Feat: new ODS major milestones press release (#253)

src/_press/cal-itp-partners-celebrate-major-milestone-implementation-ods.md

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+---
+date: "2023-08-22T09:00:00-07:00"
+title: Cal-ITP and partners celebrate major milestones in implementation of Operational Data Standard (ODS) for transit
+heading: Cal-ITP and partners celebrate major milestones in implementation of Operational Data Standard (ODS) for transit
+intro: |-
+  The California Integrated Travel Project (Cal-ITP) today announced significant progress in implementing the Operational Data
+  Standard (ODS) for transit agencies. In a major milestone for the project, the first vendor-to-vendor integrations powered by
+  ODS have been officially launched. Five companies—EQUANS, Remix (owned by Via), Schedule Masters, Swiftly, and GIRO—now are
+  capable of reading or writing ODS feeds in their software offerings.
+tags:
+  - GTFS
+outlet: "Cal-ITP"
+---
+
+Rapidly becoming the standard for exchanging data about transit operations, ODS builds on the successful General Transit Feed
+Specification (GTFS) standard—which is used by agencies and riders all over the world for transit service information—and
+expands it to help agencies get more from their software, including data about personnel, scheduled maintenance, and
+non-revenue service. This information about moving vehicles without passengers aboard (also known as deadheading), runs, and
+daily pull-ins and pull-outs from the yard is critical to running a successful, timely transit service, and it is not captured
+in rider-facing GTFS.
+
+“Combining information from an agency’s GTFS and ODS data gives a full picture of transit vehicle trips and opens the door to
+improving schedule efficiency and on-time performance for overall service,” said Swiftly CEO Jonny Simkin.
+
+Schedule Masters President and Founder David Reed said, “GTFS brought us a flexible standard of what happens in transit. What
+the ODS extension gives us is standardization between the systems that power the back ends of the agencies.”
+
+The benefits of ODS are already being experienced firsthand by agencies. The San Francisco Bay Ferry—operated by the Water
+Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA)—became the first transit service to get access to expanded operational data using ODS
+earlier this year.
+
+“Not being able to track non-revenue trips represented a glaring omission in the operational data that our agency compiles and
+analyzes. Working with Cal-ITP and Swiftly to implement ODS, San Francisco Bay Ferry can now access operational data for its
+deadhead runs and integrate it with our larger ridership database,” WETA Principal Planner Michael Gougherty said. “This has
+improved procedures for reporting data to the National Transit Database and other entities. San Francisco Bay Ferry would like
+to thank Cal-ITP and Swiftly, as well as Blinktag, for partnering to implement this emerging technology in response to the
+real-world needs of transit operators.”
+
+Internally, San Francisco Bay Ferry uses ODS data to analyze schedule adherence and actual trip times for deadhead runs, with
+an eye toward enhancing operating efficiency and optimizing schedule—allowing San Francisco Bay Ferry to improve its service
+reliability and potentially expand the service frequency offered to its riders.
+
+The quick progression of ODS from planning to implementation has been achieved because of the concerted efforts of Cal-ITP’s
+industry partners. EQUANS, Remix, Schedule Masters, Swiftly, and GIRO were all members of the ODS working group convened by
+Cal-ITP for the purpose of creating greater interoperability between scheduling software and computer-aided dispatch/automated
+vehicle location (CAD/AVL) software. Because of their commitments to this project, transit operators can use ODS today to
+optimize their services and improve decision-making.
+
+“EQUANS fully supports the development of open standards such as ODS,” said Kilian Ollivier, Business Development Manager for
+EQUANS. “As part of our standard offering with our CAD/AVL system, GTFS and ODS datasets together will be a gamechanger for
+Operations and Scheduling integration, to handle non-revenue operations such as deadheading, personnel runs, and bus facility
+locations with ease.”
+
+“Via is proud to partner with Cal-ITP for the ODS working group to help transit agencies implement open data standards with
+convenience and ease—as we've done successfully in Greenlink in Greenville, South Carolina and Greater Lynchburg Transit Co.
+in Lynchburg, Virginia," said Ben Lykins, Senior Remix Scheduling Product Manager. "Via's Remix Scheduling product is the first
+to allow agencies to export ODS in one click—another step forward in our vision to help transit agencies to remain resilient
+in the modern era of public transportation. We're excited to continue our work helping agencies streamline scheduling,
+operations, and data reporting with Remix, so they can focus on delivering top-tier customer service.”
+
+“We at Swiftly were thrilled to become the first consumer of ODS data, enabling agencies to monitor and improve their
+non-revenue service, through our work with the Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA),” Simkin said of the San
+Francisco Bay ferry operator. “Swiftly is excited to leverage the ODS data standard to help transit agencies understand the
+full picture of vehicle trips and unlock the value of their data.”
+
+Guilhem Hammel, Product Manager—Integration at GIRO said, “We have ensured that HASTUS’ import/export configuration tools
+allow GIRO or transit agencies to easily configure data feeds according to ODS. Standards like ODS are extremely important for
+the industry, as they streamline costs for transit agencies when integrating systems. We were proud to collaborate with Cal-ITP
+in advancing ODS.”
+
+Read more about ODS at [ods.calitp.org](https://ods.calitp.org).
+
+## About Cal-ITP
+
+The California Integrated Travel Project (Cal-ITP) was established by the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) and
+California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to both improve and encourage the use of multimodal travel throughout
+California—by enabling contactless open-loop payments, standardizing information for easy multimodal trip planning, and
+automating customer discounts ([Cal-ITP Benefits](https://www.calitp.org/press/cal-itp-benefits-launch?utm_source=Press+Release&utm_medium=Website&utm_id=ODS+Update)).
+Over the past two years, Cal-ITP successfully led contactless open-loop contactless payment implementations in California on
+Monterey-Salinas and Santa Barbara buses; Sacramento light rail; intercity passenger rail between Sacramento and the San
+Francisco Bay Area; on-demand transit vans; and LAX’s FlyAway bus, which connects airport passengers to commuter rail.
+
+Learn more at [calitp.org](https://www.calitp.org/?utm_source=Press+Release&utm_medium=Website&utm_id=ODS+Update) and on
+[@California_ITP](https://twitter.com/california_itp?utm_source=Press+Release&utm_medium=Website&utm_id=ODS+Update) on Twitter,
+or by subscribing to the [Caltrans Mobility Newsletter](https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/eLbtFoE/calitp?VCPR=&utm_source=Press+Release&utm_medium=Website&utm_id=ODS+Update).
+And visit Cal-ITP’s [CAMobilityMarketplace.org](https://www.camobilitymarketplace.org/?utm_source=Press+Release&utm_medium=Website&utm_id=ODS+Update)
+for a catalog of code-compliant products and services for public mobility providers, including contactless payment acceptance
+hardware and software and competitively priced cellular data plans.
+
+## Questions? In need of free support?
+
+For additional information, please email [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]?subject=Attn: Scott Frazier) Attn: Scott Frazier.