This week we announced the public launch of the Create Fares Data Service, part of an initiative led by our Integrated and Smart Travel (IST) programme aimed at making it easier for bus passengers to find out how their next journey will cost.
Passenger insight research commissioned by Transport for the North shows an increasing number of people are using smartphones to navigate to their destination (69% in 2020, up from 64% in 2019).
While it is becoming second nature for many of us to log online or into mobile apps to plan our journeys on public transport, these passenger facing services are enabled through lots of background technical infrastructure and data feeds that put the information at our fingertips.
Bus fares have long been as one of the missing data sets in digital travel information, and many passengers still rely on asking the driver when they jump onboard. In part this is because there are many different operators and authorities involved in publishing this data meaning it has been hard for a consistent cross-industry approach to develop organically. But this is soon to change. Upcoming national legislation is placing new requirements on all bus operators across England to ensure they publish certain travel information, including fares, in a consistent format via the Bus Open Data Service.
Transport for the North identified many bus operators in our region, particularly smaller ones, would need technical support to meet these obligations and the Create Fares Data Service aims to provide just that.
The Create Fares Data Service – previously known as the Fares Data Build Tool – has been developed in partnership between the IST programme, the Department for Transport, Traveline and Leeds-based digital transformation consultancy Infinity Works.
Bus operators from across the country were also involved in design and testing of the tool to ensure it was fully accessible, easy to use and fit for purpose. As testament to this, it successfully passed its Government Digital Standards assessment and has already started to be used by operators.
The service enables operators to upload their many different fare types – including single and returns, period passes, zonal, group and multi-operator tickets – and export this as standardised NeTEx data.
NeTEx, a multipurpose data standard that has never been widely used in the UK before, is innovative. Its implementation has been eagerly anticipated by the industry and it provides tech experts further scope to innovate with how fares can be used in journey planning apps and other operational services.
The full passenger benefits of the service are realised through the power of the open publication of the data it creates, which means this data can then be used by market leading companies such as Google, Citymapper, Moovit and other data-driven developers who provide it back to customers. This approach amplifies the information’s reach much further than if it was only published in one platform alone.
We have shared previously how our IST programme is using open data to drive improvements to customer information across the North, and better connecting our local transport authority partners with industry-leading developers and tech experts so our region can be at the cutting edge of this sector.
Ultimately, for the passenger its about being able to go to their preferred digital channel and access reliable and up-to-date information so they can plan how to best get from A to B. It is hoped better information about the cost of travel will empower people to ditch private cars and choose bus and other forms of shared and more sustainable travel when they can.
Following successful completion of development, Transport for the North will be handing over ownership of the Create Fares Data Service to the Department for Transport to provide as a national solution before the end of the year. It can be accessed on GOV.uk now.
More information about the Integrated and Smart Travel Programme can be found on our website.
