Sweden launches centralized public transport booking system

Sweden has become the first country in Europe to use the OSDM online public transport booking standard on a nationwide level with the launch of a national distribution system (NDS). It was developed by Samtrafiken and allows customers to book tickets at more than 50 Swedish railway and bus stations.

The system, developed in cooperation with Turnit, an Estonian travel technology company, connects users to several booking platforms from one central site. This makes it easier to plan trips using the services of several railway operators, railway-technology.com emphasizes.

NDS combines bus and train tickets from suppliers such as Swedish national railway company SJ, Norway's Vy Group, Arlanda Express and MTRX, as well as from 21 independent regional public transport authorities across the country.

Turnit CEO Juhlo Sare said: "Thanks to the close cooperation with our OSDM working group partners, the outstanding leadership of Samtrafiken and the flexibility of our development plan, we were able to successfully manage the complexity of the project and achieve the goals agreed with Samtrafiken."

The Open Sales and Distribution Model (OSDM), developed by the International Union of Railways, is an international standard for public transport ticketing platforms to make it easier for customers to book international train travel.

Samtrafiken described four key components of its new NDS, including the use of a "data warehouse" to store ticket products, the use of the TRAID sales tool to allow retailers to book trips in a form that is convenient for them, a trip search across all available land vehicles for sale, collective transport, and a central distribution hub.

The NDS will also include Samtrafiken's Resplus scheme, which has been providing a single ticket for rail, bus, coach, ferry, tram and metro in Sweden for 20 years, allowing customers to automatically rebook a service if they miss part of their journey.

Earlier, TravelWise reported on the development of air transportation in Sweden.