Europe’s transport system is entering a phase in which digital mobility services depend directly on the quality of the data beneath them. Connected vehicles, Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA), Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM), digital twins, automated parking and Mobility as a Service (MaaS) all rely on mobility data that is authoritative, current, machine readable and trusted across borders. The revised Intelligent Transport Systems Directive has now given this shift a firm policy basis. The central issue is no longer whether Europe needs shared mobility data, it is how quickly Member States, public authorities and service providers can make that data available in a reliable and interoperable form.
This is where ERTICO has a distinct role. Instead of isolated technologies, ERTICO brings together public authorities, industry, map providers, mobility service providers, and research organisations to turn policy into deployable services: TN-ITS, NAPCORE and TISGRADE.
Each addresses a different part of the mobility data chain and together they form a practical European framework for trusted mobility data.
“Europe has reached the point where mobility data must be treated as operational infrastructure,” Frank Dames from ERTICO said. “TN-ITS, NAPCORE and TISGRADE show how public authorities, service providers and technology partners can move from regulatory obligation to dependable services. The priority now is to scale this work across national and urban networks with the same discipline, trust and shared standards.”
From legislation to operational services
The revised Intelligent Transport Systems Directive (EU) 2023/2661 has raised Europe’s ambitions for mobility data. Delegated Regulations on Real Time Traffic Information (RTTI), Multimodal Travel Information Services (MMTIS) and Safety Related Traffic Information (SRTI) have moved data exchange from a technical ambition to an operational requirement. Member States are expected to make increasing volumes of mobility data available through National Access Points (NAPs), using harmonised standards and common governance principles.
Deployment is more complex as across Europe, road authorities, cities, municipalities, tunnel operators, parking operators and infrastructure managers all hold parts of the information required for digital mobility services. These datasets are often maintained in different systems, at different levels of maturity and according to different operational practices. In many cases, essential regulatory information may exists in spreadsheets, PDF files, engineering drawings or local archives. Converting this fragmented material into trusted, machine readable exchanges is one of the most important digitalisation tasks facing the European mobility sector.
Three connected layers of one ecosystem
The relationship between TN-ITS, NAPCORE and TISGRADE is best understood as three connected layers of a single ecosystem. TN-ITS provides the trusted content and exchange layer. NAPCORE provides the coordination, discoverability and harmonisation layer. TISGRADE provides the deployment, validation and quality improvement layer. They do not compete with one another. They address different parts of the same European challenge.
TN-ITS has been coordinated by ERTICO since 2013 and focuses on the exchange of authoritative road attribute changes between road authorities and map or mobility service providers. These changes include speed limits, access restrictions, lane configuration, road geometry and other static or regulatory data that must be reflected in digital maps and downstream services. For functions such as navigation, ISA, emergency response and automated driving, that information is only as reliable as its source. TN-ITS responds to this by enabling validated updates to be shared directly from the legal source.
NAPCORE solves coordination across Europe’s National Access Points. Renewed for the period from July 2025 to December 2027, it supports Member States in aligning governance, metadata, common tooling, discoverability and implementation practice. This work is essential as simply creating NAPs does not automatically create interoperability. NAPCORE helps Member States apply common methods, improve metadata quality and build a more coherent European data environment. It has also been central to the integration of TN-ITS concepts into DATEX II Part 14, giving authoritative road attribute exchange a clear standards based path for long term use.
TISGRADE adds the deployment, running from November 2025 to December 2028 across 20 Member States and Norway, it focuses on improving the practical availability, quality and interoperability of RTTI datasets required under European legislation. Its work covers digitisation, validation, NAP upgrades and operational feedback loops between public authorities and service providers. This is particularly important for regulated datasets such as speed limits, road works and road closures, which support road safety applications, digital maps and future automated functions.
Trust begins with authoritative data
For many road based services, digital maps have become operational infrastructure. That makes the quality of static and regulatory road information a matter of public relevance. Road authorities remain the legal source for a wide range of attributes, including traffic regulations, access conditions and changes to the physical road network. Historically, however, map updates have often depended on commercial surveys, indirect observation or fragmented authority processes.
TN-ITS was created to address that gap. By giving road authorities a structured way to exchange validated changes directly with map providers, it improves timeliness, consistency and trust. It also reduces the operational effort associated with repeated collection and reconciliation. As more authorities adopt this approach, the result is not better maps, it is a reliable single truth chain from public decision to digital service.
Discoverability, metadata and common governance
While TN-ITS addresses trusted exchange, NAPCORE addresses a different question: how can mobility data be found, understood and reused across Europe? National Access Points are the central mechanism defined in European legislation for discovering regulated mobility datasets. Yet a NAP is not, by itself, a complete data aggregator. Publication through a NAP still depends on source systems, application programming interfaces, licensing arrangements and transformation, which can only work if the underlying governance and metadata are coherent.
NAPCORE’s work on metadata frameworks, including MobilityDCAT AP, supports more consistent dataset descriptions across 32 languages and creates a stronger basis for like for like discovery. It has also advanced a broader understanding of data quality by addressing timeliness, traceability, authority and consistency across the data chain. This is an essential condition for compliance, but it is equally important for trust among data users.
Deployment is where quality is tested
TISGRADE brings this ecosystem into day-to-day practice, while standards and governance frameworks matter, they do not improve road safety unless authorities can apply them at scale. TISGRADE supports the practical work needed to collect data, validate it, transform it and maintain it. It also helps build feedback loops so that errors or inconsistencies identified by service providers can be returned to the authority and corrected at source.
The information most road authorities need already exists, but it is distributed across maintenance systems, engineering records, local databases and administrative documents. Standards reduce duplication, lower the cost of digitisation and improve interoperability. In that sense, TISGRADE is not only a deployment project. It is a mechanism for scaling quality improvement across Europe.
See how it works
Explore NAPCORE, NAPCORE tools and DATEX II to see how governance, metadata and standards are being aligned across Europe. You will find the reference material that supports National Access Points, authoritative exchange and practical deployment across borders.
Why?
- Authoritative data: Information maintained by public authorities gives digital maps and mobility services a reliable legal and operational foundation.
- European interoperability: Common governance and metadata allow datasets to be discovered and reused across borders without being rebuilt country by country.
- Open source foundation: Shared open source tools and reference implementations help authorities validate, transform and publish data more efficiently.
- Future proof mobility: Trusted data chains support safer navigation, Intelligent Speed Assistance, connected services and the next generation of automated mobility.
What’s next?
The next phase of Europe’s mobility data agenda will bring urban authorities more clearly into scope. Urban nodes under the revised Trans European Transport Network (TEN T) Regulation will increase the importance of city managed data such as access restrictions, low emission zones, parking rules, traffic circulation plans and curbside management. Many municipalities still work with fragmented systems and limited digital capacity. They need simple publication services, practical guidance and shared infrastructure alongside standards.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) will also shape the pace of deployment. Tools for document understanding, semantic extraction, computer vision and machine learning can help convert legal orders, engineering drawings, road works records and maintenance material into structured datasets. Authorities will remain the legal source and the final point of validation. Even so, these technologies can reduce the effort required to digitise fragmented information and maintain quality over time.
At the same time, data spaces such as the European Mobility Data Space are opening new possibilities for governed reuse. These environments do not replace National Access Points. NAPs support discoverability and regulatory compliance. Data spaces support controlled exchange, sovereignty and traceability. Together they create a stronger digital environment for future services, including projects linked to parking automation, CCAM and wider mobility data sharing.
Register your interest with ERTICO to discuss the next phase of collaboration on authoritative data exchange, National Access Points and large-scale deployment.