NeTEx European profile(s): what?!?

Have you ever come across the acronyms EPIP or EPIAP? Are you confused by the different national, local and European profiles? If so, then read further!

First, let’s lay the groundwork

📚 NeTEx and its profiles

The NeTEx norm consists of numerous volumes, called parts. Each one focuses on a specific aspect of transport services (e.g. network topology, timetables, etc.).

© AFNOR, BNTRA, CN03, GT7 (CC-BY-SA)

Find out more about NeTEx

📕/📙 A NeTEx profile is a subset of the norm that is the translation of a consensus on the choice of concepts, attributes contained in NeTEx and/or types of data exchange (e.g., the French profile focuses on passenger information and data sharing via the National Access Point).

📘 🇪🇺 The European NeTEx profile is a subset of the norm that facilitates exchanges between European countries, whether they are neighbouring or not.

In Europe, we have two profiles

As of today, we have two European profiles that were designed for passenger information and trip planners built for NeTEx:

🚌⏲️ 📍EPIP (European Passenger Information Profile) which, as its name suggests, is designed to share information to all travellers in Europe. It is a minimum set of information for trip planners, among other things. It can be seen as the closest to GTFS.

🧑‍🦼‍➡️👩‍🦯🦻 EPIAP (European Passenger Information Accessibility Profile), which is specifically designed to share information on the accessibility of transport services and networks; in short, an improved version of EPIP for inclusive mobility.

Other profiles are currently being developed by the European project NAPCORE.

Why European profiles?

Having European profiles, shared by several National Access Points and Member States, makes it possible to:

• ⏭️ accelerate the uptake of NeTEx at European level by offering a greatly reduced subset of the norm,
• 🔁 create a common base of passenger information and facilitate exchanges between different Member States,
• 📈 support the growth of National Access Points, the opening up of multimodal mobility data and the development of trip planners.

European profiles evolve regularly

EPIAP can already be considered an evolution of EPIP, as it has been enhanced to include accessibility information.

In general, the European profiles also evolve to:

• ✍️ keep up with changes in NeTEx,
• 💭 adapt to the evolving needs of Member States in their use of NeTEx,
• ➕ include more and more information relevant to passengers, always keeping in mind data exchange at the European level (e.g., simplified fare offers).

OK, but is the European profile compatible with my local or national profile?

In principle, yes:

• 🇫🇷: especially if you are in France. Why? Because the European profile was built based on everything that already existed, including the French profile,
• If you are in a country that used EPIP as the basis for its national profile (👋 🇮🇹, 🇪🇸, 🇵🇹, 🇦🇹, etc.).

And, in any case, this does not change that:

• Your national profile remains a subset of NeTEx, just like EPIP,
• Which ensures de facto compatibility of the concepts used!
• And, in most cases, it is only a matter of ‘tidying up’ the elements and putting them in the right place; for which tools exist…