How can open data revolu0onise your rail travel?
Jonathan Raper CEO, Placr
Outline Revolu,onalising your rail travel means answering these ques,ons first…
• Who controls the railways? • How is the industry structured? • Who pays for the railways? Then we can drill down on the issues that ma@er… • How do we monitor punctuality? • How do we get the cheapest fare? • What are the cool new apps/services?
Who controls the railways? Your tax
Your fares
Courtesy: Network Rail
How is the industry structured?
How are the railways funded?
• “Network Rail… operates, maintains, renews and develops the infrastructure to deliver the outputs that governments.. wish to buy” ORR
• High Level Output Spec is what government buys • “Delivering a Sustainable Railway 2007” specifies service levels etc that will be funded CP4 09-‐14
• Periodic Review 08 by ORR matched task & funds – Next PR this year for CP5
• NR also borrows for capital investment
The governance problem for railways
• DfT only buys services at a high level • Almost all ToCs are monopolies on each line • ORR tolerates self-‐regula,on by ATOC • Passenger Focus have influence but no power • The industry is fragmented and complex • Very li@le informa,on escapes the industry • Passengers are nihilis,c about system
Some tweets
• Ahh #firstcapitalconnect -‐ trains appear on the KingsX board but it doesn't mean the train exists -‐ silly me [@JerryMarwood]
• @FirstCC We all know Ally is a robot. Automated answers heh heh [@penaltyfare]
• @FirstCC I used to get the 909 from letchworth and it always arrived at 912 so FCC cleverly made that train the 912 but then arrived at 914 [@tumsguide]
Role of Na,onal Rail Enquiries • NRE are a service of ATOC • Set up to provide phone service at priva,sa,on • Funded by TOCs, who are part-‐funded by taxes • Developed organically to run a web/API service • Un,l 2012 a monopoly supplier of all rail data • Network Rail movement data now #opendata • NRE s,ll exclusively collect opera,ng data from TOCS that enhances its feeds
• NRE license rail data @ £1.50/app
Role of NRE in passenger info • What passengers want
– Train ,mes for free on web and good value apps – Fares info to get the cheapest ,cket(s) for journey – Integrated transport op,ons
• What NRE say their aims are (with some simplifica,on)
– “to increase ,cket sales – to grow our registered customer base – to con,nue our dominance as the #1 web site in travel – Improving speed, accuracy &availability of informa,on – keep the cost of informa,on to ToCs down”
What’s the solu,on?
• Informa,on. Lots of it. From open sources. • Arm the consumer… and open up the industry:
– Timetables to analyse service pa@erns – Real ,me data to monitor delays – Fares data to iden,fy savings eg fare spliing – Integra,on with other transport data eg bus
• Developers can help with this… can’t they? • Placr created h@p://transportapi.com/ for this
NR train movement feeds • 003-‐moves{"event_type": "ARRIVAL”,"gb@_,mestamp”:
"1358780700000","original_loc_stanox":” ","planned_,mestamp":"1358780700000",",metable_varia,on":"0","original_loc_,mestamp":"","current_train_id":"","delay_monitoring_point":"false","next_report_run_,me":"1","repor,ng_stanox":"00000","actual_,mestamp":"1358780700000","correc,on_ind":"false","event_source":"AUTOMATIC","train_file_address":null,"planorm":"","division_code":"60","train_terminated":"false","train_id":"072G54MP21","offroute_ind":"false","varia,on_status":"ONTIME","train_service_code":"13569815","toc_id":"60","loc_stanox":"07132","auto_expected":"true","direc,on_ind":"UP","route":"0","planned_event_type":"ARRIVAL","next_report_stanox":"07136","line_ind":""} | 2013-‐01-‐21 15:04:09 | 2013-‐01-‐21 15:04:09
• 002-‐cancella0ons 25739787 | 0002 | 561d0540-‐ee1e-‐012f-‐9605-‐00163e000001 | 632O31MY21 | {"train_file_address":null,"train_service_code":"22710001","orig_loc_stanox":"","toc_id":"26","dep_,mestamp":"1358796120000","division_code":"26","loc_stanox":"63201","canx_,mestamp":"1358849100000","canx_reason_code":"YI","train_id":"632O31MY21","orig_loc_,mestamp":"","canx_type":"AT ORIGIN"} | 2013-‐01-‐22 10:06:05 | 2013-‐01-‐22 10:06:05
• 001-‐ac0va0ons 1679921 | 0001 | C | | 2013-‐12-‐06 | 321A42MO21 | 2013-‐01-‐21 | 2013-‐01-‐21 11:05:15 | | 2013-‐01-‐21 14:15:00 | 22108001 | 65 | 00000 | MANUAL | P50657 | NORMAL | O | 32000 | 1A42M | 2012-‐12-‐10 | 1415 | 38260220-‐ee20-‐012f-‐9605-‐00163e000001 | MANCHESTER PICCADILLY | LONDON EUSTON | VT | 2013-‐01-‐21 11:05:19 | 2013-‐01-‐21 11:05:19
• Requires high-‐speed consump,on of stream and cross-‐referencing with reference sources
`
Feeds
Cache
Stop/station data
Joins Data tables
API
App logic
Updating
Lookups
Content
Displays
Maps
Geolocate
Keys App
Processing
TransportAPI architecture
Real-time
Cloud servers
Raw data
transportapi gallery
What do we want now?
• Ini,al data releases have enabled us to start up services eg feeds for CityMapper >>>
• Level playing field for businesses • Liberalised data market • Open data driven innova,on • Open fare data expected soon
Level playing field
• Access to the rest of industry data streams: – Short term cancella,ons etc Tyrell – Rolling stock forma,on etc Gemini – Cycle policies
• Full details be@er enable us to launch informa,ve apps about your travel
Liberalised market
• Open up commercial interface to new approaches to the market – “Liverpool-‐London by train on a Friday night. Fare spliing. Double the journey ,me at a third of the price. Not an op,on on Nat Rail Enqs @Madprof
• Enable innovators to find the best deals and reliable services for your journey, and then fulfill their order without onerous T&Cs
Open data innova,on
• Need to enable new insights, build confidence e.g. OpenTrainTimes map visualisa,on
• New ways to view performance measures
Prototype open train ,mes
FixMyTransport
New metrics from apps
• Apps will create independent streams of data about the railway – Typical performance cf expected performance
• Placr already been asked by press to give independent view of performance e.g. h@p://tube-‐radar.com/
Apps as probes
• Smartphones can use apps as probes for – Train progress – Accelera,on/decelera,on via phone sensors
• Can check publicity claims
Train lateness map transportapi.com
Fares
• Fares are about to be released as open data by Rail Se@lement plan
• Will become possible to mine the data
• New role of informa,on facilitators to fare portals
In summary
• Open data can drive – Accountability – Reduc,ons in cost – Disrup,ve market influences
• Placr hope to play a key role with – New apps/services – Easy data distribu,on – New value-‐added feeds
