CreteImmersion

Investigation · Open data

Why you can't plan a bus journey in Crete — and what EU law says

In 2026, no app can give you a reliable bus route across Crete. This isn't a technical accident: it's a European obligation, in force since late 2023, that still hasn't been met. A factual investigation.

The framework

Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/1926 (the « MMTIS ») requires member states to run a national access point for transport data, and to publish timetables in NeTEx, aggregatable to GTFS — the standard Google Maps, Moovit and others read.

The missed deadline

For non-TEN-T networks — which includes all Crete's KTEL — the deadline was 1 December 2023. It is now overdue by more than two and a half years.

The Greek access point

Greece's NAP (nap.gov.gr) exists, but holds only road and traffic data (DATEX II format). No public-transport timetables, no NeTEx or GTFS feed. In August 2026, the data.nap.gov.gr subdomain had an expired security (TLS) certificate.

Missing from the aggregators

Greece is absent from the European aggregator of national public-transport feeds. In practice, a developer wanting to build a planner for Crete finds the data nowhere — because it's published nowhere.

What comes next

Regulation (EU) 2024/490 extended the obligation to dynamic (real-time) data, with a 1 December 2028 deadline for the rest of the network. The requirement is tightening, while the first step remains untaken.

What it means for you, the traveller

In practice, it means no app can promise you a reliable bus route from one end of Crete to the other. Moovit covers the two big cities and the west; the eastern KTEL app helps; but there's no overview, because the raw data that would enable it isn't published.

Our stance, in the absence of open data: never invent a timetable. We document the structure of the network — which is stable — and always point to the operator's official source for the day's schedule, which does change often mid-season.

Methodological note: as of this investigation (August 2026), no European Commission infringement procedure against Greece on this point could be confirmed. We therefore do not claim one. The facts above concern the state of data publication, verifiable by anyone.

Investigation as of 16 August 2026. The facts concern the state of data publication at that date.

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