TAP-TSI

On 5 May 2011 the European Commission formally adopted the Telematics Applications for Passenger Services Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TAP TSI). It entered into force on 13 May 2011 as the Commission Regulation (EU) No 454/2011.

The purpose of the TAP TSI is to define European-wide procedures and interfaces between all types of railway industry actors (passengers, railway undertakings, infrastructure managers, station managers, public transport authorities, ticket vendors and tour operators). It will contribute to an interoperable and cost-efficient information exchange system for Europe that enables the provision of high quality journey information and ticket issuing to passengers in a cost effective manner, thus also fulfilling requirements of the Passenger Rights Regulation (Regulation (EC) No 1371/2007).

The TAP TSI shall be implemented in three phases:

• Phase 1: implementation preparation, containing detailed IT specifications, a master plan and a governance model
• Phase 2: development of the data exchange system
• Phase 3: deployment of the data exchange system

UIC has administered the TAP TSI Phase 1 on behalf of the European rail sector and the Ticket Vendors in cooperation with its members and the representative bodies of the sector. A Steering Committee and a Project Team was established in July 2011. The team was able to draw on the experience of a number of European stakeholders via expert working groups. The TAP TSI concerns a large number of stakeholders within the European rail and rail retailing sector.

On 13 May 2012, the Phase One deliverables were submitted to the European Commission (DG MOVE) and the European Rail Agency (ERA). These deliverables are the detailed IT specifications that describe the TAP TSI system, implementation guides, an implementation masterplan, a governance proposal for Phases 2 and 3, and change requests to be processed by the ERA TAP Change Control Management process.

On 31 October 2012, the European Railway Agency (ERA) submitted its recommendation on the acceptance of the deliverables to the Commission. ERA confirms the Phase One deliverables are fit for purpose.