Is NeTEx a GIS standard?

Spatial location is important for a number of NeTEx elements, for example to locate stops, but NeTEx is not of itself a GIS standard; rather it defines additional public transport related layers of information that may be projected onto a GIS data set. Thus for example a typical application such as a Journey Planner will seamlessly combine NeTEx data with map data address data to allow a user to plan travel from any location to any location. NeTEx uses a GML based coordinate system to reference GIS data, allowing a wide variety of GIS formats to be used (WGS84, National Ordnance Survey Grid, Lambert, etc). This should make it easy to combine NeTEx data with other data sets, and to support different GIS reference systems.

NeTEx also includes distinct concepts of topographic place and of administrative jurisdiction – again distinct from GIS location, but which can be mapped to other systems that give a spatial projection for reference. Thus stops can be located a serving a particular town or region (even as is sometimes the case for major interchanges, they are not physically contained within the geospatial boundaries).