Open Sales and Distribution Model (OSDM)
The Open Sales and Distribution Model (OSDM) is a B2B rail sector initiative aimed at facilitating online distribution services to the benefit of travellers. To this end, railways and ticket vendors developed an Open-IT-Specification for standardised interfaces/APIs, enabling yielded tariff data exchange between companies, for rail and other modes of transport.
When implemented, OSDM acts as an adapter connecting individual distribution systems. This gives customers access to international through and combined tickets for all transport modes in a single purchase, with best value fares and clear after-sales conditions.
As an Open-Source specification, OSDM is available free of charge for everybody, based on the latest technical format. It is therefore open to all businesses offering travel or travel distribution services.
The aims of the Open Sales and Distribution Model (OSDM) are twofold:
- to substantially simplify and improve the booking process for customers of public transport trips and,
- to lower complexity and distribution costs for retailers, distributors and carriers.
The harmonised implementation of OSDM across the EU is one of the key actions in the CER Ticketing Roadmap and it will lead to a seamless user experience when searching, selecting and buying their railways services, including first and last-mile transport by having a Europe-wide standardised API for selling tickets for rail and other modes of transport.
More information can be found on the OSDM website.