Thanks for attending the TfNSW MaaS Data Sharing Forum. Please see below for the answers to the questions and feedback posted on Slido and the feedback form.
Questions and feedback from the feedback form.
Q: Use ISO format for dates and times
A: The next version of the specification will include ISO formats for dates and times.
Q: Fare Discussion - how many digits?
A: Discussion about the “cost” of storing extra data was weighed up against the expense of an end-to-end journey and how with MaaS it could include flights – and possibly a first class round the world ticket and would therefore need to be able to allow for that pricing. Also the pricing would need to allow for subscription pricing. Further discussions post the event have lead to the conclusion that we do not limit it in the specification and have the field type set to a floating point.
In addition to the number of digits, a currency field will also be included in the specification. The default for Transport for NSW would be set as AUD.
Q: Should Leg sequence numbers be 0 or 1 indexed?
A: It was decided during the forum that leg sequence numbers would be 0 indexed.
Q: Add Ferry to Vehicle Type
A: Yes this will be added to the Specification.
Q: Add Estimated cost to Trip Planning file
A: Yes this will be added to the Specification.
Q: Include time in filename for realtime data feed
A: Yes the filename will include date and time.
Q: How should we publish the vehicle information (Realtime) data feeds? Will it be dropped into a storage location every 15 seconds, or polled from a provider’s API?
A: The files will be dropped into a storage location every 15 seconds.
These are MaaS operator provided realtime data feeds which we would expect to be updated (voluntarily) such that app developers and trip planners can include the MaaS operator’s availability of services (and other things) in their products.
Q: Ticket types will only be available if the operators have the ability to purchase the different fares on public transport
A: This field is not limited to public transport. Private transport operators who issue different ticket types for their customers should also complete this field.
Q: As travel zone is subject to change over time, considerations should be made not to directly use the TZ16 ID in the tables. Potentially look at options to perform post processing via lookup tables which will give you better flexibility in the future.
A: It is not possible to do post processing as we may not have the actual latitude and longitude to map against lookup tables. Travel Zones data are refreshed every 5 years.
We will update the specification to have an option to use a more generic version of geographical regions. We can then use the generic geographic region and map it to travel zone for analysis. We are investigating what options are available.
Q: Whilst the bookings are being captured as an aggregate, it would be super useful to capture actual booking events in addition to trip_planning events. Knowing if the booking is successful or not can provide useful insights into where the service is not performing well.
A:This will be incorporated into the proposed specification.
Q: It would be helpful to provide lat / long for trip_planning events.
A: This will be incorporated into the proposed specification.
Questions and feedback from Slido
Q: Will the slides be available?
A: Yes
Download Pack
Q: How does sharing live location of vehicles for on-demand services (where vehicle location does not mean availability) help on the trip planning?
A: The real time vehicle information feed will be providing the capacity availability of the vehicle.
It helps customers know where a vehicle is and when it’s on its way once ‘booked’ - validation that the service is arriving.
It also assists in (historic) data collection and analysis for future planning of services.
Q: What historical travel information (detailed Opal, Opalpay, phone ping data etc) will be made available to identify MaaS planners to optimise their deployment?
A: There will be little data that can be released from Transport for NSW beyond what has been released already, however information about traffic conditions are already available through Open Data including real time predictions based on historical data.
We encourage adjacent data service providers to share data with us - such as telcos so further knowledge of the network can be gained. Any information that is being released will be aggregated.
Q: If Maas if seamless travel then who sets fare structure and operates services? why can we use standard format like siri for the model?
A: Fee structures are set by MaaS operators and not set by TfNSW. SIRI is a standard for operational purposes while standards such as GTFS are designed for use by customer facing products and analysis.
Q: Travel history associated with an Opal card is deemed as personal information. How is data privacy protected then through the use of real time Opal data?
A: Opal data will not be released.
Q: What funding is available for businesses to; 1) investigate MAAS solutions 2) trial MAAS pilots eg implementing systems, subsidising fares etc
A: Seed funding was made available for business to explore innovative ideas and solutions to implement MaaS as part of the MaaS Innovation Challenge. No future funding is planned at this stage.
Q: With GTFS-realtime, how can on-demand dynamic-routing technology providers protect exposure or their IP or routing algorithms?
A: GTFS-realtime broadcasts the vehicle locations. It can be tracked to form a route. However, it is complex to reverse engineer to understand the the vehicle routing algorithm when there is a new booking or new pick up being added to existing route.
Q: Agree with the need for more real time Opal data made available to council for better Transport Planning.
A: There is currently no publicly accessible real-time Opal data. Historic analysis of Opal data is produced by the Transport Performance and Analytics team (TPA) within Transport for NSW
Q: It’s a very asset/operator focused framework. If the objective is to use data to drive behaviour change a lot more anonymised customer data is required.
A: There are concerns with privacy of individuals and customer’s data. Currently, there are operators who do not collect customer data and some operators who do not want to share any data. As explained during the forum, Transport for NSW are combining a few sources to form a customer journey and the operator that they are using for the journey.
We welcome any suggestions to improve the collection of customer data which can provide insights of customer behaviour change.
Q: Understand the benefits for an operator in sharing real-time supply data but how does sharing live location of vehicle and trip data help the operator?
A: The information can be used by trip planning apps or websites to display if there is any available capacity for the vehicle and is (these days) expected information from a customer’s point of view. This enables the customer to make decisions on whether to book the operator’s service. It is used to broadcast the capacity of the operator’s vehicles.
Q: Around 70% of NSW journeys are in private vehicles - at best just over 25% of transport data will be A: captured. Are there plans to capture private vehicle data?
There are other departments within Transport that are working on collecting this data.
Q: How will MaaS deal with reliability? Will trips need to change during transit? How will this effect committed additional service offerings?
A: This is a component we’re expecting MaaS apps to handle and to provide the best customer experience.
Q: What feeds are available for availability of wheelchair accessible road transport vehicles?
A: This information is available in the GTFS trips.txt. This information will also be incorporated into the real time vehicle information feed.
Q: Suggest to have bearing in the real-time vehicle information feed so that we know the heading of the vehicle.
A: This will be incorporated into the proposed specification.
Q: Road infrastructure keeping up, eg eternal congestion along and around Botany Road from Redfern, esp Raglan/Henderson intersection?
A: With more data including traffic data and MaaS operator data Transport for NSW will have a better understanding of the network conditions and come up with strategies and plans to mitigate the congestion in affected areas.
Q: What is the interaction between GTFS and TransXchange in the MaaS spec space?
A: TransXchange provides Transport Operations Data. It uses TfNSW Contracted Operators’ data, and feeds into the production of GTFS and GTFS realtime data feeds.
Q: Can we locate travel data by bus route?
A: Unfortunately we do not have this data at this stage on the Open Data Hub. You may request this data for us via our TPA team. More information on bus patronage is available here Bus Patronage | Transport for NSW
Q: What are the panels thoughts on how carpool trips could be brought into the trip options provided, given the dynamic and trust based nature of carpool trips.
A: TfNSW encourages the use of carpooling. This will be possible if the Carpool provider can supply booking APIs or functionality and realtime vehicle information to inform the trip planning app that there is a vehicle heading towards the customer pick up location and the available capacity of that vehicle.
Presentation Pack / Slide Pack used
The presentation pack we used for the session is available for download.
Download Pack
Video of session
Unfortunately our livestream stopped during the panel discussion. We have added a back up video recording to the end of the video so the format changes slightly.
Go to YouTube video
Notes from the session
We have taken notes based on the recording and provided answers to some of the Slido and other questions and comments which have been received as part of the process for gaining feedback about the proposed Specification. These are included in the one document
Download Notes
Still need to review the TMDSS?
If you haven’t reviewed the Transport for NSW MaaS Data Sharing Specification (TMDSS) you can still get a copy of the latest proposed Specification.
Latest copy of proposed Specification