The Timetable Expert Group (TTEG) meeting was held on 5 and 6 November at UIC headquarters. It was attended by 23 participants representing 13 railway companies.
The TTEG is a community of railways that publishes consolidated timetable data to be used in information systems to support journey planning and booking activities.
The main item on the agenda was the new MERITS and the meeting was divided into two parts.
On the afternoon of 5 November, the MERITS management team represented by Marc Guigon, Joachim Baars and Fabrice Setta reminded participants of the functional rules that will form the framework of the new MERITS and ensure the necessary level of quality of timetable and location data.
On the morning of 6 November, HaCon, the German based company that developed and will maintain the new MERITS represented Frank Martini and Marianne Dietz-Grebe, presented the new MERITS best practices and detailed the main functionalities, such as:
- New message viewer
- Data upload procedure
- Handling of warnings and errors
- Data integration procedure
- Data publication
- User management
After a development phase lasting one year, the new MERITS is becoming a reality and will respond to the ever increasing requirements of its users by providing a modern and adaptable web based tool. TTEG participants were very active and were given all the information they needed to prepare for the go–live, scheduled for early 2014.
