Conference Agenda

Rail transit has continuously evolved and plays an important role in improving the quality of life for urban residents. With 4.88 billion smartphone users worldwide in 2024, and reports that up to 90% of public transport passengers use smartphones during their journeys, journey planning applications have become a widely used tool for rail travel. The quality of these applications directly affects the travel experience. Developing effective journey planning applications is not straightforward. Applications must meet traveler needs across multiple dimensions, including real-time information, route guidance, fare calculation, and connections to other transport modes. At the same time, application features are shaped by the operational and governance context of the rail system. The governance model, whether state-operated, privately managed, or structured as a public-private partnership, determines who develops the application, what data can be accessed, and which features are prioritized. Understanding the relationship between application features and rail governance context is therefore important for identifying the current limitations of journey planning tools and improving the travel experience for urban residents. This study examines how rail governance models relate to the features of journey planning applications. It presents a comparative analysis of applications across nine cities, using a three-step analytical framework: rail governance model, open data policy, and application features across three categories: route planning, ticketing, and navigation. The findings reveal patterns between governance models and application features. Some applications have limited feature scope due to fragmented governance or restricted data sharing. This suggests that application limitations are not purely technical but reflect the governance structures of each city. In cities with a centralized model where a single authority controls both data and application development, applications tend to offer broader and more integrated features. In contrast, cities operating under concession-based models, where multiple operators function independently without shared data mechanisms, often produce applications with narrower feature coverage. Open data policies also play a role by determining whether transit data, such as static timetables, real-time arrival information, and fare data, is published in interoperable standards such as GTFS or in proprietary formats that limit third-party access. These findings are intended to support application developers in designing features that are realistic within the data constraints of each context. They also aim to support policymakers in considering how restructuring governance arrangements or adopting open data standards can create conditions for more capable journey planning applications, particularly in cities that are restructuring their rail systems or considering open data policies for the first time.