DIVA 4 and EFA 10 - Paradigm Change at the VVS

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2 mdv news II/2011 Letter from the Editor Contents Dear Reader We are very pleased to report on the DIVA 4 installation for our customer in Stuttgart, Germany. The VVS (Stuttgart Transport and Tariff Association) is not only one of the largest users of DIVA and EFA, they are also a long-standing customer, who along with MVV (Munich Transport and Tariff Association) made it possible to develop transport planning software more than 25 years ago. By continuing to back mdv products and support innovation, our joint success is only validated through our reliable, ongoing partnership. The article not only includes the views of project managers, it also pays particular attention to the experience of staff that work with DIVA on a dayto-day basis. While we were hard at work transitioning from DIVA 3 to DIVA 4, light rail operators and bus drivers in Stuttgart took to the picket lines. The job then fell to EFA to keep passengers up-to-date and informed on the effects of the strike on city transport. DIVA 4 can also supply our AVM light module. We report on an application at the VRN Transport Authority (Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar). Finally, the second installment of our biannual user group was held in Bremerhaven, in the north of Germany. We report on the presentations and show the event in pictures. I wish you happy holidays and a successful 2012 Dr. Hans-Joachim Mentz Imprint Publisher: Mentz Datenverarbeitung GmbH Grillparzerstraße 18 D-81675 München Tel.: +49 (0)89 41 868-0 Fax: +49 (0)89 41 868-160 E-mail: mdv@m.mentzdv.de Internet: www.mentzdv.de Editor: Rosemarie Mentz Design: Rosemarie Mentz Our branch offices: Mentz Datenverarbeitung GmbH Westfalenstraße 224 D-48165 Münster Tel.: +49 (0)2501 969-0 Fax: +49 (0)2501 969-300 E-mail: mdv@ms.mentzdv.de Mentz Datenverarbeitung GmbH Rotebühlstraße 121 D-70178 Stuttgart Tel.: +49 (0)711 61 55 43-0 Fax: +49 (0)711 61 55 43-30 E-mail: mdv@s.mentzdv.de Mentz Datenverarbeitung GmbH Georgenstraße 22 10117 Berlin Tel. +49 (0)30 200 77-056 Fax +49 (0)30 200 77-260 E-mail: mdv@b.mentzdv.de Our subsidiary offices: Mentz Datenverarbeitung Austria GmbH Mariahilfer Strasse 77-79 1060 Vienna, Austria Tel.: +49 (0)89 41 868-0 Fax: +49 (0)89 41 868-160 E-mail: mdv@mentzdv.at DIVA 4 and EFA 10 - Paradigm Change at the VVS AVM and Vehicle Scheduling Light at VRN DIVA on the Waterfront Stuttgarter Tram Strike Chemnitz News in Brief Mentz Datenverarbeitung Schweiz GmbH Badenerstrasse 530 8048 Zürich, Schweiz Tel. +41 (0)43 81863-11 E-mail: mdv@mentzdv.ch mdv Australia Pty. Ltd. ABN 22134144326 PO Box 682, Templestowe, 3106 Australia phone: +61 (0) 437 241 927 e-mail: rowlands@mentzdv.de mdv Software for Public Transport Ltd. 21 Jasmine Close, Trimley St. Martin IP11 0UY Felixstowe United Kingdom E-mail: gray@mentzdv.de In co-operation with: mdv Transit & Traffic Solutions Inc. 201 Post Street, 7th Floor San Francisco, CA 94108 USA Tel. +44 415-901-4927 E-mail: st@mdvtts.com 3 10 12 13 14 16
DIVA 4 and EFA 10 - Paradigm Change at the VVS Changed Thinking Paradigms are a certain way of thinking or a particular world view. This certain way of thinking seems to imply that our views pretty much stay constant over time. Yet a city-dweller’s view of public transport (PT) has changed over the past 20 years. They can no longer image being without public transport for their lifestyles in cities. It enables a degree of mobility that is not available with other means of transport. It is for this reason that the requirements regarding planning, implementation and measuring public transport services have risen sharply in the past few years. Transport authorities are expected to be more precise and reliable with electronic media than ever before. Hand in hand with this development are the increased requirements on tools that provide these services. But there is a solution to these challenges and it is called ‘DIVA 4’. Functionality, speed, quality, data security, flexibility, usability, maintainability, transparency, standards – these are all characteristics of a modern schedule management system, which may even be contradictory to one another. The following paragraphs will illustrate the places that these qualities are being implemented in DIVA 4. Functions The job of transport authorities was always to present transport services, to manage and calculate a uniform fare and possibly to adjust the services provided by other transport companies. In the past, presentation tasks only inclu- ded publishing a timetable book and creating stop timetables. Now the requirements are much greater, especially those which include real-time information. The up-tothe-day and up-to-the-minute timetable is now required. In addition to print, electronic media also have to be supplied, which includes individual, mobile, collective and stationary displays, vehicle displays and spoken announcements. The supply of information systems and the calculation of performance need to be more precise. DIVA 4 has accommodated elaborate data structures in which e.g. route-related timetable versions have become possible. Timetables describe the “when” and “where” of a journey. Now with DIVA 4, geography is an integrated function of the system. Geography is not only the basis for displaying services, it is also used to locate vehicles and support navigation. It is also important for calculating the kilometer performance. The Database, a Tight Corset The DIVA 4 Kernel is the database, which provides high quality and transparency when saving data. Currently the generally accepted techniques enable a high level of data security. But integrity also has its price. Data access is only possible using defined processes and interfaces and is thus more computation- and time-intensive than the simple writing and reading of hard disks. Yet having databases does open up new possibilities that were not possible in the past. Two examples follow: In the past, the stop number was a primary key. For instance, if a system user wanted to change a number because two stops were to be merged to one, complex steps were required to make the change, especially if there were trips that served this stop. In DIVA 4 the stop number is an attribute that must be unique, but that can also be changed. These kinds of changes are done in just a few clicks. A popular feature of routes in DIVA 3 was the property ‘Service on Christmas Eve and on Saturdays’. To add this feature to a route, one only had to check a box. This kind of property can be modelled with databases, but the impact on the calculation of operating days is enormous. For this reason a more efficient model using the operating day ‘Saturday’, with or without ‘Christmas Eve’ was preferred in DIVA 4. It seemed like a simple enough solution at first, but in talking with system users it became apparent that some of the required information only mdv news II/2011 - 3 became available quite late. Normally transport authorities announce their schedules just before Christmas. Checking a box is simple; changing an operating day in the database is much more involved. So to resolve this issue, a function was created in DIVA 4 to simultaneously initiate a change of operating day for a route list. All subsequent functions are made to be consistent. The database is viewed as a benefit for all system users. Performance losses regarding the file system solution are compensated through corresponding procedures and parallel editing. Three User Interfaces The one thing all DIVA 4 functions have in common is the database. The other is new and existing interfaces. The most up-to-date interface is DIVA Web. The aim is to have the greatest amount of functionality occur over a browser interface. Currently, browser technology is possible for timetable management, common data management, all presentations and map displays. The browser interface already commands network management for authorities and is part of ongoing development. Browser technology is not yet fast enough for intensive editing of schedules during the peak times of timetable change. For this reason, DIVA 4 has enabled management in multiple windows for the DIVA Schedule module using a .Net interface. DIVA Schedule is currently the main workhorse of the timetable department. For operational applications like the Graphic Schedule and Duty Schedule and for the management of geography data, DIVA has modules Vehicle Schedule, DIVA Duty and DIVA Geo. These are the known Windows interfaces that have received a new database substructure. Standards DIVA 4 supports all common standards, like the VDV in Germany, TransExchange in the UK or the new EU standard NeTEx (Network and Timetable Exchange, see mdv news, 2, 2010). Supporting a standard means that the DIVA 4 data structure is able to collect the contents of these standards and that there are corresponding interfaces to read and write them.
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DIVA 4 and EFA 10 - Paradigm Change at the VVS

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