Interface with Automatic Vehicle Location Systems
Journey planning with real-time and forecasting information
Operating Automatic Vehicle Location Systems (AVLS) know the actual position of their vehicles compared to the operating timetable and can pass on the real-time and forecast information to the mdv EFA system. EFA incorporates this current state information only seconds later into the database and considers it in all requests.
Based on this information EFA is able to indicate in a departure monitor the punctuality or delays for each mode of transport.
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 Departure monitor with real-time and forecasting information |
Current states can be considered as well in the trip calculation. The next figure shows a trip information with small delay:
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Greater delays can be presented in a more striking way:
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If a trip is punctual, the user is informed as well:
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If a train has to use a different platform than initially designated, this information is also represented in EFA. This is important for the passenger to reach the correct departure point:
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In addition EFA can inform about cancellation of trips, stop, line and route closures.
Real-time interfaces
EFA must be able to receive the real-time data from AVLS to inform the passengers of the current traffic status in the public transport network. For this task the EFA system supports several interfaces:
The up-to-date VDV-454 interface is XML-based and uses the HTTP-transfer protocol. mdv was intensely involved in the design and specification of the interface.
Two services are defined for the replacement of schedules (service REFAUS) and for processing data (service AUS, e.g. for delay forecasting). VDV.454 has a wide dispersion in German speaking countries.
mdv is a member of a task force of the European committee for standardization to harmonize the different national approaches for real-time date interfaces and to transfer them into a common European interface.
A result is now available in a first version. The SIRI-interface contains the essential parts of the German VDV454 interface for scheduled information with real-time data.
SIRI also includes some more features, e.g. SOAP-communication, new services, etc. As a first installation the SIRI-interface was implemented by mdv within Transport for London's Journey Planner. London River Service (LRS) boats have a GPS based AVLS reporting directly to the SIRI-interface of EFA. This guarantees the integration of delays in Departure Board and Journey Planner:
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- MoTiV
MoTiV is an older interface for the exchange of information about vehicle delays and the cancellation of trips. For communication purpose MoTiV uses the CORBA protocol.
- UIC (Union Internationale des Chemins de fer, internation union of railways)
The UIC created a TCP/IP based interface to exchange information regarding trains. EFA can use this information to indicate the current status of trains.
References
- VRR (Transport association Rhine-Ruhr, Germany)
Integration of realtime data of the DB AG (RIS-System: passenger information system) - via VDV 454
www.vrr.de - DING (Donau-Iller public transport organzation, Germany)
Realtime data integration of the operation control system of the SWU (town department of the city Ulm) - via VDV 454 in cooperation with Siemens VDO www.ding-ulm.de - StVG (Steiermark Transport association, Austria)
Realtime data integration of the operation control system of the GVB (Transport company Graz) - via VDV 454 in cooperation with INIT AG
www.verbundlinie.at
