About the i-Travel project

“i-Travel” is a 18-month project co-financed by the EC DG for Research Transport Directorate.

By using real-time and context-specific information – such as location, proximity to transport services, journey purpose, time of day, calendar entries etc. – a trusted travel assistant could plan each journey, and then co-pilot the traveller along his itinerary, alerting him whenever there is an interesting opportunity, a problem or a choice to be made. “i-Travel’s” ubiquitous and pervasive services will be delivered to a customer at any time and anywhere and will help if needed to link seamlessly a number of journey legs made by different modes of transport.

The concept of i-Travel can best be described by using the following use case:

Jane Smith, an international executive, needs to travel from Brussels to London for a meeting.

  • She updates her online diary with the meeting details, the other participants and when she’d like to arrive. She can do this via her mobile’s touch screen, or simply dictate it into her phone;
  • Jeeves, her personal “virtual travel assistant” agent, confirms Jane’s request and quires the  i-Travel e-Marketplace with her details & preferences and her desired itinerary;
  • Jeeves’ query checks the eMarketplace directory of trusted commercial and public travel services providers, and uses i-Travel services to chain together and purchase the different journey elements;
  • Jeeves makes an electronic ticket reservation and payment where available for air, rail, and taxi stages, and buys an update service for on-trip traffic and public transport information relevant to Jane’s journey;
  • Jane receives and accepts the suggested itinerary, and approves payment for the whole journey;
  • The morning of her trip Jane gets an update with a recommended departure time and expected time on all the links to her destination;
  • While driving to the railway station she gets a warning of severe congestion on her route to the station, and a suggestion to “park and ride” on the tram instead. She parks at the reserved space and boards the tram just before it leaves, her pre-purchased ticket already on her mobile phone. She arrives in good time at the Eurostar terminal, already checked in automatically, and there is even a cappuccino waiting to be collected at the coffee bar!
  • While Jane is travelling Jeeves is monitoring her progress on each journey leg, and sending updates to the i-Travel “floating traveller data collection” service. The i-Travel data pool thus always reflects the latest knowledge of the status and any problems not only on the roads and transport services, but also at other locations where travellers find themselves – e.g. in stations, airports, while walking in the city…
  • At the last minute Jane learns from Jeeves that the previous Eurostar is blocked in the Tunnel, and it looks likely that if she continues to travel by train she will miss her London appointment – but Jeeves has found an alternative via a flight to London City Airport, and she only has to ask her assistant to buy the ticket; even the taxi to the airport is booked and will pick her up in five minutes
  • Thanks to her personal travel assistant (and to all the services Jeeves accessed on her behalf) Jane finally arrives at her destination 10 minutes before the meeting start. Her eventful trip was only possible because she was informed instantly when problems arose and because she received the best advice on what alternatives were available at each juncture.

Is this scenario pure fiction? Today we would have to say “yes”, because travellers are missing that critical link to the many (and growing) sources of information accessible to desk-bound users with a good Internet connection. It is exactly when on the move that a traveller lacks access to such services, just when his needs are greatest.

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