Stop Place hierarchies

To describe clusters of stops that are embedded within larger transport interchanges, STOP PLACEs can conveniently be nested (using the ParentSiteRef attribute of the inherited SITE description). However, having an unlimited number of hierarchy levels, especially without a clear semantic for each level, may lead to interoperability issues (since many legacy systems only support a limited degree of nesting). Therefore EPIP constrains the use of the NeTEx stop model to a mode aware structure requiring the following properties:

• A maximum of two levels of STOP PLACE will be accepted.

• Each nested level shall have a clear semantic:

• An EPIP “General” STOP PLACE may have QUAYs or contain monomodal STOP PLACEs. It is expected that the contained monomodal STOP PLACE are of different modes, but this is not mandatory. An EPIP “General” STOP PLACE shall not be contained in another STOP PLACE. An EPIP “General” STOP PLACE may have STOP PLACE ENTRANCEs.

An EPIP “Monomodal” STOP PLACE shall have at least one QUAY, and shall not contain any other STOP PLACE; all the QUAYs of an “EPIP Monomodal” STOP PLACE shall be used for the same transport mode. A Monomodal STOP PLACE may have STOP PLACE ENTRANCEs.

There is an implicit SITE CONNECTION between all the QUAYs contained in the same “General” STOP PLACE and “Monomodal” STOP PLACE hierarchy (meaning that, even if not formally described, there is a the possibility of walking between any two QUAYs of a STOP PLACE, thus allowing passenger to make an INTERCHANGE over  a CONNECTION).

  This is summarised in the following two diagrams:

Open

Open

The following table provides a compliance mapping across modes and quay types in order to build consistent “EPIP Monomodal” STOP PLACEs.

Types of QUAYs and Mode compatibility

For very large clusters of stops, an additional level or organisation can be defined using another entity; a GROUP OF STOP PLACEs. For example for an airport within which there are no walking connections between terminals, or to create a group with the main termini of a city that is to be used it as a general origin or destination for the city in a journey planner.

Other types of Place

As well as STOP PLACEs, several other PLACE entities are relevant for location finding in journey planners.

A TOPOGRAPHIC PLACE represents the named settlements (for example Cities, Towns, Villages, Regions, Districts, etc.). to which PT data, in particular STOP PLACEs (but also other entities), may be related. Some countries provide a standard gazetteer of the official names of such places to ensure that consistent (and official) names are used. (for example, the UK National Public Transport Gazetteer).

A TOPOGRAPHIC PLACE can be located within a COUNTRY. TOPOGRAPHIC PLACEs may overlap. They may also be contained inside another TOPOGRAPHIC PLACE. They may have alternative official names in different national languages.

POSTAL and ROAD ADDRESSes may be associated with SITEs and individual SITE ELEMENTs to facilitate stop finding and integration with navigation systems.

A POINT of INTEREST is another type of SITE used to represent a well-known attraction such as a museum, stadium, park, venue, etc. A POINT OF INTEREST may be categorised by one or more POINT OF INTEREST classifications. These can be organised into a POINT OF INTEREST CLASSIFICATION HIERARCHY which provides a way of exchanging standardised categorisations of the POINTs OF INTEREST.

POINTs OF INTEREST are available through the EPIP, as requested by the EC’s ITS Directive (priority action A). However, the actual POINTs OF INTEREST provided will be limited to those connected to STOP PLACEs.