[Talk-transit] IFOPT-numbers for public transport platforms

[Andreas Uller]

Dear list,
 
First I'd like to say hello, my name is Andreas, and I consider it one of my main priorities in OSM to map things related to public transport (routes, stops) in my home city of Graz, Austria and beyond.
 
The bus and tram lines in Graz are complete for quite some time now, so I started entering all the regional bus lines in Styria (a list of the current progress is here: [1]). Of course, I use the current tagging scheme, which can be quite tideous for regional buslines, because often there are many variants which each should get their own relation. My "masterpiece" so far are the bus routes 200/201 with a total of 62 variants (the timetable is so long, it's split into two files: [2],[3], route_masters in OSM: [4],[5]).
So far the biggest problem was finding the correct position of bus stops in rural areas, where they often can't be seen on aerial images (no road-markings, no bays, no shelters...). Therefore, I'm very happy that we got the position of all public transport stops in Styria for use in OSM. The planned import is outlined here: [6] and a discussion has been started on the imports-Mailinglist: [7].
 
The reason for my mail to you is:
We also received a lot of attributes for each platform, including a unique ID per platform, which has been identified as the IFOPT-number, an internationally unique number. It appears unclear, if this number should be added to all the platforms in OSM, or if this is unnecessary/unwanted. Has there already been a discussion on how (if at all) to use this number? The most straigh-forward method that comes to my mind would be to include it as ref:IFOPT, but what is the opinion on this list?
I think it could become important when timetable- or real-time-data becomes available, but I don't know if this is true.
 
I'm looking forward to you answers,
Andreas

[1] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_Austria/Regionalbusse_Steiermark
[2] http://verbundlinie.at/busbahnbim-auskunft/pdf/j13/stv_40200m_j13.pdf
[3] http://verbundlinie.at/busbahnbim-auskunft/pdf/j13/stv_40200n_j13.pdf
[4] http://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/955209
[5] http://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/2165551
[6] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_Austria/Import_Haltestellen_Steiermark
[7] https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/imports/2013-November/002428.html