NeTEx and GTFS: friends or foes?

With more and more National Access Points requiring to have multimodal mobility data in NeTEx, are you slightly annoyed (to say the least…)? Did it take you a long time to standardise everything using GTFS, and you do not understand why you are being asked to start all over again with NeTEx? Are you wondering why we now have 2 very different specifications? If so, then read further!

First, let’s lay the groundwork

Before we dive into more technical discussions, here is what you need to know about NeTEx and GTFS.

📚NeTEx

NeTEx is a European norm:

• governed and maintained by CEN,
• that enables the exchange of all static information describing a public transport service,
• based on the reference conceptual data model Transmodel, which serves as both a dictionary and a grammar to NeTEx,
• designed for passenger information, inter-system exchanges, and open data.

📗GTFS

GTFS is a standard:

• maintained by MobilityData,
• that enables the exchange of static information describing a transit service,
• designed for passenger information and open data.

Note: Norms and standards differ by their governance body. Only norms are governed by an official standardisation body such as ISO, CEN or a national standardisation body (e.g., ANSI in the USA, BSI for Great Britain, DNI for Germany, AFNOR for France).

Why two specifications?

Although NeTEx and GTFS were both born in the early 2000’s, they do not come from the same continent and do not share the same vision.

🇪🇺 / 🇺🇸 Born on opposite sides of the world

NeTEx and GTFS have two different approaches to modelling:

• 🇪🇺: I strive to build a consensus shared by all Member States and I must allow for the diversity of public transport to be represented,
• 🇺🇸: I start by keeping things simple and grow as needs arise and/or transit evolves.

Different visions

NeTEx and GTFS do not share the same vision of public transport:

• 🚌🚕🚲🛴🚎🚄 NeTEx (and Transmodel) covers all public transport; i.e., any advertised public transport service and available for use by the public, regardless of its mode of operation,
• 🚌🚕🚎🚄 GTFS covers public transport with conventional modes of operation; i.e., transit and flexible modes.

For more details on the modes of operation of public transport covered by Transmodel: © CEN, TC278, WG3, SG4 (CC-BY-SA)

Learn more on Transmodel

Who is it for?

NeTEx and GTFS were not designed for the same consumers of multimodal mobility data.

👩‍💻 NeTEx was designed for various consumers of multimodal mobility data. Therefore, it allows different exports of datasets depending on whether you:

• feed your own trip planner with richer information,
• provide data to other IT systems (e.g., offer management, ticketing, etc.),
• export the open data required by national and European regulations,
• perform advanced statistics on your public transport offer (especially in conjunction with OpRa).

📍 GTFS is designed for the most widely used trip planners (e.g., Google Maps, Transit App, Citymapper, etc.). Therefore, it only includes data that is essential for:

• finding possible routes between two stops,
• knowing the average journey time,
• knowing the most common fares,
• taking into account the minimum information required for passenger information.

OK, but does that mean that I have to change everything?

Yes and No!

If your software does not offer native exports of your data in both NeTEx and GTFS, we are here to help! 🤝

If you have tools that support both NeTEx and GTFS, you do not need to do anything. Just make sure that you generate two publications of your public transport offer. ⤵

And what about Chouette SaaS?

Our product allows you to publish natively your data in both NeTEx and GTFS to feed all your data consumers.
Our goal is to help you aggregate, improve and enrich your multimodal mobility data without having to worry about their export formats. We believe that your time is better spent taking the control of your mobility data.
Chouette SaaS also allows you to publish your open data in one click.
All of this thanks to:

• a SaaS product, that evolves without you having to pay more,
• a team of passionate experts, involved in standardisation work,
• an active listening to all your needs, so we can improve our products and support you in taking full advantage of norms and standards.

To learn how to publish your data in both NeTEx and GTFS, read the next article.

How to publish my data in both NeTEx and GTFS