Trans XChange - History

History

TransXChange is intended as a successor to the widely used ATCO-CIF format for bus timetables and was developed as a modernised representation of ATCO-CIF content, using an XML representation based on the Transmodel Reference model for Public Transport.

• Version 1.0 versions of TransXchange were developed in 2000-2001 and used in pilot projects.
• Version 2.0 of the TransXChange standard s released in April 2005. 2.1 was a major rewrite to meet additional requirements and harmonsie with eGOV standards. It introduced a modular structure of packages inpartiuclar to use the UK NaPTAN and National Public Transport Gazetteer or NPTG standard to define the names and location of stops.
• Version 2.1 was released in February 2006 and is now supported by most UK suppliers of Public Transport Scheduling software. Version 2.1 has now been adopted as the baseline standard for Electronic Bus Service Registration conducted by the UK Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA), and as the general standard to which all related developments are expected to comply. 2.1 was accompanied by an enhanced TransXChange Publisher tool which can plot a bus route on a map.
• In 2007 an open source tool known as TransXChange2GoogleTransit to output a TransXChange schedule in General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS), the format used by Google Transit, was released.
• Version 2.2 with minor modifications is being planned and is likely to appear in 2008.
• Version 2.4 was released in 2012

TransXChange is supported by all main UK suppliers of bus timetable systems and has also been used to exchange data for metro and other modes.