Rail Common Services Model Project

Led by the OpenTravel Architecture Workgroup, this project will define and document a reference set of common core reservation services using OpenTravel best practices that could be implemented by any implementer of the OpenTravel Specification Rail messages. In some cases this would be used by solution providers creating an industry offering; in other cases this may be used by a member to prepare their current legacy solution for modernization by organizing appropriate functions around the OpenTravel model.

What: Create a service model for the core, but common rail reservation system capabilities
Why: Core, but common, rail reservation capabilities have become non-differentiating but required functions that rail operators must support. A common service model to expose these capabilities permits IT solution providers (including GDSs) to offer these core functions as a service, thus potentially providing maintenance and management of these services for rail operators, freeing them to concentrate on differentiating functions. Secondly, a common service model allows both rail operators and IT providers to offer higher value services that are built on top of the common service model. Open Travel would be thus providing a common model that paves the way for significant innovation in the rail reservation space.
How: The team will focus on validating service model contributions from member companies rather than creating a new one from the ground up. This approach can be summarized in the following four steps:
a. Create a consensus set of common reservation capabilities (logical level), including administrative (command and control) functions
b. Document use cases and non-functional requirements that the service model would need to support
c. Acquire and document the initial contribution list from member companies for the service model
d. Validate the service models against the common capabilities, use cases and non-functional requirements and settle on a service model (the team may pick different services from the contributions to settle on a final service model)
e. Go through each service and detail the service interface (WSDLs) and also create/modify rail XML schemas as needed.