**Transitious Hack Weekend January 2025**

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to attend a thrilling hackathon at WikiBär in Berlin, hosted by Wikimedia. The event was a testament to the power of collaboration and innovation, as participants came together to tackle some of the most pressing challenges facing transportation systems.

The focus of the weekend's activities centered around making travel planning more accessible for people with disabilities. With the advent of standardized formats like SIRI SX and SIRI FM, which provide real-time information on elevator outages in Germany and Switzerland, it has become crucial to incorporate this data into routing algorithms. MOTIS, the engine powering Transitous, is equipped to consider this type of information, but a major hurdle remains: identifying affected elevators.

Currently, static schedule data used by Transitous relies on the GTFS (General Transit Feed Specification) format, which involves simple CSV files within a ZIP package. However, there's another format gaining traction – NeTEx (National Transport Exchange). While NeTEx is far more complex and verbose than GTFS, it offers greater flexibility in modeling attributes like vehicle characteristics that cannot be represented using the simpler format.

Fortunately, MOTIS v2.8 has introduced initial support for NeTEx. Nevertheless, due to its complexity and tendency to offer multiple solutions for the same problem, verifying whether a specific feed is functioning adequately requires careful case-by-case investigation. The team evaluated three promising feeds during the hack weekend. While adopting NeTEx would provide significant benefits, it also poses the challenge of addressing potential regressions in the existing system.

Although it may take some time for these new feeds to enter production on Transitous, the development team has already begun preparing the import pipeline and documentation to accommodate input formats beyond GTFS. This forward-thinking approach will ensure a seamless transition as more users begin leveraging NeTEx feeds.

The discussions during the hack weekend extended far beyond the topic of integrating NeTEx into MOTIS. For those interested in learning more about the details discussed, the meeting notes are available for review. As an added bonus, I'm delighted to share a screenshot showcasing the improvements made to font rendering on the Transitous map – labels that were previously missing have now been successfully implemented for regions like Egypt, Georgia, and Thailand.

For those interested in joining forces with the Transitous community, there are several upcoming opportunities. The Matrix channel remains an excellent platform to get involved and contribute to this exciting project.