53 OSDM participants representing the rail sector (Railway Undertakings and Ticket Vendors) met on Thursday, 17 December 2020.
Clemens Gantert (UIC/DB) and Andreas Schlapbach (FSM/SBB), Chair and Vice-Chair of the UIC OSDM Working Group, presented the achievement made by the technical experts.
Open Sales and Distribution Model (OSDM), a project jointly managed by UIC, railway companies, ticket vendors involved in EU travel technology, and ECTAA associations, is the new Europe-wide industry standard for ticket sales, reservations and price distribution. OSDM is the result of the fusion of FSM (Full Service Model) specifications and nTM (new Tariff Model) solutions for the comprehensive and open interoperability of train ticket sales.
OSDM offers a powerful fare combination in an easy-to-implement distribution API. It is now possible to combine fares according to existing fare combinations (e.g. B.1/NRT fares) and using new fares and/or combination models, i.e. both existing and future products can be distributed. It is easy for customers to find and make a booking, and if needed, refund a booking. For the rail sector as a whole, the complexity of distribution had to be reduced to save both development and distribution costs.
The Yaml files and IRS 90918-10 Version 1 have now been finalised and are available on the UIC github: https://unioninternationalcheminsdefer.github.io/OSDM.
This specification is now freely available under Open Apache 2.0 licence.
All prioritised numerous changes are now included. The OSDM specification offers:
- An offline full definition for the bulk distribution of railway prices; and
- A simplified and lightened online web service.
During the meeting, OSDM Version 1.0 was approved by all participants (Railway Undertakings and Ticket Vendors).
Thanks to these two solutions (OSDM Platform and OSDM/FSM Web Service), railways can provide better services to attract new customers by bringing technical innovation and implementing smart mobility solutions for seamless travel. They are paving the way to seamless multimodal passenger transport.
Marc Guigon, UIC Passenger Director and Vittorio Carta, UIC PSG Chair, thanked all participants on behalf of the entire rail distribution sector for this achievement.
It was an historic day for improving ticket distribution.
In 2021, the UIC /FSM technical team will continue to enhance the OSDM protocol and will support those actors effecting its implementation.
