Public transport route planner

A public transport route planner is an intermodal journey planner accessed via website/web application/mobile apps that provide information about available public transport journeys. The application prompts a user to input an origin and a destination, and uses a journey planning engine to find a route between the two using specified services using available Public Transport services. Since the choice of routes is more constrained than for a road route planner, and since it is not only about choosing a route but also about choosing a service on that route, it is also termed a journey planner instead of a route planner.

An intermodal journey planner supports intermodal journeys i.e. using more than one modes of transport, such as rapid transit or metro, railways, buses and ferries. Some route planners support door-to-door planning, others only between stops on the transport network, such as stations, airports or bus stops. Time of travel may be constrained to either time of departure or arrival and other routing preferences may be specified as well.

The first digital public transport journey planner software was developed by Eduard Tulp, a informatica student at the Amsterdam University on a Atari PC. He was hired by the Dutch Railways to built a digital journey planner for the train services. In 1990 the first digital journey planner for the Dutch Railways (on diskette) was sold to be installed on PC´s and computers for off-line consultation. The principles of his software program was published in a Dutch university paper in 1991 This was soon expanded to include all public transport in the Netherlands. Other European countries soon followed with their own journey planners. The software supported all telefoon inquiries for the public transport compagnies. Before experienced staff was needed with good geografical knowledge and experience in consulting the paper timetables.

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