Demo MetroLink: public transport operations day

Demo MetroLink operates 420 buses and 38 electric coaches across three cities. It sells tickets in AED and SAR, receives municipal service subsidies, shares fares with a smart-card operator, buys fuel and electricity, and maintains vehicles at four depots. OSERP connects route master, timetable, vehicle assignment, ticketing, validators, passenger refunds, depot inventory, workshop work orders, subsidy claims, and financial close.

1. Set up routes, stops, and fare products

Create a route with route code, origin, destination, city, distance, zone map, service calendar, accessibility class, operator, effective dates, and status. Stop records store stop code, coordinates, sequence, shelter, accessibility, and active dates. A fare product stores product code, zones, validity, passenger class, currency, price, tax, concession, refund rule, and settlement partner.

Field	Demo value	Impact
Route	DXB-R12	Timetable and service KPI
Stop sequence	24 stops	Validator and arrival event order
Fare product	MetroLink 30-day pass	Revenue and entitlement
Price	AED 280	Ticket posting
Passenger class	Student	Discount and eligibility
Settlement partner	CityCard LLC	Clearing and commission
Service calendar	Mon–Sat	Schedule generation
Accessibility	Low-floor required	Vehicle assignment control

Version routes and fares when geography or price changes. Historical journeys retain the version used at boarding.

2. Build the timetable and assign vehicles

The service block header records route, operating date, first departure, last arrival, headway, depot, driver roster, vehicle class, and subsidy contract. Trip lines record trip number, scheduled times, assigned vehicle, driver, capacity, accessibility, and status. The scheduler checks maximum driving hours, charging windows, depot capacity, and vehicle inspection status.

For route DXB-R12, 18 buses make 12 round trips. A vehicle with an expired inspection cannot be assigned; the dispatcher must select a compliant replacement and the change is audited. A cancelled trip records reason, customer impact, subsidy eligibility, and replacement service rather than disappearing from the timetable.

3. Sell and validate tickets

A ticket order header records passenger or account, channel, product, currency, device, payment method, tax, city, and external transaction ID. Lines record product, quantity, validity period, passenger class, discount evidence, card/token, and price. Validator events contain token, vehicle, route, stop, timestamp, fare product, result, device, and sequence number.

An AED 280 monthly pass posts cash or receivable and deferred ticket revenue until the configured recognition basis. A failed top-up is pending; it does not activate a pass. Duplicate smart-card events are idempotent by provider event ID. Offline validators queue signed events and reconcile sequence gaps when connectivity returns.

4. Manage refunds and revenue sharing

Refunds record ticket, reason, unused value, policy decision, amount, currency, approver, channel, and gateway reference. A lost-card replacement transfers entitlement with old and new token IDs; it does not create free duplicate travel. Fare-share settlement stores gross validations, free transfers, concessions, refunds, operator percentage, partner commission, tax, and settlement date.

At day end, 48,000 paid boardings at an average AED 4.20 produce AED 201,600 gross fare revenue. CityCard retains 1.8% settlement fee, and the municipality funds AED 0.75 for each eligible student journey. The settlement statement links every aggregation to validator events and bank receipt.

5. Control fuel, electricity, and depot stock

Fuel issue records vehicle, driver, depot, pump, odometer, litres, unit price, currency, tax, authorisation, and meter reading. Electric charging records vehicle, charger, session, kWh, start/end time, tariff, and energy source. Abnormal consumption raises a variance work item using route distance, passenger load, weather, and vehicle class.

Depot inventory stores item, UoM, bin, batch/serial, reorder point, warranty, and vehicle compatibility. A tyre issue references vehicle and axle position. A stock adjustment requires reason, evidence, approver, and resulting journal; workshop technicians cannot silently consume parts.

6. Maintain vehicles and manage incidents

The maintenance work-order header records vehicle, depot, service type, trigger, planned date, downtime, technician, warranty, cost centre, and approval. Lines record inspection, labour, part, quantity, serial, vendor, tax, and completion result. A failed brake inspection changes vehicle status to unavailable and blocks dispatch.

Incident records store route, vehicle, driver, time, location, passenger count, injury flag, authority report, photographs, insurance claim, downtime, and corrective action. A service-level breach links to trip, cause code, customer communication, and approved compensation.

7. Subsidies, multi-city accounting, and close

A subsidy claim records contract, city, eligible trip or passenger rule, service period, evidence file, rate, quantity, currency, tax treatment, reviewer, and submission status. Claim revisions preserve the original submitted amount. City branches may use AED or SAR while the group reports in USD; each invoice, settlement, fuel bill, and subsidy claim stores transaction rate, source, and revaluation status.

Daily close reconciles scheduled trips to actual trips, validator events to ticket sales, cash to gateway and bank, partner statements, subsidy eligibility, fuel and electricity meters, depot issues, workshop invoices, payroll driver hours, tax, and GL. The close gate blocks completion while a route has unexplained missing validator sequences or a subsidy claim lacks trip evidence.

KPI	Before OSERP discipline	After OSERP discipline	Improvement
Validator-to-bank reconciliation	91.8%	99.6%	+7.8 points
Preventive maintenance compliance	78%	96%	+18 points
Fuel variance	6.4%	1.9%	70% lower
Subsidy claim cycle	16 days	5 days	69% faster
Unplanned vehicle downtime	9.2%	4.1%	55% lower

Practice challenge

Create a route version, generate a timetable, assign a compliant bus, sell a discounted smart pass, process offline validator events, reconcile a duplicate top-up, calculate partner revenue share, issue fuel and tyres, fail a safety inspection, submit a subsidy claim, record a refund, revalue a SAR supplier invoice, and complete daily close. Explain every field, status, permission, formula, journal, API identifier, exception, and audit event.

Related: Inventory field guide, Fixed Asset field guide, Payment Receipt field guide, Multi-currency operations, and API cookbook.