VDM Verlag Situation Information Provision in Public Transport: Functional analysis & design of an inter-company Situation information provision platform for traveller information

A Situation, in short, has occurred whenever something happens or may happen to anything within the public transport system so that its (possible) effect lowers the level of service experienced by travellers using or about to use it. Information being the portal to public transport use, its quality and provision is crucial for travellers to experience the best the system can offer – especially when inevitable changes to its supply occur, such as delays, strikes or timetable redesign. Today, there is no consensus among stakeholders in public transport about what constitutes high quality situation information. Also, its provision is often fragmented and inconsistent, yet it should be provided integrally – regardless of company or even country, as to travellers, public transport is a system. Information to use it must follow accordingly. This research therefore seeks to provide practitioners with a central understanding of situation information quality from a traveller perspective, and a functional design of a backend inter-company platform for its provision to traveller information portals. The results can be used as a starting point for the design of actual information systems, as a benchmark to compare current solutions to, or for instance by companies and in politics for strategic considerations.