Calculation of municipal contributions to public transport: greater efficiency thanks to digitalisation
Thanks to automation, open data and intelligent logic, a previously complex process is now handled quickly, reliably and transparently.
The starting point: high costs for fair cost distribution
Public transport in the canton of Lucerne is co-financed by the participating municipalities. To ensure that costs are distributed fairly, the VVL calculates the municipal contributions annually. This is based on the number of departures at all stops in a municipality – a clear method in itself, but one that was costly to implement in practice.
Until now, the timetable data was evaluated by the transport companies, manually transferred to a template, sent to the VVL and checked there on a random basis. This process was very time-consuming for the transport companies and the VVL and was also prone to errors. The VVL therefore sought a solution to automate the process while increasing the quality and traceability of the results.
The solution: automation with open GTFS data
Our customised solution is based on the open timetable data (GTFS) from opentransportdata.swiss. It automatically determines the number of departures per stop and municipality, taking into account all relevant special cases:
- Seasons and public holidays with different timetables
- Loops where journeys must not be counted twice
- Non-contributory lines or categories, which are filtered out
- Temporary restrictions, e.g. due to construction sites, which are ignored
The calculation is transparent and traceable at all times. Anomalies and inconsistencies are automatically detected, ensuring a quality-assured result.
The benefits: faster processing, fewer errors, satisfied partners
What used to take many hours of manual work is now largely automated. Fast, reliable and transparent.
- Significantly less effort for evaluations and follow-up works
- Less effort for administrative processes
- Error reduction through automated calculations and integrated quality assurance
- Clearly traceable results for municipalities and transport companies
- Flexible adaptability for future lines, stops or regulations
«*Manually processing around 140 Excel files is now a thing of the past. Thanks to geOps' automated timetable evaluation, we save time, reduce errors and gain noticeable efficiency – not only for us, but also for the transport companies.»*
— Public Transport Finance Specialist at VVL
Thanks to our experience and the use of standardised data formats, the project was completed with minimal effort – to the customer's complete satisfaction.
Achieving more together
Digital solutions such as these demonstrate how open data and intelligent systems can simplify everyday public transport. They save time, increase transparency and build trust between all parties involved.
Would you also like to make public transport processes more efficient? Please contact us and we will assist you in developing customised, practical solutions.
