THE National Distribution System (NDS) that will offer ticketing products from over 50 different rail and bus operators was launched in Sweden on March 5.
The NDS has been supplied by Turnit to Samtrafiken, an organisation that is owned by 35 bodies, including all 21 of Sweden’s public transport authorities, national operator SJ and other passenger operators including MTR Express (MTRX), Snälltåget and Vy Tåg.
Based on the Open Sales and Distribution Model (ODSM) online standard developed by the International Union of Railways (UIC), NDS streamlines ticket sales and enhances cross-selling opportunities for operators, enabling them to offer additional services to passengers.
Samtrafiken says Sweden is the first country in Europe to have a distributed ecosystem with several booking systems connected to it, based on the competition-neutral OSDM standard.
NDS enables requests from transport operators and distribution partners to be handled quickly, according to Turnit, making the booking process seamless and convenient for passengers.
The new system is based on Turnit Hub, which enables straightforward cross-selling of tickets, according to the supplier.
Samtrafiken’s project manager, Ms Kasja Wejander, told IRJ that there are still a few operators not yet connected to NDS, as they as still have to upgrade their own systems to the required OSDM online interface standard.
Vy Tåg is replacing its current sales system with the OSDM-native Turnit Ride platform, which will enable it to join NDS.
Two operators have already upgraded their systems but a commercial decision to connect to NDS has yet to be made, Wejander says.
The OSDM standard does not extend to the sharing of timetables and related data. The existing NeTEx standard is used to supply data for journey planning search engines.
IRJ understands that independent operators competing with SJ in the Swedish market have expressed their reservations about the new system, pointing to its delayed rollout and questions over its ability to handle dynamic pricing.
The European Commission (EC) has also expressed its concerns over elements of OSDM that it believes have the potential to restrict the sharing of fare and timetable information with distributors and passengers.
"We embarked on a challenging project with Samtrafiken two years ago, knowing that it would require significant effort and come with inherent risks,” says Turnit CEO, Mr Ülo Säre.
“With numerous operators simultaneously implementing new systems, the new OSDM online standard being finalised during the project, and a tight timeline, we knew that there were many unknowns that could have potentially derailed our progress.
“Through close collaboration with our partners in the OSDM working group, outstanding leadership from Samtrafiken and by remaining agile in our development plan as needed, we were able to successfully navigate the project's complexities and achieve the objectives agreed with Samtrafiken,"
