Context
Transport for Greater Manchester is expanding the Bee Network ecosystem to support a broader range of integrated transport and mobility services.
The engagement includes architectural work supporting the integration of Active Travel capabilities such as bike hire and secure cycle storage into the wider digital and transport environment.
Challenge
Active Travel services involve multiple operators, physical assets, digital platforms and data flows.
The architectural challenge is to connect these capabilities into the wider Bee Network ecosystem while maintaining interoperability, coherent user journeys and alignment with broader transport technology direction.
Architecture contribution
The work includes architecture across:
- Bike hire integration
- Secure cycle storage
- Mobility-service integration
- TOMP-API
- MDS-API
- Account-based user journeys
- Account-Based Ticketing foundations
- Data integration
- Enterprise Data Warehouse feeds
- Operational and analytical data flows
The architecture considers both immediate integration requirements and the longer-term direction of the Bee Network ecosystem.
Standards and interoperability
Open mobility standards are used to support interoperability between transport operators and the transport authority.
This includes the use of TOMP-API and MDS-API where appropriate, helping reduce unnecessary proprietary integration and supporting a more extensible mobility ecosystem.
Wider value
The engagement demonstrates how solution architecture can support a broader enterprise direction.
Rather than treating individual Active Travel capabilities as isolated technical integrations, the work considers how they fit into:
- the Bee Network customer journey;
- wider transport accounts and payments;
- operational systems;
- enterprise data;
- analytics;
- future mobility services.
This provides a foundation for more integrated and consistent transport services across Greater Manchester.