organisations. A data standard for the exchange of real time public transport information was completed in 2003. RTIG-XML, a data standard for the exchange of real time public transport information was completed in 2003. A prototype national door-to-door journey for Great Britain (i.e. UK without Northern Ireland) was available by November 2003 to 'stakeholders and key opinion formers' and was officially launched by Alistair Darling, the Secretary of State for Transport on 31 December 2004. The integration of public transport and car journey planning on this scale was claimed as a world-first. To put the project in perspective, it was launched prior to the existence of Google Maps (early in 2005) and routing of public transport on Google Maps was not released until December 2005 and this service required a feed of data of the type being collected by Transport Direct. Operation From 2004 Transport Direct has operated the Transport Direct Portal in using the Traveline regional planners from which it is constructed. During 2005 Transport Direct was re-organised into three service areas to: Provide travel information services directly to users through the Transport Direct Portal; Provide travel information services through valued-adding third parties such as the BBC, Google, Directgov(provided by Transport Direct, National Rail Enquiries, Visit Britain and the UK Department for Work and Pensions; Work with and orchestrate the travel and transport information communities within the UK, Europe and internationally to promote the use of standards and common processes to deliver an effective transport information supply chain. A database of public transport schedules (known as 'National Public Transport Data Repository' or NPTDR) was first assembled in 2004 covering a week in October. This data could be used with the 'Accession' software, developed with funding from the Department for Transport for analysis accessibility to services which was a requirement for the Local Transport Plans in development at the time by every Transport Authority. A similar dataset has been collected every subsequent year. Information was made available from the portal through additional channels during the year, including PDAs, mobile phones and via interactive television via BSkyB, cable and Freeview set-top boxes with a modem or broadband connection. In 2006 Transport Direct started FareXChange, a technical standard for the exchange of information about public transport fares. Also in 2006 the Service Interface for Real Time Information (SIRI), which was developed with support from Transport Direct was adopted as a CEN standard.