Search.ch saves transport.opendata.ch

transport.opendata.ch is probably the most successful open data service in Switzerland: to date, the web service for public transport data has answered over a billion requests, up to 1.8 million a day. The interface provides highly developer-friendly access to SBB’s background systems — but these are about to be shut down.

To continue to provide the access that a large —and growing— number of innovative projects need, such as the hiking start-up WeHike or the augmented reality timetable Departures, search.ch is now making its own backend available, which, thanks to the new real-time data from opentransportdata.swiss, can also deliver timetable queries and route calculations accurate to the minute.

As a result, as little as absolutely possible changes for users of transport.opendata.ch: the interface is largely identical, but proprietary SBB information such as the occupancy indicator is no longer included in the data. A list of currently known issues can be found on Github.

The new implementation can be tested right away at transport-beta.opendata.ch; the switch to the new solution will take place on 31 July 2017.

The service is offered by search.ch and Opendata.ch on a “best-effort” basis, without guarantees for the availability or quality of the data and calculations. For use cases that require a higher query volume or guaranteed availability, Opendata.ch recommends the Viadi API as well as the official data offerings of opentransportdata.swiss and data.sbb.ch.

For further questions about the switch, the Google Group of the Open Transport Data Working Group is available, and the situation will also be addressed in a workshop at the upcoming Opendata.ch/2017 conference.

Opendata.ch thanks the search.ch team and Fabian Vogler, the long-standing maintainer of the interface — open transport data is essential for the future of the “smart city” and far beyond, and thanks to interfaces such as transport.opendata.ch it becomes easily accessible to all developers.