From benchmark to timetable fix in under 10 minutes: Ask Mosaiq on Budapest's network

Our CEO, Miki Szikszai, has already shared the bigger lessons from the talk in Five lessons from InnoTrans 2026. Here, we’ll show you how to use Ask Mosaiq to identify network improvements, one question at a time.

Start with where you stand

Every improvement starts with three questions: how are we performing, who are our true peers, and where should we focus to improve?

The Global Public Transit Index (GPTI) from Mosaiq by Snapper Services answers the first two benchmarking questions in seconds. The index showcases the performance of open networks across 1,500 locations in 23 countries. It pulls from a rolling four-week window of performance data, updated daily, and it's completely free to use.

Compare like with like

Headline on-time figures only tell part of the story. Take Stuttgart and Budapest, which the GPTI puts side by side:

• Stuttgart: almost 85% on time, with almost 14% of trips running early. It counts a trip as on time from one minute early to six minutes late.
• Budapest: 95% on time, with only 0.6% running early. Its on-time window is much tighter, from one minute early to about three and a half minutes late.

Budapest scores higher, even though its definition of on time is stricter. Across the 1,500+ locations in the index, it ranks 351st, in the top quartile, while Stuttgart sits 1042nd.

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The GPTI shows where networks differ. But to understand why, you need to look inside the networks.

From what to why with Mosaiq Insights

Mosaiq Insights, our transit intelligence platform, lets you drill from a whole network down to individual services and stops. An analyst who knows the network can move through the Operators and Services pages and identify hotspots for early running and lateness on the Network map view in just a few clicks.

And if you're not an analyst, or don't know where to start, Ask Mosaiq is there to help. You ask a question in plain language and get a specific answer, backed by interactive charts and, where relevant, weather context. There's no spreadsheet wrangling or Power BI required, and every answer comes supported by evidence.

Here's what happened when Jon Salmon, our Chief Revenue Officer, asked questions about how the Centre for Budapest Transport (BKK) network was running, live on stage.

Question 1: "What services are contributing to the poor performance in the BKK network?"

We started broad on purpose. Ask Mosaiq first noted that the network is split between two operators and focused on BKK, the larger. Then it set aside services with no tracking data or poor data matching, so we weren't chasing false signals.

Next it looked at high-volume services running late, since those have the biggest impact on overall performance. Route 14 stood out: it has the largest number of scheduled journeys and one of the biggest gaps in on-time performance, at about 65%.

Question 2: "Can you drill into Route 14?"

Ask Mosaiq found seven variants of Route 14 and showed where punctuality starts to slip. Both directions were affected, but the full-length outbound was worse: it lost time early in the journey, and almost a third of arrivals were late. It also pointed to the segments driving the lateness, and offered options for what to look at next.

Question 3: "A running time analysis"

Before running the analysis, Ask Mosaiq asked to widen the window from four weeks to six, because more data gives a more reliable result. We agreed.

The analysis found no running time that could be saved. Instead, the southbound services consistently run behind schedule in the morning peak. The timetable doesn't allow enough time, which is a fixable problem on a tram route.

Question 4: "What options are there to adjust this timetable?"

Ask Mosaiq doesn’t replace local expertise, and it doesn't make decisions for you. Instead, it sets out options with the evidence behind each one, so your planners and analysts can consider them and make a choice. The judgement stays with the people who know the network best.

Question 5: "Can you share these options in Hungarian?"

For the demo, we imagined handing the options to a planner who doesn't speak English. Ask Mosaiq translated them into Hungarian in seconds, ready to share and discuss.

The result? A network analysis in under 10 minutes

In one short session, we:

• Started from a network that is already among the best in the world
• Set aside services with unreliable data
• Identified the service with the biggest improvement opportunity
• Found where and when Route 14 loses time
• Produced defensible timetable options, backed by evidence
• Shared them in the planner's language

The evidence is on show at every step, so you can walk into your next meeting with a defensible decision: knowing what's happening, why, and what you can change.

Analyse your network

You can explore the GPTI to see where your network stands and who your true peers are. Then get free access to Mosaiq Insights, including Ask Mosaiq, with 56 days of data to start asking your own questions.