From 300 APIs to One Unified Data Foundation – How Fintraffic’s Mobility Database Simplifies Public Transport Data

Fintraffic’s Mobility Database was created to solve exactly this problem by bringing fragmented public transport data together into a single, standardised source.

This is the first article in a three-part series. In this article, I’ll explain what the Mobility Database is and why it matters. In the following articles, we’ll look at how it can be combined with Fintraffic’s other open data services—and how artificial intelligence could fundamentally change the way transport data is used.

Before the Mobility Database: a fragmented data landscape

Imagine you are developing a nationwide journey planner.

Your first challenge isn’t route planning—it’s simply finding the data.

Public transport information has traditionally been distributed across hundreds of individual APIs maintained by different operators. Each organisation has used its own naming conventions, data structures and update processes. Although many have followed common standards, implementation has naturally varied between organisations.

In practice, the same bus station could appear multiple times under different identifiers. Operator names were not always consistent across systems. Some datasets overlapped, others were incomplete, and creating a coherent nationwide view required extensive manual work.

Building a national mobility service therefore wasn’t simply an integration project—it became a substantial software engineering effort. Data had to be cleaned, normalised and validated before it could be used reliably.

The consequences extended beyond software development. The high integration effort created a significant barrier for new digital services, while passengers often experienced fragmented information spread across multiple applications rather than one consistent national view.

One platform, one standard

The Mobility Database acts as Fintraffic’s national integration platform for public transport information.

It combines data from approximately 40 primary data interfaces into a unified nationwide view and normalises all information into internationally recognised standards, making the data immediately usable without extensive preprocessing.

The platform covers Finland’s major modes of public transport, including buses, trams, trains, ferries, domestic flights and micromobility services such as shared e-scooters.

Alongside static route and timetable information, the service also provides real-time operational data, including vehicle predictions, service disruptions and delay information. Historical data is retained, creating a continuously growing dataset that can later be analysed to identify trends, recurring issues and long-term developments.

From a technical perspective, the Mobility Database supports multiple industry standards. GTFS and GTFS Realtime form the primary data formats, while information is also available through NeTEx and SIRI interfaces. The platform complies with both the EU MMTIS Regulation and the Transmodel standard and publishes data using the Nordic Profile.

To ensure consistent quality, every dataset passes through Fintraffic’s automated validation and conversion service before publication. This verifies that data complies with the required standards before it becomes available to developers.

One API, countless opportunities

The Mobility Database delivers on a simple promise: where developers previously had to integrate hundreds of individual APIs, one standardised interface is now enough.

For software developers, this significantly lowers the barrier to innovation. Building a journey planner, passenger information display or mobility application no longer begins with months of data cleansing and integration work. Instead, developers can focus on creating services that deliver value to users.

Public authorities benefit from a unified, nationwide view of Finland’s public transport system. The data already supports services such as Kela’s travel reimbursement system, while standardised datasets make it considerably easier to integrate ticketing systems and other mobility services.

For transport operators, the platform provides greater transparency. Historical disruption and delay data makes it possible to analyse service performance over time, compare operational reliability and identify recurring issues before they become larger problems.

Researchers and data analysts also gain access to a valuable source of historical information. The continuously growing dataset enables long-term analysis of transport performance, recurring disruption patterns and wider mobility trends.

The Mobility Database also has international potential. While it was developed for Finland, the challenge it addresses is far from unique. Fragmented transport data exists in many countries, and a platform capable of harmonising that information into internationally recognised standards has clear export potential.

Weasel Software holds the intellectual property rights to the solution, and the platform has been designed with scalability in mind. The company has joined Fintraffic’s export programme, with the long-term objective of introducing the same concept to transport authorities in other countries.

A platform—not the final destination

The Mobility Database is best understood as digital infrastructure.

It is not simply a database or an archive of transport information. It is a continuously evolving integration platform that provides a common foundation on which new digital services can be built.

One example already in daily use is Digitransit, Finland’s nationwide journey planner, which uses Mobility Database data to provide route planning and real-time passenger information.

However, the platform’s greatest value lies in what it enables next.

What happens when public transport data is combined with Digitraffic’s road weather and traffic condition information? What new services become possible when mobility data is enriched with accessibility information, transport service descriptions or multimodal travel data?

Once fragmented information has been transformed into one reliable, standardised source, entirely new possibilities emerge—not only for developers, but for public authorities, transport operators, researchers and ultimately every passenger using public transport.

Those opportunities are the focus of the next article in this series, where we explore how Fintraffic’s wider open data ecosystem can be combined with the Mobility Database to create smarter mobility services.