Transit directions at global scale

In this article I present a novel approach to integrated ground and air public transport journey planning, operating at continent scale. Flexible date search, prerequisite for long distance trips given their typical low and irregular service frequencies, is core functionality. The algorithm, best described as timed branch-and-bound (BBtime), is especially suited for irregular and poorly structured networks. Almost all of the described functionality is implemented in a working prototype. Using ground transport only, the system is on par with Google Transit on random country-wide trips in the US.