DELFI : a national door-to-door
The DELFI system, that aims to provide doorto- door travel information for public transport users in whole Germany, was launched in 1996 by the German Ministry of transport in co-operation with the Länder (regions).
A first version of the system was officially presented on 28th June. Instead of being a new countrywide journey planner, DELFI connects the existing journey planners of Länder and of DB with each other.
DELFI, which is available on the internet sites of the project partners, was developed by the company Inovaplan and relies on exchange of data.
It is hoped that DELFI will facilitate the planning of trips of public transport users, and even attract new passengers.
Integrated information between local, regional and national transport networks is indeed a key factor to increase the attractiveness of public transport systems.
It can be noticed that the European project EU-Spirit aims to develop at the European level a similar travel information system offering the calculation of door to door travel itineraries between European cities or regional areas.
This system includes all public transport modes from taxi to airplane. Up to now, operators of travel planners from Denmark, Germany and Sweden participate in the project, but all operators of internet based travel planners are invited to join the system and thereby offer additional services to their customers.
www.delfi.de
www.eu-spirit.com