 Data exchange for ticket check and after sales operations with electronic information (barcodes, other security certificates)

A ticket contains information about the contract between the customer(s) and the carrier(s). This ticket can hold additional information, indicating a modification of the contract (or its status). E.g. when a train staff member marks the ticket as being used, he puts a stamp or a punch on it.If the ticket can be physically copied or reprinted (e.g. home-printed tickets) or if there is no physical ticket at all (paperless mechanisms, sms-tickets, ...), printing a stamp or punching a hole is useless. In that case, an electronic equivalent has to be defined. T

These electronic equivalents are messages, containing all necessary information to be shared with all necessary parties.

This standard defines the necessary data in the messages, in case of: - a ticket check (ticket is used or partially used),- an endorsement/annotation (if the carrier was not able to fulfil a part of the contract),- an after sales operation (when the ticket is cancelled/modified at a desk).Since some data can be optional, bilateral agreements have to be made, defining which info of the list, defined in the standard as being optional, needs to be shared.

18.3.1.5 UIC IRS 90918-6 Electronic reservation of assistance for persons with reduced mobility - Exchange of messages

Summary UIC Leaflet 918-6 describes the regulations and procedures to be observed when exchanging messages between a RU that to book assistance for persons with reduced mobility (PRM) at stations. The arrangements contained in these

Leaflets enable a RU to request assistance for a PRM at a station managed by another RU. This leaflet document is accompanied by XML schema files defining the messages. These schema file are part of the leaflet. Future changes of the leaflet have to ensure to keep the model definition in the Leaflet document and the accompanying schema files consistent.

The leaflet is accompanied by a XSD scheme file documentation generated from the schema files. This documentation is provided for the convenience of the reader only, the valid specification is defined in the schema files.

This document does not cover: Processes needed for organising the assistance between the different RU organizations involved. UIC implemented a web application called UIC PRM ABT. It is in production since November 1st, 2010. Currently CFL, CFR, DB, DSB, ÖBB, PKP, RENFE, SBB, SJ, SNCB, SNCF, VR are using the system. The UIC PRM ABT XML link is in production with SNCB since May 25th, 2011.

18.3.1.6 UIC IRS 90918-7 Compensation in case of train delay - Exchange of messages

This leaflet defines services to exchange messages for approval and accounting of compensations for ITRs. The mayor intention is to provide a solution for the compensation in case of delays which reduces the manual processes between the involved partners.

https://www.shop-etf.com/en/compensation-in-case-of-train-delay-exchange-of-messages?ref=1

18.3.1.7 UIC IRS 10181 User information in Railway Stations

Passengers should have access to useful information and details of their routes in stations. These elements constitute the information chain, which includes every means of communication in the station: wayfinding, timetable screens, sound broadcasting system, information kiosk, maps, internet, mobile phone, etc.

This leaflet is about wayfinding – what it is for, how it is installed and implemented, and all the elements it comprises. A structural component of the information and orientation chain, wayfinding is a core service offered to passengers. It reflects a station or network’s image and identity. This is why wayfinding should always be consistent and rigorous in its application.

The leaflet describes the principles of wayfinding systems and provides instructions on how to operationalise such systems in order to inform and direct passengers. These instructions should be applied in and around stations. They should also be applied where existing wayfinding systems need to be modified: changes to wayfinding layout, stations under construction, etc.

National rules and standards should be observed.

The leaflet does not concern the areas of responsibility covered by the Highway Code. For guidelines covering safety equipment, such as emergency exits, etc., the applicable legal regulations and norms should be observed.

18.3.1.8 UIC IRS 30100 RailTopoModel and railML

The present standard, UIC IRS 30100, complements ISO 19115 series standards by specifying semantics and providing functionalities that are relevant to railway systems.

The present standard is intended to facilitate the implementation of infrastructure management information systems. It includes natively the geographic dimension, and therefore fulfils, inter alia, the requirements of the INSPIRE Directive, when these requirements apply to railway infrastructure. No current ISO 191115 series standard deals specifically with the challenges posed by consistent, scale-independent railway infrastructure data modelling, since these ISO standards stipulate at a higher level.

The present standard deals with semantics close to EN 28701:2012 “Identification of fixed objects in public transport” (see Normative references - page 4), namely fixed objects such as infrastructure, or events such as works. EN 28701:2012, however, is multimodal, and addresses the transport infrastructure mainly from the point of view of passenger information and timetable management. While the semantics are close, and can fairly easily be linked, the present standard aims at a wider usage (asset management and operational planning and management as well) in a narrower field of application.

Field of application:

The IRS 30100 RailTopoModel describes a framework of concepts, to support the description of railway infrastructure, starting from the iron network and including business objects: network topology, infrastructure elements, their description, referencing and positioning, their behaviour, etc.

The RailTopoModel should be used especially when there is a need to describe the network (structure and topology) at various levels of detail, depending on intended usage and on data availability. It is especially put the RailTopoModel at use when infrastructure data is expected to be used by various stakeholders for purposes not precisely known in advance, e.g. for network design and maintenance, traffic scheduling, and traffic management.

The description can be as general as corridors; it can be detailed at line level, track level, down to physical components such as switches, lineside signals, or balises. An unlimited set of properties can be attached to component classes, for purposes such as conformity assessment, technical characteristics, life cycle data, including economic aspects, etc.

The most relevant IRSs are IRS 90940 (Data exchange with Driver Advisory Systems (DAS)), IRS 10181 (User Information in Railway Stations) and IRS 30100 (RailTopoModel and RailML). The others are worth considering as they might have access to data that is of use in Railway Traffic Information.

18.3.2 European Union Agency for Railways (ERA)

LINK: www.era.europa.eu

The EU Agency for Railways is mandated to issue single safety certificates and vehicle (type) authorisations valid in multiple European countries and to ensure an interoperable European Rail Traffic Management System, in the development and implementation of the Single European Railway Area. As such it has connection with all the European organisations and initiatives and projects that will contribute to Railway Traffic Information.

It coordinates (with recommendations) the activities in the European railway sector. Recommendations related to Railway Traffic Information (albeit freight) are:

RECOMMENDATION 006REC1128 - the revision of Commission Regulation (EU) No 1305/2014 of 11 December 2014 on the technical specification for interoperability relating to the telematics applications for freight subsystem of the rail system in the European Union and its accompanying documents and reports.

The ERA website contains links to a useful document library.

ERA operates 11 registers some of which have relevance to Railway Traffic Information (in bold):

European Railway Agency Database of Interoperability and Safety (ERADIS)
European Railway Accident Information Links (ERAIL)
European Register of Authorised Types of Vehicles (ERATV)
Notification of national railway safety and technical rules (NOTIF-IT)
Reference Document Database (RDD)
Vehicle Keeper Marking register (VKM)
Registers of Infrastructure (RINF)
European Centralised Virtual Vehicle Register (ECVVR)
European Vehicle Register (EVR)
Register of change requests for ERTMS and TAF/TAP (CCM)
Organisation Code Register (OCR)

18.3.2.1 European Railway Agency Database of Interoperability and Safety (ERADIS)

LINK: ERADIS

ERADIS contains databases of:

Contact details of relevant national organisations: safety authorities, investigation bodies, accreditation bodies, recognition bodies
Safety certificates for railway undertakings
Licences for providing rail transport services by railway undertakings
Information on the Entities in Charge of Maintenance: the schema decided in each member state, certification bodies documents, ECM certificates and maintenance functions certificates, Recommendations for use agreed by the certification bodies network
Information on the CSM Assessment Bodies: the decision on the use of schema for acknowledging the competence of CSM assessment bodies, the CSM Assessment Bodies documents
Link to ERAIL database of Common Safety Indicators
Link to ERAIL database of investigation reports
Annual reports of national safety authorities and national investigation bodies
EC declarations of verification of subsystems
EC declarations of conformity of constituents
EC declarations of suitability for use of interoperability constituents
Authorisations for placing in service of fixed installations
Link to the national vehicle registers ECVVR
Railway Undertaking Service Quality Reports
Link to national rules database NOTIF-IT

Additionally, there are useful documents detailing service standards.

18.3.2.2 Notification of national railway safety and technical rules (NOTIF-IT)

LINK: NOTIF-IT

NOTIF-IT contains a user manual assisting with:

National Safety Rules
National Technical Rules

18.3.2.3 Register of change requests for ERTMS and TAF/TAP (CCM)

LINK: Register of Changes to ERTMS and FAF/TAP

This contains the register of changes to ERTMS TAF/TAP

18.3.2.4 Organisation Code Register (OCR)

LINK: OCR

The EVR Decision 2018/1614 defines the Organisation Codes as a code consisting of four alphanumeric characters. Any Organisation accessing the EVR shall be assigned an organisation code. Organisation Codes are allocated by the Agency to all interested parties, operating in the European Railway system.

The Organisation Codes are the equivalent of Company Codes issued by UIC.

In the first phase of implementation of the Organisation Code allocation, the Agency issues solely alphanumeric codes. Companies involved into TAF/TAP data exchange and companies cooperating with OSJD members, still need to obtain a 4-digit numeric code from UIC.

The OCR contains links to application guides relevant legal frameworks and Commission Implementing Decisions.

18.3.3 Rail Standardisation Coordination Platform for Europe (RaSCoP)

RaSCoP is part of ERA and acts as a coordination platform between all the Standard Setting Organisations.

18.3.4 Telematic Applications for Passengers - Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TAP-TSI)

Telematic Applications for Freight/Telematic Applications for Passengers - Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TAF/TAP-TSI). TAF/TAP develops specifications for Telematics in Europe.

TAP TSI allows the harmonisation/standardisation of procedures, data and messages to be exchanged between the computer systems of the railway companies, of the infrastructure managers and of the tickets vendors in order to provide reliable information to passengers and to issue tickets for a journey on the European Union railway network, in accordance with Regulation n°1371/2007 on rail passengers rights and obligations and aims to define the data exchange between individual Infrastructure Managers (IMs) and also between IMs and Railway Undertakings (RUs).

The TAF TSI functions define data processing regarding the following variables:

When (at which point in time)
What (which kind of information and content) has to be sent to
Whom (partner or partners) and
How (in which format) the data must be exchanged.

TAF/TAP/TSI is coordinated by Rail Net Europe - Railnet Europe

18.3.5 The European Railway Industry (UNIFE)

LINK: UNIFE

UNIFE represents European train builders and rail equipment suppliers. The association advocates on behalf of more than 100 of Europe’s leading rail supply companies – from SMEs to major industrial champions - active in the design, manufacture, maintenance and refurbishment of rail transport systems, subsystems and related equipment. UNIFE also brings together national rail industry associations from 11 European countries. The members account for 84% of the European, and 46% of the global, market for rail equipment and services. We communicate members’ interests at the European and international levels while actively promoting rail equipment and standards worldwide.

UNIFE is a trusted partner for EU institutions interested in rail and transport matters. This reputation has allowed it to cooperate closely with the EU Agency for Railways, European Standardisation Organisations (e.g. CEN and CENELEC, ETSI), and other organisations representing rail sector stakeholders.

UNIFE is involved with the Horizon 2020 RIDE2RAIL project. UNIFE also is interested in standardisation in the railway sector and has published a report on International standardisation – the European rail supply industry’s position. International Standardisation – the European Rail Supply Industry’s position

18.3.6 Organisation for Co‑Operation Between Railways (OSJD)

LINK: OSJD

OSJD are primarily interested in cooperation of railways between Europe and Asia and I the main concerns freight operations.

18.3.7 railML

LINK: RailML

RailML is an initiative that supports the further development of the open-source railway markup language railML. Like every open-source software the railML schemes are generally characterized by peer production, availability of source code and documentation, which is available to the public at no cost. All of these attributes are fulfilled since 2002 by the railML.org initiative.

There are over 130 either developers, users or supporters of RailML across all European countries. Most of the major players are represented.

Its main objective is to enable heterogeneous railway applications to communicate with each other. Today, the connection of various railway software packages is beset with problems. The purpose of the railML.org initiative has been to find, discuss and present systematic, XML-based solutions for simplified data exchange between railway applications.

RailML is an initiative that supports the further development of the open-source railway markup language railML. Like every open-source software the RailML schemes are generally characterised by peer production, availability of source code and documentation, which is available to the public at no cost. All of these attributes are fulfilled since 2002 by the RailML initiative.

RailML is not a formal standard in the classical sense, but it does have version control of the RailML schema. The latest version is Version 3.1. The RailML schemas are free to use.

There are a number of sub-schemas:

timetable for the description of timetables. This sub-schema serves the exchange of detailed timetables. Particularly, the schema is designed for the following information:
- Train running times (arrivals, departures and passing times)
- Operating Periods: the days on which a train is operated
- Train Parts: scheduling and routing information for through coaches in trains, e.g. the Orient Express on the journey from Budapest to Beograd on Mondays.
- Trains: a collection of train parts, adding up to the colloquial perspective, e.g. the Orient Express.
- Rostering: Circulation plans for rolling stock, linked with Train Parts

infrastructure for the (priority topological) description of tracks and signalling equipment and
rolling stock for the description of vehicles.
interlocking for the description of signalling routes

Additional sub-schemes are station facilities (ticket machines, waiting rooms, vending machines, etc.) or crew rostering (shift planning/rosters and working time management for conductors, etc.) are currently on hold, as there is no demand from the users.

It is likely that some RailML schemas will be of great interest to those implementing Railway Traffic Information.

18.4 Other Railway Traffic Information Specifications

The European Commission is working towards the creation of a Single European Railway Area (SERA) and has promoted a modal shift from road to rail in order to achieve a more competitive and resource-efficient European transport system. However, rail’s share in the European freight and passenger transport markets is still not satisfactory. EU research and innovation (R&I) therefore helps rail to play a new, broader role in global transport markets, both by addressing pressing short-term problems that drain rail business operations, and by helping the sector to gain a stronger market position.

There are a number of Standards Setting Bodies that set standards that are of interest to anyone setting up Railway Traffic Information services. There are also industry organisations that set industry standards, procedures and recommendations that are also relevant.

But with an increased push to get both freight and passenger services of the road and onto rail, initiatives are emerging that will contribute to the future of standardisation.

Many of the projects described below involve organisations that have already been detailed earlier in this chapter.

18.4.1 Shift2Rail

LINK: Shift2Rail

Shift2Rail is a joint venture established by the European Union with a mandate to deliver a major change to the European railway system using Research and Innovation. Shift2Rail provides a platform for Industry, SMEs, research centres and universities to work together to facilitate and deliver automation, digitalisation and artificial intelligence in all railway subsystems to answer passenger and freight customer needs.

Quoting from Shift2Rail's website the vision of this joint undertaking is to deliver, through railway research and innovation, the capabilities to bring about the most sustainable, cost-efficient, high-performing, time driven, digital and competitive customer-centred transport mode for Europe. And the mission statement is “Moving European Railway Forward”.

At the time of writing Shift2Railhas 9 founding members and 19 associate partners many of whom are made up of multiple partners and regional and country industry associations.

Shift2Rail Projects

There are over 80 projects that are linked to shift to rail. The following projects could produce standards and specifications that are related to or could provide data used for Railway Traffic Information. The descriptions are taken from the websites of the described projects.

18.4.1.1 ATTRACkTIVE - Advanced Travel Companion and Tracking Service

LINK: ATTRACkTIVE

An IP4 project.

ATTRACkTIVE aims to provide new concepts, tools, and systems to improve the attractiveness of rail transport by offering more intuitive and engaging travel experiences to customers while shielding them from the complexity and heterogeneity of services for door to door intermodal journeys. This includes disruption handling, navigation and user centric ubiquitous applications as well as the required tooling and modular design to foster adoption and enable future refinements, new concepts and ideas. The journey shall become attractive for travellers and offer a seamless, stress free, and even engaging experience.

Increasing the attractiveness of rail transport requires a novel and integrated solution that will be developed in the IP4 part of the Shift2Rail project. In particular, ATTRACkTIVE proposes new capabilities such as the capacity to create a “one stop shop” that helps customers to easily select and purchase an itinerary and assist her/him throughout her/his whole journey. In this respect the solutions of IT2Rail will be expanded and further developed. It will guide, support, inform, and even entertain users throughout their entire itinerary, adapting to unforeseeable interruptions and events in order to propose alternative routes, including in the first and last miles.

A real door-to-door travel solution including all modes of transport will be developed along with new forms of traveller experiences aiming to transform the travel itself into an “ATTRACkTIVE” part of the journey. This proposal aims to implement both the Shift2Rail Trip Tracker (TD4.4) and Travel Companion (TD4.5), two major components to materialise this vision and deliver seamless door-to-door travel support encompassing both public and private transportation portions of a journey. This includes disruption handling, navigation and user centric ubiquitous applications as well as the required tooling and modular design to foster adoption and enable future refinements, new concepts and ideas.

The H2020 Lighthouse project IT2Rail initiated this shift in a first step. Its ideas are continued and further developed to a higher level of readiness in the frame of a Shift2Rail IP4 project.

18.4.1.2 CO-ACTIVE - CO-modal journey re-ACcommodation on associated Travel serVices

LINK: CO-ACTIVE

An IP4 project.

The overall objective of CO-ACTIVE is to provide new concepts, tools, and systems to improve the attractiveness of rail transport by offering more intuitive and engaging travel experience to customers while shielding them from the complexity and heterogeneity of services for door-to-door intermodal journeys.

It addresses the general enrichment of the ‘one-stop-shop’ capability as initiated in the IT2Rail project and further completes the scope of functionality by addressing post-sale business transactions, and an underlying payment-settlement solution for co-modally retailed products and services. This provides the opportunity to focus specifically on those aspects whose level of customer-perceived risk discourages the advance purchase of co-modal travel entitlements:

Enhancing the technical facilitation of a one-stop-shop capability;
Research into the different possibilities for managing retailer-TSP settlement in order to simplify/rationalise integration of today’s multiple settlement system infrastructures;
Analysis of potential automation and orchestration based on the information of previously generated travel entitlements, for enabling the processing of cancellations, ticket exchanges and refunds.

18.4.1.3 COHESIVE - COHErent Setup and Demonstration of Integrated Travel SerVices

LINK: COHESIVE

An IP4 project.

The COHESIVE project aims to progressively integrate and demonstrate the various technological innovations developed in the other IP4 projects. This objective will be achieved through specific activities: set up of a common technical approach for all IP4 projects allowing the collection of consistent results, definition of (three) successive releases based on use-cases with increased scope and market value, integration of the building blocks developed in the other IP4 projects, and flagship demonstrations which will pave the way of a solid market uptake.

Main objectives associated to the overall IP4 and its related demonstrations:

Guarantee a Technical Coordinated Interface amongst the different projects of S2R/IP4;
Ensure Engineering Consistency throughout the different Technical Demonstrators;
Promote convergence of all IP4 technical demonstrators;
Dissemination and Communication of the results and concepts developed in IP4;
To create a Living Lab approach across the Community to increase the innovation potential generated;
To coordinate successive releases based on use-cases with increased scope and market value, integrating the building blocks developed in the different IP4 projects.

18.4.1.4 IT2Rail - Information Technology for Shift2Rail

LINK: IT2Rail

An IP4 – IT project.

The IT2Rail -“Information Technologies for Shift2Rail” project is a first step towards the long term IP4 -“IT Solutions for Attractive Railway Services”, one of the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking’s Innovation Programmes, which aims at providing a new seamless travel experience, giving access to a complete multimodal travel offer which connects the first and last mile to long distance journeys.

This is achieved through the introduction of a ground breaking Technical Enabler based on two concepts:

The traveller is placed at the heart of innovative solutions, accessing all multimodal travel services (shopping, ticketing, and tracking) through its travel-companion.

An open published framework is providing full interoperability whilst limiting impacts on existing systems, without prerequisites for centralized standardization. This Technical Enabler will be completely settled in the context of the Shift2Rail IP4, and IT2Rail is proposing a reduced approach to the scale of a specified use case without weakening any of the key concepts of IP4, such as the usage of Semantic Web technologies, meta planning on distributed data, travel companion with a protected and secured personal wallet stored in the cloud and including the rights to travel.

The use case will be defined as a specific instantiation of our open concepts and will benefit from a completely scalable architecture fully instantiated in IP4. This approach is addressing all the key challenges of the work program, supporting a complete door-to-door intermodal travel offer and proposing a seamless integration of the very diverse existing and future services for planning, one-stop-shop ticketing, and real-time re-accommodation.

Moreover, thanks to an Interoperability framework which insulates travel applications from the standards fragmentation in multimodal transport, IT2Rail liberates business-model innovations in the marketplace, guaranteeing the economic self-sustainability of these e-services in the long-term.

18.4.1.5 LinX4Rail - System architecture and Conceptual Data Model for railway, common data dictionary and global system modelling specifications

LINK: LinX4Rail

An IPX project.

The railway sector is currently acting in a fragmented way and in silos corresponding most often to physical or functional subsystems or use cases, and the different owners/managers of the overall infrastructure at regional/national level, without global extensive view or full control of the global system involved by rail operations.

With the progress of digitization, analogue devices based on relays were progressively substituted by digital ones, and it is more and more evident that enabling the communication between already existing digital tools for various subsystems can be beneficial. What is missing is an efficient, automated and standardized way for these integrated and interplaying systems to act as one ecosystem: sharing, integrating, identifying, correlating and exploiting the right data at the right time.

In order to meet these challenges, the objective of LinX4Rail is to develop and promote a common Functional Rail System Architecture for the Rail sector, as requested by EC. It will be supported by a widely adopted Shift2Rail Conceptual Data Model (CDM) that will, with the commitment of the Shift2Rail members, establish the standard for interactions between legacy and new systems, thus ensuring sustainable interoperability between systems.

The ambition of LINX4RAIL is to achieve a comprehensive approach for the CDM, as a models’ federation, global system modelling specification and the strategy for implementation of technological breakthroughs.

18.4.1.6 MaaSive - Passenger service platform specifications for an enhanced multi-modal transport eco-system including Mobility as a Service (MaaS)

LINK: MaaSive

An IP4 project.

MaaSive continues and complements the work accomplished within previous projects, ATTRACkTIVE and Co-Active, in the areas of travel shopping, trip tracking, booking and ticketing, and the development of a travel companion. The project not only will enhance and provide extra functionalities to the existing IP4 ecosystem, but also makes emphasis in the compatibility of this ecosystem with the Mobility as a Service approach.

The project will address the following objectives:

enhance the existing IP4 functionalities and integrate new modes in the IP4 ecosystem, in order to demonstrate its capability to work at European level covering all modes and functionalities demanded by the users.
integrate a compatible approach to include MaaS in the IP4 ecosystem, assuring that the orchestration, the functionalities and the business rules developed in previous projects are compatible with the MaaS paradigm. Emphasize and incentivize the integration of rail in the current MaaS approaches, which are mainly urban, in order to foster its use.
provide compatibility with existing legacy systems for operators joining the eco-system, but also propose new technologies to smooth interoperability among systems.
improve the functionalities that the IP4 ecosystem offers to the service providers joining it, by making available generic components that could be used by them, specially aimed for small operators and service providers.
enrich the Customer Experience by innovating on the traveller´s interface, experiences and services. Offer new possibilities of interaction with the Travel Companion such as mixed reality and voice interaction, as well as new functionalities for managing several profiles and group travelling.
offer the passenger information about policies for cancellation, compensation, refund, exchange etc related to their trips, as well as automate as much as possible automate passengers’ rights transactions that need to take place in situations of delays or cancellations.
complement contractual specifications and tools, considering not only co-modal travel but also intermodal and the MaaS approach. Create mobility packages and offer travellers Best Price Options adapted to their use of transport.

18.4.1.7 Ride2Rail - Travel Companion enhancements and RIDE-sharing services synchronised to RAIL and Public Transport

LINK: Ride2Rail

Ride2Rail’s overall objective is to develop an innovative framework for intelligent mobility, facilitating the efficient combination of flexible and scheduled transport services, thus enhancing the performance of the overall mobility system. This framework, consisting in a combined suite of travel offer classifications and software components, will natively be integrated into existing collective and on-demand transport services, connecting and reinforcing the mobility offer especially in rural and low-demand areas, in order to induct the access to high-capacity services (rail, bus and other public transport services) thanks to easy-to-use multimodal and integrated travel planning, booking, ticketing and payment features.

RIDE2RAIL aims to integrate multiple (public/private/social) data sets and existing transport platforms for promoting an effective Ride Sharing practice of citizens, making it a complementary transport mode that extends public transport networks. The integration between the Ride Sharing practice, along with a relevant critical mass of users, and the public transport network will deliver a crowd-based mobility network and will be achieved by the Ride2Rail framework for intelligent mobility that will integrate and harmonise real-time and diverse information about public transport, Ride Sharing and crowdsourcing in a social ecosystem facilitating the comparison and the choice between multiple options/services classified by a set of criteria including environmental impact, travel time, comfort, cost thus facilitating the individual, more positive, convenience of the travel experience.

18.4.1.8 Shift2MaaS - Shift2Rail IP4 enabling Mobility as a Service and seamless passenger experience

LINK: Shift2MaaS

An IP4 project.

The main goal of Shift2MaaS is to support the uptake of the IP4 technology and overcome the technical and non-technical barriers for the adoption of new integrated mobility platforms. The ultimate goal of Shift2MaaS project is to contribute to the path exposed in the White Paper (2011)7 in line with the S2R Multi-Annual Action Plan (MAAP). It will provide a field operational testing environment to drive the future of European transportation by:

Identifying and removing existing barriers to fully interoperable networks, in order to achieve a Single European Transport Area and Single European Railway Area (SERA), easing the process of integration;
Supporting innovation as a crucial ingredient of the SERA and Single European Transport Area;
Allowing access to key information for the customer – supporting a major shift to collective transport (rail and public transport) – and allowing a significant growth in demand.

The overall goal of Shift2MaaS is to enable and facilitate flagship demonstrations in real contexts of the added value of the global services and data transport market place created by the new IP4 ecosystem.

Shift2MaaS aims at supporting the introduction of Shift2MaaS IP4 technology within the Mobility as a Service context, by analysing the needs in terms of technology enablers of the different stakeholders involved and demonstrating the benefits of IP4 through pilot demonstrators of shared mobility services and seamless passenger experience. To this end, Shift2MaaS will co-design and validate advanced use-cases for the deployment and implementation of COHESIVE solutions.

The Shift2MaaS impact will be tested at three sites, all strongly engaged in the intermodality and MaaS domain and setting specific actions on existing or new MaaS schemes. The sites have been selected according to their complementarity, where success and failure factors for any specific measure and context will be investigated and evaluated.

The resulting knowledge and lessons learned will be made available and shared with Shift2Rail IP4.

18.4.1.9 Ontorail – Ontology for railways – Common rail dictionary

LINK: Ontorail

Ontorailis an attempt to use the power of MediaWiki and its semantic capabilities to support the current sectorial initiatives for implementing a shared Railway Digital Knowledge Vault. The project is led by UIC, the International Union of Railways, in the context of its contribution to several projects for digitalization, in particular the IFC Rail project by building SMART International. (Smart International).

The railway system is complex, and every company has its ways to name and define railway functions, components and properties. Several initiatives managed to reduce the uncertainties, such as:

the UIC railway dictionary;
the terminology adopted in certain standards or in Technical Specifications for Interoperability.

Early 2018, a group of European Infrastructure Managers in collaboration with the CRBIM Chinese consortium, launched the IFC Rail project in the context of building SMART International. The IFC rail project aims at defining the railway part of the IFC digital standard. IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) is the international standard for BIM digital processes, spanning design, construction and maintenance, for Engineering, Construction and Infrastructure industries. The IFC Rail project has organized a 100+ business experts team to share their requirements, build consensus, and collaborate to define the terminology for the detailed description of a significant subset of the railways system, as required by the project scope.

The Ontorail project explores the possibility to formalize the corresponding knowledge by using MediaWiki, a powerful tool that allows to look up, understand, share, scrutinize, discuss every single term in a multilingual environment. For that sake, the Semantic extension of Mediawiki is put at use. Additionally, the Semantic Mediawiki toolset will allow to build links with other dictionaries, and export ontologies as may be useful for semantic web applications.

This site is experimental, and not yet open for the public as some content may be subject to copyright. Progressive release will depend on:

the robustness and usability of the proposed solution,
the willingness of data owners to release the information contained herein.

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18.5 Communications

Communications for railways has always been an integral part of railway operations from the days of hand signalling through the use of telegraph communication between station and from signal box to signal box. Indeed many of the earliest telegraph and hence telegraph lines were situated alongside railway routes.

18.5.1 The use of communications networks on the railways

18.5.1.1 GSM-R

GSM-R - Global System for Mobile Communications – Railway or GSM-Railway is an international wireless communications standard for railway communication and applications. GSM-R is sub-system of European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS), it is used for communication between train and railway regulation control centres. The system is based on GSM and EIRENE – MORANE specifications which guarantee performance at speeds up to 500 km/h (310 mph), without any communication loss.

GSM-R could be supplanted by LTE-R, with the first production implementation being in South Korea. However, LTE is generally considered to be a "4G" protocol, and the UIC's Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) program [3] is considering moving to something "5G"-based (specifically 3GPP R15/16), thus skipping two technological generations.

Work is on-going on GSM-R in the UIC and ITU especially moving it to 5G capability. More can be found in the Communications section of the EU-ICP document.

18.5.1.2 Point to point communications

Historically all railway communications have been by point to point hard wired communication links between the signalling systems and the trackside and station equipment. This does not lend itself to the wider scale exploitation of data and of course is vulnerable to single points of failure.

18.5.1.3 Private Networked IP based communications

Many systems on the railway are now network based with equipment and sources based on private networks. This gives greater resilience to communications equipment failures and is more flexible and extensible.

18.5.1.4 The World Wide Web (WWW)

The WWW (Web) will primarily be used for providing information to railway customers (end users). The sort of information might be fare and timetabling information along with real time running information that might mimic displays on platforms. It is possible that data and information internal to systems might be transmitted within the using VPN applications. Web services may be operated by 3rd parties offering a service made up from the data and information from a number of railway operators.

18.5.1.5 Via Traffic and Traveller Information system protocols

There are a number of bearers and protocols that can carry Railway Traffic Information services. These services are described fully in the section on Traffic and Traveller Information.

RDS-TMC ALERT C (ISO EN 14819-series) is a protocol for transmitting Traffic and Travel Information over the VHF/FM RDS subcarrier ( EN 50067:1998). It is an extremely low data rate so that a message is formed in a compressed state of 37 bits by the use of preset tables. RDS-TMC is primarily road based, but there are a number of public transport messages available but could not be described as comprehensive. ALERT C is a one-to-many broadcasting system.

TPEG2 (ISO 21219 21219-series) is a series of protocols that can be used for Traffic and Traveller broadcasting; it is a one-to-many broadcasting system. TPEG can be seen as a successor to RDS-TMC ALERT C however there are differences which make it suitable for the broadcasting of Railway Traffic Information:

TPEG is bearer independent, it uses the coding and security features of the bearer rather than providing its own.
TPEG normally runs on higher speed bearers like DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) or beacon-based systems or wide area WiFi.
TPEG has a range of selectable location referencing methodologies one of which is Roads and Multi-modal Routes (TPE2-RMR ISO/TS 21219-23:2016) which details with guided public transport modes.
TPEG is developing a Public Transport Information Services application; TPEG2-PTS (ISO/NP 21219-13).
TPEG applications and message sets are being incorporated into C-ITS applications.

There will be greater detail of TTI services in the TTI section of this EU-ICP.

18.6 List of functional areas

The sources of data and information that Railway Traffic Information applications may use will come from a variety of sources but can generally be broken down into static and dynamic data.

Static data includes timetabling, train formation, fare structures and prices and reservation systems, the topology of the network etc.. Of course, there will be alterations to this static data during the operation of the service as event alter the running times and formation of the train.

Dynamic information is just that; it can change from minute to minute and will contain data such as the actual running time of a particular service, changes to the route and stopping places etc..

There are 3 distinct functions in the operation of a Railway Traffic Information system: Data Collection, Collection and Collation, and delivery to end-users.

18.6.1 Collection of data

The data that will form the basis of a Railway Traffic Information system will come from a multitude of sources as stated earlier this will be a combination of Static and Dynamic data.

18.6.1.1 Static Data

Looking firstly at Static data this can come from:

Topology information
Timetables, and
Fares

Static data is generally used for pre-trip planning, but it will be supplemented by dynamic data as the trip becomes more immediate and is underway.

There are a number of standards and industry specifications defined earlier in this chapter that define schemas for static data. These are also indexed in table 9.1 column 1. Transmodel (EN 12896 – series) and RailML are a probable starting place.

18.6.1.2 Dynamic Data

Data which in real time alters the planned timetable, topology and fare structures are considered to be dynamic.

Dynamic data is used as the trip commences and during the trip to assist with service changes and indeed changing to other modes if the planned trip becomes unviable.

Dynamic data can come from a multitude of sources:

Signalling operations;
Realtime changes to running times;
On-board systems
Route changes;
Station and platform operations;
Fare changes;
Verbal reporting;
Train fault reports;
Social media; etc..

There are a number of standards and industry specifications defined earlier in this chapter that define schemas for dynamic data. These are also indexed in Table 18.1 column 1. . These are also indexed in Table 18.1 column 1. Transmodel (EN 12896 – series) and railML are a probable starting place.

18.6.1.3 Exchange of static data

The exchange of Rail Traffic Information from its source to a service provider who then passes it on is a vital link in the chain from the source data to the information collator and to the end user (rail passenger).

Presently much of the exchange of this data is accomplished by the use of NeTEx (CEN/TR 16959 and CEN/TS 16614 parts 1-4) although there are other standards proposed that are claimed to be more suitable for long distance international static data exchange such as fare information. However, NeTEx uses the elements defined directly in Transmodel.

Communication between data sources can be achieved using several of the methods outlined in the previous clause.

18.6.1.4 Exchange of dynamic data

Dynamic data needs to be exchanged in near real time to be of use to the end user.

The exchange of this information can be facilitated by the SIRI (Service Interface for Real-time information) standards – CEN/TS 15531 parts 1 to 5 particularly part 4 and part 5. SIRI has the benefit of using elements defined in Transmodel.

There are a number of standards and specifications that will aid in developing Rail Traffic Information to the end user and these are indicated in Columns 3 and 4 of the Table 18.1 (below).

Communication between data sources can be achieved using several of the methods outlined in the previous clause.

18.6.1.5 Delivery to end users

The delivery of Rail Traffic Information to end users takes to forms. Static information that is mainly used for pre-trip planning such as timetables, fares, reservations etc.; and dynamic information that can be used to show train running times showing best estimate actual arrival times and other useful information to enable the best choice of modes and changes to complete a trip.

The information can be delivered at the stations, on the train displays or via applications on personal communication devices.

There are a number of standards and specifications that will aid in developing Rail Traffic Information to the end user and these are indicated in Columns 5 and 6 of the Table 18.1 (below).

18.7 Tabular Summary

Table 8.1

18.8 Regulations Summary

Commission Regulation (EU) No 1305/2014 of 11 December 2014 on the technical specification for interoperability relating to the telematics applications for freight subsystem of the rail system in the European Union and repealing the Regulation (EC) No 62/2006 Text with EEA relevance. Commission Regulation (EU) No 1305/2014

Regulation n°1371/2007 on rail passengers rights and obligations. Regulation no 1371/2007

M/546 COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING DECISION C(2016)808 of 12.2.2016 on a standardisation request to the European standardisation organisations as regards Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) in urban areas in support of Directive 2010/40/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 July 2010 on the framework for the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems in the field of road transport and for interfaces with other modes of transport. M/546 COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING DECISION C(2016)808

ITS Directive 2010/40/ECOMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) 2017/1926 of 31 May 2017 supplementing Directive 2010/40/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to the provision of EU-wide multimodal travel information services. ITS Directive 2010/40/ECOMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) 2017/1926

This Directive has been amended by Decision (EU) 2017/2380 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2017 amending Directive 2010/40/EU as regards the period for adopting delegated acts

18.9 Bibliography

[1] CEN/TC278 https://www.itsstandards.eu

[2] A Guide to standardisation – UIC-ETF - Celia Levy, Simon Fletcher and Hélène Cambreleng. June 2019. ISBN 378-2-7461-

RTI 18.9 Biblio

RTI 18.7 Tabular

RTI 18.6 Functional Areas

RTI 18.5 Communications

RRTI 18.3 Industry specifications

RTI 18.4 Other specifications

RTI 18.8 Regulations

18 Railway Traffic Information

18.1 Overview of service

18.1.1 Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) context

18.1.2 The scope of Railway Traffic Information

18.1.3 Pre-trip services

18.1.4 On-trip services

18.1.5 Post-trip services

18.2 Stakeholders/actors

18.2.2 Standards bodies involved in Railway Traffic Information

18.2.2.1 CEN/TC278 Intelligent transport Systems

18.2.2.1.1 Transmodel

​

18.2.2.2 NeTEx

18.2.2.2.1 Context

18.2.2.3 SIRI

18.2.2.3.1 Context

18.2.2.2.4 OpRa

18.2.2.5 Other Relevant CEN/TC278 Standards

18.2.3 CLC/TC9X Electrical and electronic applications for railways

18.2.3.1 Context

​

18.2.4 IEC TC9 Electrical equipment and systems for railways

18.2.5 CEN/TC256 Railway applications

18.2.6 ISO/TC204 Intelligent transport systems

18.2.6.1 Context

18.2.7 ISO/TC269 Railway Applications

18.2.8 ITU (International Telecommunications Union)

18.3 Industry “specifications”

​

18.3.1 The UIC (The International Union of Railways [Union International de Chemin-de-fer])

18.3.2 European Union Agency for Railways (ERA)

18.3.2.1 European Railway Agency Database of Interoperability and Safety (ERADIS)

18.3.2.2 Notification of national railway safety and technical rules (NOTIF-IT)

18.3.2.3 Register of change requests for ERTMS and TAF/TAP (CCM)

18.3.2.4 Organisation Code Register (OCR)

18.3.3 Rail Standardisation Coordination Platform for Europe (RaSCoP)

18.3.4 Telematic Applications for Passengers - Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TAP-TSI)

18.3.5 The European Railway Industry (UNIFE)

18.3.6 Organisation for Co‑Operation Between Railways (OSJD)

18.3.7 railML

18.4 Other Railway Traffic Information Specifications

18.4.1 Shift2Rail

Shift2Rail Projects

18.4.1.1 ATTRACkTIVE - Advanced Travel Companion and Tracking Service

18.4.1.2 CO-ACTIVE - CO-modal journey re-ACcommodation on associated Travel serVices

18.4.1.3 COHESIVE - COHErent Setup and Demonstration of Integrated Travel SerVices

18.4.1.4 IT2Rail - Information Technology for Shift2Rail

18.4.1.5 LinX4Rail - System architecture and Conceptual Data Model for railway, common data dictionary and global system modelling specifications

18.4.1.6 MaaSive - Passenger service platform specifications for an enhanced multi-modal transport eco-system including Mobility as a Service (MaaS)

18.4.1.7 Ride2Rail - Travel Companion enhancements and RIDE-sharing services synchronised to RAIL and Public Transport

18.4.1.8 Shift2MaaS - Shift2Rail IP4 enabling Mobility as a Service and seamless passenger experience

18.4.1.9 Ontorail – Ontology for railways – Common rail dictionary

18.5 Communications

18.5.1 The use of communications networks on the railways

​

18.5.1.1 GSM-R

18.5.1.2 Point to point communications

18.5.1.3 Private Networked IP based communications

18.5.1.4 The World Wide Web (WWW)

18.5.1.5 Via Traffic and Traveller Information system protocols

18.6 List of functional areas

18.6.1 Collection of data

18.6.1.1 Static Data

18.6.1.2 Dynamic Data

18.6.1.3 Exchange of static data

18.6.1.4 Exchange of dynamic data

18.6.1.5 Delivery to end users

18.7 Tabular Summary

​

18.8 Regulations Summary

​

​

​

18.9 Bibliography