Using an Open Platform Approach and Integration Strategy to Increase Operational Efficiency and Enhance Travel Experience in a Modern City Transport System

Passengers are becoming more and more connected. The expectations on the public transport business to provide information that is actual, correct and relevant for the individual traveler is increasing. At the same time, many politicians and authorities see the necessity of creating integrated city- or region wide public transportation systems to solve congestion and environmental problems. This calls for better cooperation between authorities and public transport operators, and for interoperable information solutions, where travelers can do one-stop shopping when planning and making trips. The experience shows that systems of different suppliers are often incompatible or difficult to integrate, due to business as well as technical reasons. The operators and authorities are therefore either forced to run several systems separately, or to rely on one specific supplier and its range of products. Copenhagen Transport has a long experience with system integration. This paper presents the experiences from over 10 year of integration in Copenhagen, Denmark, and how this has influenced other public transport authorities and operators in Scandinavia. The author was engaged as IT-Strategist at Copenhagen Transport from 1996 to 2004 and is today working at Hogia Public Transportation Systems as a consultant with specialty of system integration for the public transport business.