Memorandum of Understanding

[Brussels, 30 July 2023]

“Solutions in the IT environment have to be thought globally – neither the technologies nor the providers can be limited to certain countries”, says VDV Vice President Werner Overkamp. In this context, ITxPT and VDV, the German Association of Public Transport, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate and support interoperability in public transport.

Both ITxPT and VDV are committed to delivering standards-based specification documents and collaborating in standardization bodies like European CEN groups. Through this MoU, the associations aim to harmonize existing specifications and develop new specifications together. “This is an important step for the stakeholders in public transport, paving the way for open and standardized data enabling improved and sustainable mobility”, says ITxPT Secretary General Anders Selling.

ITxPT and VDV agree on collaboration

The collaboration between ITxPT and VDV aims to address challenges such as the adoption of open standards in the mobility sector, interoperability issues arising from different overlapping standards, and the need for suppliers to support specifications from both organizations. It also seeks to involve German public transport authorities and operators in international collaboration efforts and prevent the development of bespoke solutions due to a lack of complete specifications.

Only by creating single standards worldwide can efforts and thus costs for IT solutions be reduced both for the transport companies and also for the providers of corresponding solutions.

Single specifications

The collaboration framework between ITxPT and VDV includes alignment of existing specifications and joint development of new specifications. The parties will work together to identify overlaps, update and enhance existing specifications. A first practical implementation of the joint approach of ITxPT and VDV is, on the one hand, the effort to mutually compare and adapt the list of technical vehicle data to be made available to PTA-PTO in a standardised way from the CAN network (busses) and, on the other hand, to jointly drive forward the standardisation of further required data.

Through this collaboration, VDV and ITxPT aim to provide a single specification for each purpose, facilitating the use of interoperable standards in public transport worldwide.

About VDV

The Association of German Transport Companies (VDV) represents the interests of public transport organizations in Germany. It focuses on political and technological advocacy, delivering technical specifications and recommendations for the industry. VDV, fully financed by its members, serves German public transport organizations on both political and technological levels. VDV recommendations, which contain the technological specifications, are publicly accessible and free of charge at knowhow.vdv.de.

About ITxPT

ITxPT (Information Technology for Public Transport) is a non-profit association specialized in delivering specifications for interoperable IT architecture in public transport and shared mobility. ITxPT is financed by membership fees with more than 160 members from 27 countries representing all mobility stakeholders (PTA, PTO, Industry). ITxPT collaborative approach ensures that their technical specifications meet the needs of the PTA-PTO. These ITxPT specifications are publicly available free-of-charge on wiki.itxpt.org.

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