friday lunchtime lecture - how can open data revolutionise your rail travel?
DESCRIPTION
Friday Lunchtime Lectures at the Open Data Institute. For our fourth lecture... How can open data revolutionise your rail travel? The release of open data on public transport over the last year has laid bare the the secrets of cheap fares, true timekeeping records and the best alternative routes the official journey planners don't tell you. Jonathan Raper, digital geographer and founder of Placr, will draw back the curtain on this new era and reveal how you can make the most of it.TRANSCRIPT
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
