Standards Development

Scope

The European Fare Information Profile (EFIP) will: ­

Detail the most common fare structures and products found in multimodal mobility context (flat, distance­based, zonal, time­based, yield­managed fares, occasional journeys, account­based, etc.) ­

• Define a modelling methodology and interoperability rules for all above­mentioned fare structures and products ­
• Identify which NeTEx concepts and attributes are relevant for the standard representation and exchange of fare products ­
• Specify data exchange protocols ensuring compatibility with other data exchange formats defined in CEN TC 278 WG3.

The functional scope of the CEN/TS will cover all modes of public transport in urban, suburban, and rural contexts. It will also cover long­distance rail as a component of a pan European multimodal trip

Purpose

As of today, both: ­

• The Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/490 of 29 November 2023 amending Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/1926 supplementing Directive 2010/40/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to the provision of EU­wide multimodal travel information services, and ­
• The Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/253 of 6 February 2026 on a technical specification relating to the telematics subsystem of the rail system in the European Union for interoperability of data sharing in rail transport (TEL TSI) and repealing Regulations (EU) No 454/2011 (TAP TSI) and (EU) No 1305/2014 (TAF TSI) have placed emphasis on the exchange of fare information. 

Indeed, fares and the related costs of travel are important elements of passenger information for journey planning. Information on where and how to buy tickets and the different conditions attached to different fares is also important for helping users choose and use public transport. Unlike timetables, which benefit from long established national standards and well understood conceptual models, there is relatively low usage of standardised exchange of fare information, which tends to be very specific to a mode and a few products. Outside of the rail sector, there has been little effective standardisation usage and even within the rail industry not all aspects of a fare are modelled in a machine­readable form.

Transmodel has developed a powerful component­based conceptual model of fares which allows the description of any type of fare for all modes of transport, including access rights, conditions, fare products, sales offers, distribution and prices. NeTEx has implemented most of the Transmodel conceptual model. This model allows almost any type of fare to be described and offers great flexibility to address the different ways of constructing and marketing fares as found in the real world.

To create efficient implementations in NeTEx, as in the case of timetables and the European Passenger Information Profile (EPIP) & European Passenger Information Accessibility Profile (EPIAP), it is desirable to consolidate both the scope of fares covered and the approaches used. A European Fare Information Profile (EFIP) aims to establish such a set of core fare types and features and set out various rules for their use.