The Merits TimeTable Expert Group (TTEG) meeting was held on 8 and 9 October 2015 at the invitation of TCDD, the Turkish Passenger Railway Undertaking, in Istanbul.
28 participants representing 10 railway companies were present.
UIC was represented by Marc Guigon, Senior Advisor for Passenger Transport and Fabrice Setta, Senior Advisor for eBusiness.
TCDD was represented by Yusuf Çağatay, Director International tariff, Neslihan Özkan, Deputy director international tariff, Nazmiye Kiliçaslan, expert international tariff, Osman Mithat Celikbas, System analyst, Neşe Ağaoğlu, Organisation of the seminar, Ipek Keles Havelsan, software programmer, Volkan Benturk, software programmer and Esma Çaliș, interpreter.
The TTEG is the community of Railway Undertakings that publishes consolidated timetable data (MERITS data) to be used in information systems to support journey planners and booking activities.
The agenda focused on technical matters, with the meeting being divided into two parts.
TCDD presented the sales and distribution strategy and organisation. TCDD uses MERITS and PRIFIS tools to sell tickets for 13 other railway undertakings (DB, SJ, SBB, CFR, SNCB, MAV…).
After this presentation, Marc Guigon welcomed the different Merits speakers, and participants. The following subjects were discussed:
- Fabrice Setta spoke about data integration and the current problems to be solved
- Angelina Rotolo-Piazza, data manager from DB Vertrieb, presented the overview of the deliveries: import and export, and the problems concerning the deliveries. She also proposed software changes and improvments
- Fabrice Setta presented the upgrading of UIC leaflet 916.1 and the recent developments of the Ecopassenger website
- Frank Martini, from HaCon, outlined the new version 4.8 of the Merits software: minimum connecting time, export statistics report, enhanced usability
- Henrik Nyman (Linkon-SJ) presented the possible consequences of opening the tunnel in Båstad on the quality of Merits data
- Dominique Margottin gave an update on TAP TSI, the new calendar, and the revision of the regulation
- Marc Guigon presented an overview of the decisions which had been taken by the last Commercial and Distribution Forum, and the steering committee. He underlined the cost of Merits, and the possible enlargement of the Merits community. He reminded the meeting that the TTEG members have to report to the forum representatives
- Kateryna Filipova, Natalia Monakhova and Vladimir Kalyapin presented the new services from Moscow-Minsk-Warsaw-Budapest-Sofia-Varna-Burgas-Bar
The next TTEG will be held from 31 March – 1 April 2016 in Madrid at the kind invitation of RENFE.
*The day after the TTEG meeting in Istanbul the terrorist attack was carried out in Ankara, killing dozens of people. At TCDD some close friends of our colleagues within the TTEG group were among those who died. Our thoughts go out to them.
