Marco Comerio
I am currently the Mobility Research Lead and certified PMI-PMP project manager at Cefriel. I am involved in managing and realizing studies and applied research projects in digital innovation. Most of my current research activities focus on designing and developing data spaces and data governance frameworks for the mobility and transport sector.
I have published over 60 referred papers in books, conference proceedings, and journals.
Session
The European Union has established NeTEx and SIRI as de jure standards for mobility data exchange, requiring Member States to adopt them in their National Access Points (NAPs) to ensure interoperability and accessibility of transport data. However, GTFS (General Transit Feed Specification) and its extension GTFS-RT (General Transit Feed Specification - Real Time) remain the most widely used de facto standards for multimodal trip planning, creating a “barrier” to the adoption of EU standards and the intended usage of NAPs.
To address this challenge, in the context of the OTP-Italy project, OpenMove and Cefriel are developing an innovative solution to enable the transition from GTFS and GTFS-RT to NeTEx and SIRI (Italian profiles) in the open-source journey planning software OpenTripPlanner (OTP).
The solution includes two converters supporting the conversion from GTFS to the Italian NeTEx profile and from GTFS-RT to the Italian SIRI profile, leveraging a reference conceptual model and semantic web techniques to ensure optimal conversion and data enrichment. Moreover, the solution includes the development of an OTP fork to improve integration with the NeTEx and SIRI italian profiles, optimizing interoperability among transport companies' data and enhancing the accuracy of transport information.
This initiative goes beyond mere data conversion, aiming to improve the quality of information provided to end users by enriching it with new sources and expanding its informational coverage. The result contributes to a more integrated, interoperable, and accessible mobility ecosystem that facilitates stakeholder collaboration and makes public transport an increasingly competitive alternative to private car use.
Through this presentation, we aim to share the challenges faced and the solutions adopted so far, providing a concrete implementation case to support the transition to European mobility standards. We will offer insights into the technical aspects of data conversion, the advantages of integrating open standards in trip planning, and the broader impact on mobility data interoperability and accessibility across Europe.