Transmodel, also known as Reference Data Model For Public Transport (EN 12896), is a

European Standard European Standards, sometimes called Euronorm (abbreviated EN, from the German name , "European Norm"), are technical standards which have been ratified by one of the three European Standards Organizations (ESO): European Committee for Standardizat ...

for modelling and exchanging

public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

information. It provides a

standard data model An industry standard data model, or simply standard data model, is a data model that is widely used in a particular industry. The use of standard data models makes the exchange of information easier and faster because it allows heterogeneous organ ...

and specialised

data structures In computer science, a data structure is a data organization and storage format that is usually chosen for efficient access to data. More precisely, a data structure is a collection of data values, the relationships among them, and the functi ...

to uniformly represent common public transport concepts, facilitating the use of data in a wide variety of public transport information systems, including for timetabling, fares, operational management, real-time data, and journey planning. As of 2021, the current version of Transmodel is 6.0.

Scope

Transmodel provides a comprehensive conceptual model for public transport information systems, covering multiple subdomains including

transport network A transport network, or transportation network, is a network or graph in geographic space, describing an infrastructure that permits and constrains movement or flow. Examples include but are not limited to road networks, railways, air routes ...

infrastructure and

topology Topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties of a Mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformat ...

, schedules, journey planning, fares, fare validation, real-time passenger information, and operational systems. Transmodel is an entity-relationship model in

Unified Modeling Language The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a general-purpose visual modeling language that is intended to provide a standard way to visualize the design of a system. UML provides a standard notation for many types of diagrams which can be roughly ...

(UML), accompanied by detailed descriptions of the concepts, elements and attributes needed to represent transport information. It uses modern

information architecture Information architecture (IA) is the structural design of shared information environments; the art and science of organizing and labelling websites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability; and an emerging ...

principles to separate different concerns into independent information layers, using node and link concepts to describe individual transport layers. It supports the reuse of transport information entities for different applications. It can represent multi-modal, multi-operator transport systems and complex fare models, bringing together data from many different organisations with different standard and practices. The Transmodel standard also establishes consistent terminology for public transport concepts, providing definitive equivalents for use in the national languages of each participant nation. In cases where vernacular words related to public transport could have more than one possible meaning or overlap in meaning, it establishes a precise and unambiguous technical term for use in information systems. For example, the terms 'trip', 'journey', and 'service', are overlapping concepts that in Transmodel have specific usages.

History

Transmodel was originally developed within a range of European projects under several European Programmes (Drive I, Drive II, TAP) with the support of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

(DGXIII), and national public institutions, in particular the French Ministry of Transport (Direction des Transports Terrestres), as well as several private companies.

Initial development & first generation uses

Transmodel originated in the ''Cassiope'' project (Computer Aided System for Scheduling Information and Operation of Public Transport in Europe, 1989-1991), carried out under the initial

EEC The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...

DRIVE programme. The results of Cassiope were then developed further by the EuroBus and Harpist (Drive II) projects. This produced Transmodel V4.1 ENV 12896 with a E/R “Oracle” formalism. The Telematics Applications Programme project ''TITAN'' (1996-1998) continued to validate and enhance Transmodel, implementing it in three European pilot sites. ''TITAN'' accompanied the standardisation process of Transmodel, which was chosen in 1997 as the European Experimental Norm ENV 12896. This led to Transmodel V5.0: with multi-modality, real-time control, layers, and data versioning The ''Système d'Information pour le Transport Public'' (SITP) (Information System for Public Transport), which began in 1999 under the sponsorship of the French Ministry of Transport, developed Transmodel 5.1, adding a UML formalism. In 2006, version 5.1 of Transmodel was formally adopted by the

European Committee for Standardization The European Committee for Standardization (CEN, ) is a public standards organization whose mission is to foster the economy of the European Single Market and the wider European continent in global trading, the welfare of European citizens an ...

(CEN) as the European Standard ''EN 12896''.

Second generation (Transmodel v5.1)

Transmodel has been fundamental to the development of a number of concrete national data models and European Standards, including both European standards Service Interface for Real Time Information (SIRI: 2001-2005, now a CEN technical specification) for

Real-time data Real-time data (RTD) is information that is delivered immediately after collection. There is no delay in the timeliness of the information provided. Real-time data is often used for navigation or tracking. Such data is usually data processing, proc ...

exchange for buses, and Identification of Fixed Objects In Public Transport (2006-2007), now assimilated into Transmodel v6.0 Part 2, and national standards such as

TransXChange TransXChange is a UK national XML based data standard for the interchange of bus route and timetable information between bus operators, the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency, local authorities and passenger transport executives, and others i ...

(2001-2005, now the UK standard for bus PT timetables), and the French Trident standard (1999-2003). Its provision of a uniform conceptual framework, consistent terminology and well grounded abstractions make it especially valuable for comparing, harmonising and modernising legacy standards and systems and for international cooperation.

Third generation (Transmodel v6.0)

Transmodel based applications are now in widespread use through many parts of Europe for exchanging timetable and real-time data. A revised V6.0 version of Transmodel incorporating additional capabilities and breaking the specification into eight separate modules is under development. Parts 1, 2 & 3, covering respectively common concepts, network descriptions, and timetables were published in 2015. Parts 4 to 8, covering operational actions, fares, passenger information services, driver management, and management information and statistics were published in 2019. '' NeTEx'' (NETwork EXchange) is a concrete XML scheme implementing the central components of the Transmodel model as a modular

W3C The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working together in ...

schema. It was developed as Standard by CEN/TC 278/WG 3 (public transport working group) between 2009 and 2014 as a format for exchanging inter-modal stop, timetable, and fare data for public transport Europe-wide. In 2017, under the ''Intelligent Transport Systems Priority Action A Directive (2010/40/E)'', the European Commission recognised NeTEx as a strategic standard for the cross-border exchange of data to enable the provision of EU-wide multi-modal travel information services. It aims to make data available in NeTEx format at National Access Points (government-designated open databases) in all European countries.

References

{{Reflist

Bibliography

* Comité Européen de Normalisation (CEN), Reference Data Model For Public Transport, EN12896 * EN 12896:2006, Public Transport Reference Data Model (“Transmodel v5.1”) * EN 12896-1:2016, ''Public Transport Reference Data Model - Part 1: Common Concepts'' (“Transmodel v6”) * EN 12896-2:2016, ''Public Transport Reference Data Model - Part 2: Public Transport Network'' (“Transmodel v6”) * EN 12896-3:2016, ''Public Transport Reference Data Model - Part 3: Timing Information and Vehicle Scheduling'' (“Transmodel v6”) * EN 12896-4:2019, ''Public Transport Reference Data Model – Part 4: Operations Monitoring and Control'' (“Transmodel v6”) * EN 12896-5:2019, ''Public Transport Reference Data Model – Part 5: Fare Management'' (“Transmodel v6”) * EN 12896-6:2019, ''Public Transport Reference Data Model – Part 6: Passenger Information'' (“Transmodel v6”) * EN 12896-7:2019, ''Public Transport Reference Data Model – Part 7: Driver Management'' (“Transmodel v6”) * EN 12896-8:2019, ''Public Transport Reference Data Model – Part 8: Management Information & Statistics'' (“Transmodel v6”) * PD CEN/TR 12896-9:2019, ''Public Transport Reference Data Model – Informative documentation''

External links

Transmodel

NeTEx

OpRa
Public transport information systems Travel technology Transport in Europe