The Czech search engine IDOS.cz was selected as one of two winners in the category of existing travel search engines in the 1st Smart Mobility Challenge competition held by the European Commission. Among the substantial advantages of IDOS.cz can be mentioned particularly:

  • extensive database in which IDOS.cz searches and which covers trains in the Czech Republic in Slovak Republic as well as in a major part of the EU buses in the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic city public transport in all Czech cities and flight schedules
  • door-to-door navigation operating flawlessly particularly when searching travel connection in major cities of the Czech Republic
  • speed of searching and short response time of the application.

What is the background of this unique project that interested the European Commission so much?
The most important milestones:

  • 1995 – the first version of online search engine available on the internet
  • 1998 – based on the Act no. 111/1994 Coll. on road traffic was legislatively established a National timetable information system (furthermore NTIS)
  • 1999 – spreading of travel information service in the form of SMS and assistance services of mobile operators
  • 2001 – the IDOS search engine is selected by an agreement between CHAPS the and Ministry of Transport as the official outcome of the NTIS
  • 2002 – mobile version of IDOS optimised for viewing web pages in mobile phones
  • 2010 – integration of maps (Google Maps) into the search engine and creation of a special map version

Basic principle
As the basic building block of IDOS can be considered the participation of the Ministry of Transport on the project and the status of “National timetable information system” itself which IDOS is an important component of. Firstly it was important to secure and guarantee that the users would find through IDOS connections of all carriers disregarding their size or the price at which they offer their services. Also to guarantee users that the connection found and offered by IDOS will actually arrive the next day to the station or stop at the stated time. These tasks were accomplished by adoption of laws which stipulate an obligation to carriers to provide timetable data to the NTIS. Thereby has IDOS which derives from the NTIS become a truly important assistant for travel planning. 

Scheduled improvements
Among plans for development of the application we put primarily the need to improve the operation of IDOS with flight schedules from the Galileo system. Presently we do not work with a complete database of flight schedules and we do not combine flight connections with other means of transport.

We will further attend to adjustments related to the collected information on the location of means of transport (particularly current delay of trains). We strive to connect IDOS with the main electronic reservation systems of personal public transport and EFM systems (Electronic Fare management). On European level we would like to see IDOS as a basic stone of a future European wide MMJP system and are ready to participate on joint actions in the field of mutual timetable data exchange and its validation.

Last but not least we are also aware of the need to keep up with the development of operation systems for mobile phones and to try to cover at least the most commonly used platforms with the currently popular special applications with travel search engines (presently we are spreading versions for iPhone/iOS Android and Windows Phone 7).

Basic links to the application
http://idos.cz/vlakyautobusymhd/spojeni/?lng=E – English version of IDOS (combined travel timetable train-bus-city public transport)
http://map.idos.cz – Czech version of the map version of IDOS
http://m.idos.cz – version of IDOS optimised for access from web browsers of mobile phones

For more information please contact Roman Srp.


Link to original Article

http://www.ertico.com/search-engine-idos-among-the-winners-of-the-1st-smart-mobility-challenge/

Original Publication Date: Mon 02 Apr 2012