1. RAILWAY REPORT 201416
RAILWAY REPORT WYWIAD
ITS – is already out of date
The time has come for the Intelligent Cities…
and intelligent public transport.
In the last 2-3 years, the idea of
intelligent transportation systems
gained huge popularity in Poland.
This comes together with EU infra-
structure funds supporting initiati-
ves in cities and agglomerations.
In old EU countries, USA, Canada
or Japan, ITS type solutions have
been developed
for a several
years.
N o w a -
days, co-
untries
which
had already implemented ITS go
even further and focus not only on
intelligent managing of public trans-
port – this is the idea of the Intelli-
gent Cities. One can assume that
such integrated solutions for pro-
cessing information about tram, bus
and regional rail services connec-
system and crisis management sys-
tem, will soon be introduced in Po-
land.
To take a closer look at the issue
processes of widely described pu-
-
what ITS really are. According to
-
ciation, the systems include: “a wide
range of different technologies (te-
lecommunications, IT, automatic and
measuring technologies) and the
techniques of management used in
transport in order to protect lives
effectiveness of transportation sys-
tem and to protect natural environ-
Typical ITS components can be
• electronic toll collection system;
• information for passengers;
• safety, rescue and crisis mana-
gement;
• law enforcement support;
• infrastructure maintenance/de-
velopment management;
• data management and telecom-
munications.
Since we already know what ITS
are, we can easily look into the fu-
ture and consider further steps to
be taken in this regard.
which became popular in IT and
stands for a group of network-ava-
ilable servers and systems connec-
ted into one organism capable of
providing its users with a range of
services, the same applies to mo-
dern telematic solutions supporting
transport and spatial development
processes. Next versions named
ITS and Intelligent Cities come with
a certain added value achieved thro-
ugh the integration of selected so-
lutions into one organism (system),
which solves problems and ren-
ders more and less comprehensi-
a group of business, process, lo-
gistics, management areas, etc.
As far as IT is concerned, always
when many solutions are merged
into one common organism, integra-
tion is most highlighted, i.e. know-
ledge and technologies on how to
effectively combine a wide range
of systems so that they cooperate
with each other in a stable and ef-
fective way. The second and proba-
bly equally important element are
Are ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems) only
modern systems managing public transport?
Or maybe ITS stand for the Intelligent Cities?
Is public transport also“intelligent”?
Jarosław Kowalski, 1997, Graduate of the University of Warsaw and
the Warsaw School of Commerce. On the railway market since 2000.
Currently – Manager of Service Planning Department in PKP Informa-
tyka Ltd. In his career he was holding positions of: PKP Intercity S.A.
ICT Office Director, Business Unit Manager in Scheidt&Bachmann Pol-
ska, IT Manager in Dworzec Polski S.A., Project Manager in PKP S.A.
ResponsiblefortheseriesofITsystemimplementation,suchasOracle
e- Business Suite, Sale systems – stationary, Internet, ticket machines,
Passenger Information Systems – e.g. Warszawa Centralna and Po-
znań Główny Railway Stations, ICT solutions dedicated for the trans-
portandpublicmarketindifferentimplementations.
As far as IT is concerned, always when many solutions are
merged into one common organism, integration is most
highlighted, i.e. knowledge and technologies on how to
effectively combine a wide range of systems so that they
cooperate with each other in a stable and effective way.

2. RAILWAY REPORT 2014 17
RAILWAY REPORT
integration standards allowing par-
ticular ITS implemented in parti-
cular cities and agglomerations to
cooperate with each other in the
future. For this purpose, techno-
logies of the Enterprise Service
Buses are used where PKP Infor-
matyka constantly develops its
area solutions – Transport, Forwar-
ding and Logistics, as well as ITS
solution integration. The best exam-
ples are integration solutions for
as Elektroniczny List Przewozowy
(Electronic Consignment Note) for
the cargo transportation area ba-
sed on the WSO2 Enterprise Servi-
ce Bus or integrated sales systems
in which Oracle SOA Suite integra-
tion platform was implemented.
Technologically ESB guarante-
es also a comprehensive approach
to Transport, Forwarding and Logi-
stics and ITS solutions along with
the existing managing solutions,
such as ERP class systems (inte-
grated company management sys-
tem), databases, IT infrastructure
and the combination of various pro-
tocols and standards.
Regardless of the technology, we
should think about further steps to
be made in the public transport area.
It seems that the most sensible
choice is to follow some success
map, i.e. to determine clear principles
concerning the ITS standard, the
Intelligent City standard, and then
the standard of “domestic level in-
architectural standards for the in-
telligent transport manifesting
concepts of ITS, Intelligent Cities,
railways intelligent systems and
integration principles of IT systems
as soon as possible. Although the-
re are many such standards in the
world, unfortunately in Poland all
projects based on these concepts
are implemented as isolated sys-
tems without the possibility of fur-
ther integration and exchange of
information between the existing
solutions. This is clearly demonstra-
ted on the examples of the current
Silesian Card of Public Services of
the Municipal Transport Associa-
tion of the Upper Silesia Industrial
Region, ITS Legnica, Railway Pas-
senger Information Systems, pur-
chase of trams and buses in War-
saw and other cities).
It is worth mentioning, that the en-
gineering capacities, ensuring both
IT systems integration and good
practices concerning the archi-
tecture of transportation systems,
exist. It is unlikely that a detailed en-
gineering architecture of transpor-
tation systems will be prepared in
Poland in the foreseeable future,
however, taking into account the fact
that there are already some specia-
list centres and institutes dealing
with this issue and IT integrators
experienced in building intelligent
integrated solutions, there is no ob-
stacle to build the High Level De-
sign concept that would point the
direction.
We have to consider the idea ac-
cording to which ordering parties
(e.g. individual carriers, local gover-
nments, provinces) shall communi-
cate with each other at the guideli-
ne development stage for integrated
transportation systems. This wo-
uld allow the existing competence
centres to initiate their business,
hold a dialogue and put the theory
into practice, i.e. into implementa-
tion projects.
Analyzing the market of intelligent
transportation supporting solutions
and the area of city management
systems, and being a participant of
this market at the same time, we can
come to the following conclusions:
• The difference between ITS, In-
telligent Cities and integrated
solutions for Transport, Forwar-
ding and Logistics varies and
often depends on particularistic
WYWIAD
General ESB (Enterprise Service Bus) idea according to which many solutions and applications are combined using one engine in order to facilitate their communication, simplify
managing of the entire system and ensure scalability and standardization.
Source: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_service_bus
A B
C
D
EF
G
H
A B
D
EF
G
ESB
H C
Regardless of the technology, we should think about further steps
to be made in the public transport area.

3. RAILWAY REPORT 201418
RAILWAY REPORT
needs and – which is not a se-
cret – on EU funds.
• Despite the engineering capa-
cities and various institutes, clu-
sters, associations etc. existing
on the market, contrary to the old
EU countries, so far we have
not managed to build in Poland
anything similar to the referen-
tial architecture, i.e. a guideline
to indicate a proper direction of
development and integration of
transport systems.
are or have been purchased in
numerous cities in Poland, ho-
wever in most cases there was
systems (where they exist) or no
such systems were built in order
to facilitate the use of new ve-
hicles.
• Irrespective of objective pro-
blems, it was possible to launch
several agglomeration projects
which will certainly generate the
added value in the future (cur-
rently under implementation).
• There are many large projects
to be completed, such as plans
of the General Directorate for
National Roads and Motorways
concerning the motorway and
expressway management sys-
tem, plans of communication in-
tegration in particular agglome-
rations, ambitious PKP plans and
new tenders issued by local
governments.
• Conclusion? If it was not pos-
sible to prepare common prin-
a common ground before laun-
ching many of the aforemen-
tioned processes, we still have
access path and engineering
idea which will make the solu-
tions compatible with each other
in the future.
• Regardless of particularisms
which are a completely normal
thing and shall not disappear, we
can select a few referential so-
lutions within the ITS and Intel-
ligent Cities and some referen-
tial technologies concerning
integration, and follow them
when developing new projects
in order to make individual iso-
lated engineering solutions co-
operate with each other in the
future, and, wherever possible,
to ensure integration and ge-
nerate the added value refer-
red to in the said idea of Intel-
ligent Transportation Systems
described herein. One should
also consider implementation of
such public transport planning
system, according to which me-
ans of communication would
be supplied and solutions for
optimizing public transport in
cities and agglomerations wo-
uld be created or developed at
the same time. The said integra-
tion and employment of suitable
tools, methods and standards
will certainly ensure stable de-
velopment of solutions suppor-
ting public transport and its
functions.
WYWIAD
Source: Software AG
http://www.softwareag.com/corporate/products/wm/integration/products/ai/how_it_works/default.asp
In my opinion, we should define architectural standards for the
intelligent transport manifesting concepts of ITS, Intelligent
Cities, railways intelligent systems and integration principles
of IT systems as soon as possible.