in the context of Routing we sometimes have to consider special means of transport. I'd like to collect some recurring topics here in this article - maybe this helps on top of the technical concept: combined transport (strongly recommended!)
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A ferry or piggy back transport does not consider a real timetable nor do we know the exact time for the transfer. A rough rule of thumb is described in this article - This might limit the expectation as the output is sufficient for a rough geometry / distance / traveltime - but it won't reflect real schedules.
- Furthermore we do not know tarrifs of the company in charge of a combined transport.
- Think positive: what we do know is what kind of vehicles are allowed on a ferry (CAR/VAN/TRUCK)
- If you want to enforce the routing API to use a specific connection you may have to use the Combined transport waypoints as described in concepts: Waypoints
- A combined transport object is supposed to be identified via a Data Api.getCombinedTransport call. This helps to choose a proper connection for a Combined Transport waypoint.
- The Data Api also supports CombinedTransport objects to be forbidden (createCustomRoadAttributeScenario).
Bernd
PS: some of you might have heard of xIntermodal - which supported real timetables and more. Currently (April 2026) we do not support this usecase in PTV Developer.
