Will Whitehorn has been appointed chairman of the Transport Systems Catapult board being set up by the UK Government’s Technology Strategy Board. The catapult will develop innovations in transport. Steve Yianni  will be chief executive, joining from Network Rail, where he was technical director, on 1st August. Whitehorn led Virgin’s successful bid for the West Coast and Cross Country rail franchises in 1996 then became president of Virgin Galactic, which is developing space flig

The potential use of existing public transport electricity supply infrastructure for future multimodal electric urban mobility schemes has been considered at an event organised by UITP, The International Association of Public Transport in Brussels. The move towards more electric mobility in urban areas will require major investment in the supporting electric grid and charging infrastructure, and existing systems used by trams, metros and railways could potentially be leveraged for wider benefi

The European market for Carsharing services -traditionally referred to as car clubs in the UK - continues to grow at an unprecedented rate. Between 2008 and 2012 there was almost a 90% increase in participating members from 500,000 to over 940,000 in “Traditional” or “Peer to Peer (P2P)” Carsharing schemes.  According to Frost & Sullivan analysis, this trend is set to continue; 2020 could see over 15 million traditional Carsharing members (including both personal

IIn the last issue we reported a significant transaction involving a car hire business moving across into urban mobility, with the acquisition of the ZipCar car share system by Avis. It’s not the only major strategic move being made by major players interested in a new role for cars in cities, and now the subject of New Transit’s new Car Share and Urban Mobility event in Brussels on 9th July. Another major deal has seen the big money US private equity firm Carlyle Group buying Addiso

S New solutions to meet short distance travel needs continue to build their profile around the world as cities explore alternatives to traditional modes to solve those irritating connections and gaps in the conventional transport system. There are more plans for new links in several locations using lightweight, usually driverless technologies.  As our Smart Links knowledge network has discussed and our main feature in this issue explores (see page 26) such gaps can exist just as much at p

JR Central has put its latest-generation Shinkansen train, the N700A into service from Tokoyo to Osaka. The 300km/h 16- car tilting trains seating 1323 passengers feature a number of improvements, including LED lighting (which is around 20% more efficient), bogie vibration detection, enhanced ATC, sound absorption throughout and improved brake discs which reduce braking distances by up to 10%. The 13 new trains also feature a new cruise control system, the fixed speed running device, which re

In the last few years, QR codes have gone from being an innovative and functional method of tracking components in a factory, to being hailed as a must-have sales conversion tool, to then being discarded as a gimmick that should be consigned to history as other new technologies like NFC and EMV are seen as the way ahead . There are certainly myriad examples of QR codes being used as a quick, faddy way to advertise to consumers without adding much value. So how do you get away from this poor use

Global technology analyst ABI Research is predicting that 2.1bn contactless ‘credentials’ – a combination of smartcards and radio frequency identification (RFID) solutions – will have entered the transport and ticketing market in 2018. The forecast figure is just over double that achieved in 2012. Last year, MiFare solutions, using technology owned by Netherlands-headquartered NXP Semiconductors, continued to account for the bulk of the market with a share of just over 8

What is claimed to be the world’s first fully mobile and wireless information display system is now being offered as a innovative new communications solution to transport operators, replacing printed posters and white boards Developed by Met Systems who have managed the design, supply and installation of ESUB’s (Electronic Service Update Boards) across the London Underground network, WiSI is the future of standardised on-station communications claims the company. Created to direct

The Opal smartcard system for public transport currently being installed in Sydney by the Cubic-led Pearl consortium for regional agency Transport New South Wales (NSW), is being claimed as the world’s geographically largest to date, covering the whole of the 40,000km2 Greater Sydney area. Being trialled initially on harbour ferries, it will roll out on CityRail services during 2013-14 and, by end-2015, is due to be operational at more than 300 train stations and on 5,000 buses. Transpor

The international airline community is hoping to bring in a new distribution system that provides a comprehensive price and service offer. The International Air Transport Association’s  “New Distribution Capability,” formally adopted at its World Passenger Symposium in Abu Dhabi, calls for the creation of a Dynamic Airline Shopping engine API based on IATA XML messages. The NDC envisions a model in which airlines create their own product offers within their own systems, a

Audi drivers can now access information from their cars about current train connections from anywhere in Germany, and soon anywhere in Europe, under a strategic partnership between the car maker and Hannover based software systems developer HaCon to integrate timetable data into its multimedia system. HaCon supplies timetable data from all over Europe for Audi and its MMI Navigation plus. Travellers in A3 models equipped with Audi connect can now get information about train stations and trains

Any rail journey involving interchange across London is potentially a problem to explain to travellers. It is likely that business is lost to rail because users are baffled by proposed journey times that are longer than they often are in reality, and because the convenience of a high-frequency service is undersold by giving specific connecting times when they are not needed. It is amongst the unaddressed issues on the National Rail website. Generous margins may protect the train companies from

While waiting for a train I often inspect the promotional material and timetables on display at a station. It’s a simple check on what the railway has to offer. This nerdish activity can tell us something more general about weaknesses in the railway’s provision of information and how it perceives is the best way to present the available travel options.  Moreover, unless the industry thinks through the information it is providing, such weaknesses are all too likely to be transfer

The embracing of social media by the public transport industry over the last year or so has been a major advance in using the technology revolution to improve customer information and engagement. It has also helped to position the sector as more forward-thinking and modern. However, the industry should be aware that launching on social media is not the end of the journey; it’s just a step in the continuing revolution in customer engagement. This revolution is significantly disrupting many

Across the transport sector there are certain individuals whose activities stand out either as beyond the significance of their own specific role within an organisation, or for introducing new ideas from an inventive technological or entrepreneurial standpoint. In an era of rapid change to the way transport services are managed, marketed and paid for it is not surprising that a group of such people feature amongst our power list. Elaine Rosscraig, Stagecoach’s head of bus customer insigh

The economic circumstances of 2012 gave added impetus to a range of lobbyists and protestors, harnessing public support against cuts in spending on transport, or the need to raise additional revenue through fares rises. RMT union general secretary Bob Crow showed his ongoing old fashioned union power to win concessions for his members through threatened and actual industrial action, notably in gaining supra-normal bonuses for rail staff working during the Olympics, but also as he positions hims

Significance can be a difficult thing to establish- but it is a task worth addressing in determining priorities, spotting trends and choosing who to follow. New Transit readily accepts the challenge in identifying the technologies , social and economic changes and key people who are shaping the future in the world of passenger transport. This is our annual ‘people-focussed’ issue and we have further expanded our search this year to put the spotlight on nearly 200 individuals who thro

Alistair Aitken has been appointed Director of Sales (Commercial) for Trapeze Group UK.  He will help the group further address the commercial bus operator market, working alongside sales Director, Chris Gough, who is responsible for public sector clients.  Aitkin joins from Almex, where he was UK Sales and Marketing Manager. Trapeze offers multidimensional technology solutions in the passenger transport field, including advanced scheduling & planning software, intelligent transpo

Stagecoach Group has announced two senior appointments as it targets commercial growth opportunities in its passenger transport markets. Alistair Smith (55, pictured) currently Group IT Director, has been appointed to the wider role of Director of Commercial and IT, and Stephanie Rivet (37, pictured below) has joined from Virgin Rail as Head of Commercial, reporting to Smith. At Virgin, which she joined in 1999 after also working for Eurostar, she has been Director, Revenue Management, helping

Vehicle interiors are a regular part of my work - and perhaps the most challenging. Trying to make them attractive, exciting, stylish, cool, classy, sassy, striking, calming, sumptuous, possibly all at the same time. So it strikes me as odd that the very environment that can make people enjoy a journey and relish making it again, can so often be average to bad. Let down by poor design, inferior detailing and a singular lack of understanding as to how our eyes need to be pleased, let alone our ba

When I was invited to speak at this year’s Travel 2020 event, I was aware that the passenger transport industry views my world of ‘Revenue Management’ with some interest to see possible future applications to their industry but coupled with quite a lot of perplexity and suspicion. What are these ‘dark arts’ used by the hotel and airline worlds to optimise yields on their capacity offers, and take different rates for the same products off different customers? What&

The UK Technology Strategy Board is launching a funding programme for business-led innovation to stimulate the development of fuel cell and hydrogen technologies, with two new competitions: ‘Building Fuel Cell Manufacturing and the Supply Chain’ (up to £5 million) and ‘Supporting European Collaboration in Fuel Cells and Hydrogen’ (up to £1 million). The second project has the aim of encouraging collaboration with potential European partners to enable the deve

Cubic Transportation Systems has won the 2012 SESAMES Award in the trusted internet/ authentication category at the November 2012 CARTES exhibition and conference in Paris. A joint submission by Cubic and NXP Semiconductors, the solution is designed to ensure the secure use of personal mobile phones to top-up contactless transit fare cards. It qualified for the award on the grounds of its integration of authentication and encryption technologies, use of wireless mobile networks, Cubic’s

Rail Plus Australasia has launched a new Europe-wide business class rail booking tool. Aimed at encouraging wider take-up of expanding European high-speed rail services, it offers corporate travellers access to a choice of fares negotiated directly with individual carriers. Chief executive David Stafford said  that Paris-London by Eurostar was by far the largest point-to-point seller in the Australian market. “Rail has 88% of the market and business travellers are catching on fast in

Over 6000 Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority commuters downloaded a new mobile ticketing app to Android and iPhone smartphones in the first week of availability.  Developed by UK mobile payment specialist company Masabi, the app – introduced as a cost-effective alternative to installing additional ticket vending machines - is currently being offered to passengers using lines starting from Boston’s North Station on the area’s T zoned commuter rail system. The trave

The European railway industry put on an impressive display of its buoyancy and technological innovation at this year’s biennial Innotrans exhibition in Berlin. There could be little doubt that the sector is booming and the manufacturers are on a impressive programme of technological innovation and design development- particularly in the areas of high speed trains, high capacity commuter rolling stock, new generation trams and providing vehicles to the growing number of open access and priv

T he cost-effective mass movement of people is at the heart of urban transport. There has always been an acknowledged gap between those distances and connections best suited to self-powered travel (walking and cycling), and journeys by the mechanised modes. Over short distances the choice becomes an interesting one – that between moving people in vehicles, and transporting them on continuously moving systems (escalators) or very frequent ones (elevators). Such mechanical systems offering

As a youngster, I used to run for the bus to go to school, and when I got to the stop on time, I often couldn’t get on board because it was full. I didn’t feel I could count on the bus. Actually, I didn’t really understand how the system worked at all. The timetable at the bus stop never seemed to reflect the reality! This meant that I never knew if I was waiting in vain, and if I’d be better off running to school. I have to admit I ended up running a lot! The funny thi

Operators, infrastructure and technology suppliers, passenger representatives and a wide range of other stakeholders gathered at the Travel 2020 event to discuss how technology is driving change in the transport sector. Much of the discussion revolved around the importance of achieving a customer-focused approach by listening to passengers and putting their needs at the centre of future developments. This revolutionary idea of listening to the customer might sound like a statement of the mind-

Smart Links - the range of short distance, often automated transport modes - have begun to shake up long-held models of what public transport is, and what it can do, over the last decade. Yet they are still only just beginning to show their true utility. This fledgling sector could well be in a position similar to the early years of railway development, when pioneering lines showed the potential, but it took several years before the rest of the world caught on and railway mania exploded. If so

The European Bus System of the Future project is an initiative of the EU Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. Running from September 2008 to September 2012, it was a four-year project with an overall budget of E26 million (E16 million co-funded) and coordinated by UITP, the International Association of Public Transport. The project was seen as a major opportunity for bus manufacturers and operating authorities to transform the image of bus

I t might be a conventional heavy rail infrastructure operator, but Britain’s Network Rail has been doing some very unconventional thinking about what sort of vehicles could run passenger services on its tracks. Railways don’t have to be operated by trains, it acknowledges. Blended mode technologies like guided buses and tram-trains might be just as appropriate, and even trains themselves might operate differently to today’s conventional understanding. Network Rail’s &

There were lively debates  on the future of smart ticketing and payment at two key sessions in the Travel 2020 conference. Transport Minister Norman Baker, and Jenni Borg, his senior civil servant responsible for the topic, both came under pressure to move away from current commitments to a single smartcard technology solution and embrace new options for the EMV bank card and mobile phone payments already being implemented within TfL and some train and bus operators. The first indications

More than 50 exhibitors met over 500 visitors at this year’s Travel 2020 event at the Kia Oval in London on October 10th and 11th. Smart systems for passenger information, payment, management support and customer service represented the core exhibits, along with complimentary transport and mobility concepts including car share and demand responsive systems. Visitors came from transport operators in the UK and Europe, local transport authorities and government bodies, plus innovative sys

It’s been an unexpectedly good couple of months for Virgin Group chairman and serial entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson. It looked like the end for his railway services in late summer when he was told his Virgin Trains operation had lost the right to operate the West Coast route, but his successful challenge has led to the UK government giving him a franchise extension until a new competition can be held. Branson has meanwhile been turning his eyes to the heavens, positing a genuine future

Will the next generation of London’s tube trains have driver’s cabs or not? There seems to be some back peddling within Transport for London over an apparent earlier commitment to push ahead with automation like that already under way in Paris (New Transit November/December 2011). London Mayor Boris Johnson, before his re-election to the post this summer, promised never to order tube trains with conventional driving cabs again, though it was conveniently unclear what he meant by th

New Transit makes a point of talking as much about service delivery and marketing issues, and the systems and technologies that can enhance them, as the design and capability of passenger transport vehicles themselves. But the development of the different modal options is an important part of the changing passenger transport equation. In this issue we look in depth at the way distinctions between the different types of transport vehicles- train, tram, bus and coach etc - is becoming blurred, and

The UK’s Rail Safety & Standards Board and UIC, the International Union of Railways, have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop an online web portal known as Railway Research to foster global co-operation. The web application, which will be hosted by UIC’s International Rail Research Board, is an extension of the Spark platform developed for the UK by RSSB. Intended to allow rail industry researchers to ‘share knowledge more effectively online’, Spark is i

Train operator First Capital Connect has introduced a cashless payment service for taxis picking up passengers at its stations in the south-east of England. The roll-out of the new payment arrangements started in June. The Dash cashless technology, including a mobile phone app, has been developed and delivered by Adaptis Solutions, a provider of transport payment platforms for parking, permits, buses, boats and trains. Manni Marway, chief executive of Adaptis Solutions, said: “There is g

An on board train system from Clearsy  has been designed to measure the distance between the platform and the train before installing a gap-bridging system as well as authorising it and deploying it. The gap-filler is a mobile platform filling the space between the train and the platform edge to help passengers with reduced mobility. GAPS comprises lasers which scan the edge of the platform and receive the data to check whether or not the platform is compatible with the gap filler. It then

M ost public transit users in urban areas do not just take individual bus and rail services. They use “the system.” And that means alighting from a metro or rail station and connecting to a bus to complete a journey, or vice versa. It’s a regular activity but not always easy. How many cities make this process logical, convenient and user-friendly with wayfinding signage from the station exit directing people to the bus stop, with appropriate maps and supporting information to

We need to work together to get the best out of the passenger transport system. The key issue in this is trust, and an ability to cooperate even where transport operators are working in a strongly commercial context. We want to also help improve the relationship operators have with their customers - on both areas of difficulty when things go wrong, and in establishing much more creative customer-supplier dialogues. As the voice of the passenger we want to facilitate this process and add dimensi

Public transport needs to focus on its core asset: the network, and make visible to users and potential users the true extent and stability of the system available. The vehicles that run the services are transitory and the network is invisible, so perceived as less substantial and stable over time than it actually is. A key is to make the hubs the showcase for the system - the places where vehicles pick up and people can connect with the system: bus stops, stations and interchanges. High q

From a background deeply routed in hardware and consumer electronics for transport, and other sectors, multinational giant Siemens is rapidly pushing forward its mission to be the provider of ‘smart’ solutions for multifunction travel and urban consumer activities. It is just one of a growing group of major companies eyeing up the travel market and launching new consumer transaction concepts. It sees the dominant trend of urbanization giving city governments the chance to turn thei

A recognition of the new place information about transport occupies in society and the economy was signalled this summer when Ministers of Transport and Telecommunications reached a common understanding on the future steps for boosting the “Connecting Europe Facility,” and its objectives for growth and economic recovery, through the concept of “Intelligent Communications Transport”. During an Informal Transport and Telecommunications meeting in Lefkosia (Nicosia) in Jul

Once upon a time there was the timetable. And just the timetable. Now we have a world of information provision barely dreamed of a generation ago. On-line searchable databases, stop-specific departures, individualised schedules, real time service monitoring, arrival time predictions, personalised alerts, and more. But for all this explosion of material, is it the right information, presented in the right way and in a way that, whatever our specific needs, we can assimilate easily and use with al

Repositioning the passenger transport business through partnership building, delivering an integrated offer and a culture change to put the customer at the centre of thinking are key themes for this year’s Travel 2020 conference and exhibition which will take place on the 10th & 11th October 2012 at Kia Oval, London. A total of eight topic areas are being addressed by the event in two days of wide ranging discussion about the future of passenger transport service and system developme

Mobile phone company Nokia has released its new app for public transport users following successful beta testing. ‘Transport’ (called Transit in the US and Bus & Bahn in Germany) gives timetable-based stop-by-stop route options and departure times from an input location for over 100 cities and urban areas worldwide, and route options for a further 450 locations. The app allows Lumia Windows Phone users to search for bus and train routes, and arrival and departure times. They can

Countdown at-stop real time information system developer Telent have launched a BUStop London app, based on the software it developed under a contract awarded in 2009 by Transport for London (TfL). The new app allows users viewings of services at their nearest bus stops. The travel options are designed for seamless integration with social networking sites and in-app sending of emails and SMS messages. It also allows users to set customisable alerts to tell them when their bus is approaching a se

A trio of 11m-long Optare Versa EVs now entering service with Travel De Courcey in Coventry are the largest battery-powered electric buses currently running in the UK, with a passenger capacity of over 50. They are being supported in service by two ABB Terra 51 fast-charging stations, designed to charge their batteries to full capacity in under two hours. The system offers the company the ability to recharge the batteries during the day during a layover, as well as overnight. This provides the

The UK Department for Transport has awarded a £1.9m contract to design, develop, implement and manage a Rail Passenger Counts Database (RPCD). Capita Symonds has been appointed to develop the database, to collate, manage and report on rail passenger figures for the 23 train operating companies which have contracts with the DfT. The contract covers an initial year of development, followed by four years hosting and support. The RPCD will identify hotspots and trends across the network to b

A demonstration run by the UK’s first hydrogen-powered locomotive was a feature of the seventh International Hydrail Conference on July 3-4, hosted by the University of Birmingham and sponsored by the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research & Education. The 260 mm gauge locomotive had been built by the university’s students and staff to compete in the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ inaugural Railway Challenge contest. Built mainly from off-the-shelf components, it is

UK operator Stagecoach Group is to trial a new smartphone app developed by global mobility solutions specialist Vix Technology, enabling bus users to receive, store and validate their bus tickets using their mobile phones. The initial trial will take place on Stagecoach buses across Cambridgeshire, including those on the Cambridge Park & Ride and Guided Busway services. The system will use near field communications (NFC) and has been developed on the Android platform. Passengers will be a

The digital revolution has unlocked a rush of new information systems that offer diverse ways of putting both encyclopaedic and highly specific rail and bus service information in front of users. But by their very diversity and variety such messages risk being overlooked in the resultant potential ‘information overload’. Sometimes, a single simple overriding ‘alert’ or ‘announcement’ needs to get through above the rest. The basic means to do this - the publi

An invitation to contribute to New Transit from my perspective as an information and systems design specialist came just as Britain’s transport network was being put to a significant test in the form of handling the intensive movement needs of the Olympics. It was a perfect showcase for a whole range of issues affecting transport in the new digital information era - and the implications for those who run the system, and travel on it. So I can’t resist the opportunity to look at the

The quest for more integrated multi-modal and customer-facing passenger transport information solutions has led to new partnerships between transport bodies and IT systems specialists to create new planning and management tools. Veolia Transdev and IBM announced this June that they are together developing a smarter mobility solution designed to help cities alleviate congestion, optimize transportation infrastructures and improve the urban traveler experience. The first application of the smart

Data quality was – perhaps unsurprisingly - the first issue raised at a this summer’s New Transit  roundtable on public transport information, held in the run up to Travel 2020 2012 being held at the Kia Oval from 10-11 October. “We need much higher-quality and more easily captured and managed core data”, urged Gary Umpleby, general manager of the UK operation of Swedish transport software developer Hogia UK and chair of ITS UK’s Public Transport Interest Group

The release of both scheduled and real-time travel information by the UK rail industry as open data is raising the quality of service advice to customers and offers a prospect of new national and regional multi-modal journey planners interfacing the rail and equivalent bus systems.  The key is the rail industry’s DARWIN national real-time database. The railway operates to a timetable and from this it should be possible to derive data that is capable of being fed to all users who pro

In the world of passenger information systems, there’s been a growing need to provide robust and versatile software packages to give transport authorities more control over the content displayed via the screens and kiosks they provide. UK company RSL responded by creating an Electronic Passenger Information (EPI) system which can manage information across a range of displays and kiosks. When Derby City Council developed the new Riverlights Bus Station, for example, RSL designed and built

There is an increasing understanding for those who are connected with information provision that the way people perceive and use it differs markedly. Both psychology and physical factors come into play, with some categories of user much more comfortable with a particular form of information provision or simply unable to access others due to their health, age or other handicaps. Ensuring that public transport information is available to all has particularly to acknowledge that numbers of potent

One of the key outcomes of the revolution triggered by the arrival of digital technology and the internet has been a fundamental change in the way we source, consider and use information. And nowhere more significant than for transport. The capability of finding important, timely and accurate information at the touch of a key has offered the promise of sweeping away traditions of laborious compilation and publication of printed timetables, schedules and other data about the nature of the transpo

Relatively short connections in the transport network can have a disproportionate significance in both addressing end-to-end journey requirements, and complementing the accessibility needs of large activity sites and potential new development opportunities. In this field, some recent innovative systems are showing exciting potential to tackle problems in new ways – and even more economically and rapidly than hitherto. A group of emerging, new generation short transport concepts are offe

Arriva’s purchase of British patient transport provider Ambuline not only moves it further towards a model of mobility provider and away from the scheduled transport-only model which has generally applied to major British transport groups so far, but also places it in prime position to benefit from changes in local authority socially necessary transport provision. DB subsidiary Arriva purchased Birmingham-based Ambuline in June for an undisclosed sum. Ambuline employs 240 people and curr

This issue has information as its focus – the information that drives the passenger transport business and the management of its operations, and influences and supports the travel decision-making by millions of users everyday. It might be obvious, but it’s worth saying again: information is power, and people can’t use what they don’t know is available. And even if they do know that a particular service exists, they now expect to know it is running reliably, and what it i

New buses from manufacturer VDL have achieved claimed significant additional weight savings which reduce fuel consumption, so cutting costs and improving operators’ environmental impact. The Transport Publics 2012 exhibition saw VDL displaying its Citea Light Low Entry model, which is an innovative, low weight concept for a low-entry single deck bus designed for both city and intercity transport. New methods of construction have resulted in a very low weight, leading to considerably lowe

UK company Screenreader.net has developed an Android smartphone app specifically to aid public transport users who find the system a challenge to use. Aimed at those with disabilities, the Safe & Sound concept features large on-screen buttons for travellers with defective sight, and all buttons speak when touched. The company is looking for co-operation amongst bus operators and campaigning organisations to help with development and distribution of the device, which costs £295. It ru

A range of innovative concepts have been emerging to provide rail based transport solutions for areas of low demand over short distances. The fruits of both individual inventors and large companies looking for the next technology, they have featured smaller, alternatively powered vehicles capable of running on both existing and new track for journey lengths of 2kms or so. The quest has been to find economical and attractive links to the main rail networks that can replace conventional branch li

By 2021, the world’s automotive industry will be producing some eight million hybrid electric cars a year, according to industry expert Dr Peter Harrop.  It will be only a part of what Harrop, who spoke at New Transit’s Electric Futures event in London in April, expects to become a US$260bn-plus market for electric vehicles, including many buses. He is the chairman and founder of consultancy and publisher IDTechEx, which specialises in electric vehicles, printed electronics and

The vision of smart electric energy transfer to public transport vehicles in short bursts as they operate in urban areas may be close to being realised. Certainly that’s the belief of  pioneers like Conductix Wampfler who have been trialing the IPT Charge system  in Italy for 10 years, and demonstrating that the technology establishes electric buses as a real option. Advocates believe that for local public transport in particular, the electric bus is the mode of the future being

Payments Technology –  will travel lead the mobile phone transactions revolution? When bank card payments arrive, is there still a role for the operator smartcard Information –  the knowledge that guides travel decision making. Who will supply it?How will it be received by customers? Where is it all heading? Customer Relationship Management and loyalty in travel – connecting with the audience and building understanding wit

A special focus on partnership building to create win-win outcomes in transport provision, and the culture change needed to provide a genuine customer-facing ethos, has been added to the programme for this year’s major Travel 2020 exhibition and conference which will take place on the 10th & 11th October 2012 at Kia Oval, London. The highly topical issue joins the eight major topic areas already being addressed by the event in two days of wide ranging discussion about the future of p

Acomprehensive showcase of the French passenger transport world was provided at this year’s 5th Transport Publics expo held in Paris. The Biennial event brings together the whole of the industry across modes and involves both the system suppliers, transport authorities and operators. As well as a big range of buses, a tram, vehicle and passenger service delivery equipment and technologies, a feature of the show was major displays by all the French operating groups including RATP, Veolia T

A customised version of Van Hool’s ExquiCity bus design for Metz, unveiled at Transports Publics, the biennial European mobility exhibition in Paris at the beginning of June, illustrates the latest thinking on how to deliver a genuinely enhanced road passenger transport offer to reflect the possibilities of BHNS/BRT provision as an alternative or precursor to tramway or LRT. It is a 24 metre long, bi-articulated bus with a diesel-electric hybrid drive system that will be used for public

Public transport has long traded on its green credentials and the lower carbon emissions which attend to passenger journeys on buses, trains, trams, and other sustainable modes, compared to similar trips in the private car. But, it is not enough to stand still in this area, not least because the fuel efficiency and other eco-credentials of new cars are improving rapidly, and the motor industry is already strongly promoting new cars as a greener choice too. In a difficult economic climate invest

Within 10 years, most of the world’s buses will be electric (mainly hybrids), industry consultant Dr Peter Harrop told New Transit’s ’ April conference on Electric Futures for Public Transport. He expects hybrids to become more like pure electrics over time, looking forward to new developments in supercapacitors, and on-vehicle lamination of electrics bringing huge weight savings. He forsaw large, flexible rooftop solar panels; and multiple energy harvesting (eg from shock abso

Introduction of Montpellier’s two new tramway lines has been supported by a new tram driver simulator. It is “the first of its kind in France,” says Vincent Cordonnier, director of Transamo, the tram engineering branch of Veolia Transdev that worked with system operator TaM to develop the tool. The network’s growing complexity is the reason for bringing the simulator into play. With the introduction of Lines 3 & 4, the zone around the city’s main line St-Roch

UK rail mobile phone ticketing pioneer Masabi has won a contract to launch the US’ first smartphone rail ticketing system for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA).It is the US’ fifth largest transit agency carrying some some 1.3 million passenger trips each weekday. The system will allow passengers to buy and display rail tickets on their smartphones across the MBTA’s commuter rail network. It will support iPhone, Android and Blackberry devices and is expected

UK chip designer ARM, The Netherlands-HQ’d  digital security vendor Gemalto, and German smartcard fare and parking system provider Giesecke & Devrient have set up a joint venture aimed at delivering a common security standard for the growing numbers of electronic payment services and devices. Reflecting the increasing availability of direct access to bank and credit/debit card accounts, the JV hopes that, with improved security standards delivered in a way that makes for easier

In depth discussions with industry experts are guiding the programme for  this year’s major Travel 2020 exhibition and conference which will take place on the 10th & 11th October 2012 at Kia Oval, London. The issues they identify in the seven major topic areas being addressed by the event are setting the scene for two days of wide ranging discussion about the future of passenger transport service and systems development. The event is led by New Transit and partners RTiG INFORM w

Roland Ries is argualbly the most significant politician in French municipal transport. He is a member of the Senate and a leading member of the socialist party and as Strasbourg Mayor since 2008 he has led the  further development of the city’s tramway and transport system. Ries has also been President of the authorities responsible for transport (GART) since 2008. In this capacity he puts forward the views of elected members who run city and regional transport authorities at Nationa

A common theme among many futuristic views of our personal mobility is the way in which data will be used to make transportation smarter. It will change the relationships between citizens, transport providers and the state. It will impact all our professional lives – notably in the ways in which we deploy our resources, and how we operate and measure our organizations. The intelligent and creative use of data will make transport more accessible, adaptable, predictable and above all, more s

When I was doing management training some years ago a frequent theme in college lectures was the difference between supplier-led and consumer-led organisations. Our lecturer had clearly identified the fact that many passenger transport operators were then still in the former camp. Whilst I instinctively knew he was right, it required quite a major effort of will to bend one’s thinking to see things through the eyes of the customer, particularly when the surrounding culture was generally no

The quickening pace of information technology applications and increasingly joined-up approaches to unlocking the benefits of smart data capture, management and service delivery systems was clearly demonstrated at the 3rd biennial IT-Trans exhibition and congress in Karlsruhe, Germany in February. ‘Smart’ solutions to vehicle management, maintenance, payment and ticketing and customer information were all on show, and under discussion. And as well as new ideas in how they can be ap

It is something significant when the top man at Ford Motor Company outlines a “Blueprint for Mobility”, that calls for the automotive, telecommunications, and passenger transport industries to collaborate to address a coming personal mobility crisis. During his keynote address at the 2012 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Ford Motor Company Executive Chairman Bill Ford outlined a plan for a ‘joined up mobility’ solution that will help avoid a potential future of what

A project involving the Association of Train Operating Companies has begun to consider building on the UK’s Rail Settlement Plan philosophy to offer payment reconciliation across all modes of transportThe project – South East Fares and Ticketing (SEFT) – was launched following the announcement in the Chancellor’s November budget that £45m would be provided as part funding for implementation of ITSO smartcard rail ticketing across the south east. While SEFT began

There is a new kind of transport enthusiast, the “app collector”. I recently realised that my own collection of travel apps looks small when compared with that of an avid collector. There is an increasing range of apps that address similar travel information challenges in different ways. How many do I actually need? Looking on the Android store for “bus London”, for example, there are 31 apps that give bus departures in London and all have at least 3 stars, with mo

We’ve commented before in New Transit about the ways in which the transport modes are coming together, with public transport increasingly seen as a key element in an integrated mobility offer. What we couldn’t have forecast however, was the fact that two very senior men from Ford Motor Company would be featuring in the same issue for their major impact on thinking and leadership of the passenger transport sector. In February, the head of Ford gave his thoughts on the future of tran

Transport system users face many choices in how they travel. In mode, route, types of service, price for different timings and speeds, payment mechanism and loyalty scheme discounts, and any enhancements they may wish to add, from class of service to seat reservation and catering extras. Finding out all these options to construct a journey, and its cost, has always been a challenge, with no comprehensive information point generally available, even within single operating organisations, about

Google is to add 360-degree pictures of the concourses of 13 major UK stations to its online Street View service. Network Rail said that the images would enable passengers to check station layouts and facilities before setting off. This would help people to better find their way around some of Britain’s busiest transport hubs. During February the ‘Google Trolley’ captured images of the concourses. Views of the following stations will be available on Google: Edinburgh Waverley

Arriva UK Bus has reported that its mobile ticketing application was used more than two million times during its first two years of operation. A further three million journeys will be made using the app this year, the operator estimates. There have been more than 65,000 registrations of the service, which represents one in four of regular users, said Arriva. The free app, designed by Concept Data Technologies and Arriva, can be used on any internet-enabled mobile phone. Some 16% of all off-

Abellio London & Surrey is using planning and timetabling software from supplier Omnibus for its 77 routes from six depots. The bus operator, which runs services in central, south and west London and across north Surrey, has adopted a range of Omnibus software solutions. These include OmniTIMES for timetable design and management, and OmniBASE for vehicle scheduling and data management. Abellio has been gradually installing the Omnibus systems over the past two years. The new style ti

Gary Umpleby  has been appointed the new chairman for the ITS (UK) Public Transport Interest Group (PTIG), Outgoing chairman Dr Chris Quereé founded the Group in 1999. PTIG has around 200 participants and covers travel information, ticketing, control, safety and security systems. Umpleby is general manager at Hogia Transport Systems.

The public transport industry has a sometimes ambivalent attitude when it comes to making transport fully accessible for disabled travellers. The whole notion can be characterised as an unwelcome bureaucratic intervention, with the money involved seen to be better spent on other initiatives. The alternative, and perhaps more imaginative approach, is that catering for such needs can make the public transport offering more generally attractive for a much wider range of users - both existing and po

Around  40% of Europeans  choose not to travel using shared or collective transport if the journey involves a connection. And, in Europe, 83% of us prefer to use a car for our daily or occasional travel. These two percentages are perplexing in this age of eco-citizenship. Although the range of shared and collective transport options is ever-increasing in Europe, the constraints related to a trip whose components and uncertainties are beyond the control of an individual continue to be

Bus operator First Glasgow has installed QR codes on more than 5,000 bus stops across the city. Passengers with smartphones can scan the codes to access a mobile friendly version of the FirstGroup website and get bus service updates, timetables and news. A First Glasgow spokeswoman said: “The QR codes have been printed on vinyl stickers, suitable to withstand the elements, and when scanned using a smart phone the customer is taken directly to our mobile website where they can get informat

Rail passengers in Northern Ireland can now buy, receive and display an electronic ticket on their mobile phones. Translink decided to roll out the service to all passengers at the start of this year after a successful trial involving 200 people. The system, developed by Translink Ticketing Systems and Trapeze Group, is compatible on any standard mobile phone that can access the internet as well as iPhone, Blackberry and Android handsets. By downloading the free mLink app, customers can buy tic

First TransPennine Express (FTPE) has become the first train operator in the country to give customers direct access to station, train control and revenue protection staff via twitter, rather than directing enquiries to corporate call centres. The new @tpeassist twitter account will enable customers’ tweets to be answered directly by staff who have specialist knowledge and who are dealing with situations on the ground as they develop. The service links customers to a team of FTPE’

Paris-style dedicated lines. Almost all metro lines operate with just one route or line per tunnel, instead of multiple routes per tunnel as in New York City, or on the Metropolitan or Circle Line in London. This simplifies train operations and eliminates junction delays as different routes merge onto the same tracks. The disadvantage with this model is that customers must transfer between different lines—sometimes circuitously—instead of enjoying a one seat ride. No express service

Which world city has today’s largest metro? It’s a question that is defined by the word ‘today’. If I’d asked you ten, or even five years ago, the answer would have been very different! But since 2010 the record holder has been the Chinese metropolis of Shanghai. With 420 kilometers (261 miles) Shanghai has surpassed London and New York to grab the title of the world’s largest metro as measured by route kilometers (or miles). With multiple sections of triple

In November a small conference took place in San Francisco at which communications experts from many transit agencies, vendors and systems integrators gathered to discuss the latest developments in wireless technologies and the impact they would have on passenger transportation. Staged by London-based Global Transport Forum the event included site visits to local rail and bus operators Amtrak, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, Caltrain and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). A hot topic wa

Travel and transaction technology provider Amadeus has hired Thomas Drexler from DB as its new director of rail. His appointment follows the company’s establishment of a new businesses division to diversify the company and grow its rail, hotel, ground transportation and IT businesses. Drexler’s most recent role was vice president of sales at Deutsche Bahn, where he also held various commercial roles for the last eight years, and has helped spearhead the introduction of new technolo

With 14 lines, 300 stations, 213 kilometres of tracks and about 1.4 billion passengers per year, the Métro de Paris ranks among the densest and busiest in the world. It is also one of the most innovative, with a unique focus on technological innovations in train control which has just reached a new milestone. The network is run by the regional government-owned Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP) Group, which also manages an extensive suburban regional express network a

The early ‘Wild West’ days following UK bus industry deregulation are most often characterised as a period of destructive bus wars and cost cutting.  Yet it is a period that Stagecoach chief executive Sir Brian Souter believes has some still-relevant lessons for the way the industry should develop over the next decade. In many respects the late 1980s were a period of innovation and product development as well as competitive excesses, he believes. Initiatives included new high f

Vodafone is developing a future business strategy based on evolving from a provider of mobile connectivity to a provider of business solutions, and transport is at the heart of its thinking, the Travel 2020 event heard. Max Croot, Vodafone Global Enterprises M2M business development manager, told the Travel 2020 conference that the company’s current business model would rapidly become outdated. Future business strategy would be based on developing data mining capabilities based on its abi

The development of transport services in the UK and across much of the world is a “market failure”, that has caused huge costs to the economy, health and the environment according to TRL’s new director of sustainable transport, Heather Allen. Allen, formerly sustainable transport manager at UITP, the International Association of Public Transport, told the Travel 2020 conference that in contrast to other public services such as health and education, the quality of transport acr

Shopping in Apple’s famous Fifth Avenue store in New York may appear to have little in common with bus service design. However, Ken Lin, senior planning manager at Parsons Brinckerhoff’s New York office, told the Travel 2020 conference that delivering a comparable experience is a practical ambition for the bus industry to aspire to. The store is characterised by its minimalist clean design, high quality customer assistance, distinctive product branding and products that become part

More than 600 visitors attended Travel 2020 throughout the two day event at the Kia Oval. There was a full house for the introductory plenary session on day one to hear the Transport Minister Norman Baker, Sir Brian Souter and Tom Steinberg, and up to 100 attendees at some of the 60 specialist sessions that took place in three parallel themes. The exhibition featured 52 stands which drew a constant stream of visitors. Exhibitors expressed very positive views on the discussions that took place w

The Travel 2020 event at the beginning of November featured two days of cutting edge information exchange and debate about the future of passenger transport service provision, information and payment systems and the management of customer relationships. The tone for discussions amongst the audience of transport and travel professionals was set by the first morning’s  plenary presentations by transport minister Norman Baker and Stagecoach chief executive Sir Brian Souter. Baker outlin

It is always good to be challenged by practice elsewhere, and theTravel2020 conference this year did this very effectively, not least with the talk from Kenneth Lin of Parsons Brinckerhoff’s New York office, bringing us up to date with passenger transport developments around the world, and in particular America.  I was especially interested by a photo of electronic roadside displays in Phoenix, Arizona which, if I understood correctly, show how many seats are available on the next bus. 

Bus operator Wilts & Dorset has adopted a system that allows smart phone users to access real-time information by scanning tags located on bus stops. Passengers with NFC (near field communications) phones will be able to find out how soon the next bus will arrive at 250 bus stops on routes between Poole, Bournemouth, Castelpoint and Southbourne. The system, developed by Track4Services, has already been trialled by Poole council. Ed Wills, divisional director at Wilts & Dorset, said tha

Southern has launched a pilot of its new smartcard, the key, at all stations on the line from Brighton to Seaford. Around 100 passengers, stakeholders and Southern staff are taking part in the three-month pilot. They will offer feedback to allow the system to be refined before it is rolled out across the rest of Southern’s network next year and potentially link up with bus travel. Smartcard holders can purchase tickets online or at ticket machines at Southern stations between Brighton and

A track-side device that detects potential technical faults with trains has been installed by South West Trains at Mortlake near Richmond in south-west London. RailBAM, supplied by Siemens, monitors 300 trains a day on the Wessex route between London, Southampton and Weymouth. An array of sensitive microphones mounted at the side of the track listen to individual axle bearings on each train as it passes. Sound signatures emitted by the bearings and the wheels are captured by the acoustic senso

ScotRail has introduced train simulation software as an interactive training tool offering a “driver’s eye view” of the Edinburgh Waverley to Glasgow Queen Street line. Train Simulator 2012 allows trainee drivers to operate the trains seated in replicas of Class 170 diesel and Class 334 electric train cabs at Glasgow Central station. “The train cabs are so realistic that drivers usually forget they are training in the virtual reality world,” said a ScotRail spokeswo

Technological visions and applications for passenger transport are being offered with increasing confidence, and the evidence from the Travel 2020 event in November is that the speed of their development is accelerating. Two weeks before the event, on 17th October, saw the official launch of London Countdown II from Transport For London.  This enables access to real time information on bus arrival predictions for all London’s 19,000 bus stops via the web, mobile web and SMS. A healthy

Though BAE Systems is a UK multinational, which has harnessed capability from across its varied industrial experience to develop a leading role in power systems for transport, the core development of hybrid buses took place in the USA, where BAE Systems acquired Lockheed Martin Control Systems over a decade ago. A global pioneer was New York City Transit, which introduced heavy-duty hybrid technology in 1998 with four new Orion hybrid buses with the Lockheed System. Under an ambitious project

Electric power has always been an important feature of attractive and efficient public transport. Metros and other urban railways could not operate without it, and commuter and inter city trains have benefited hugely from electrification. Trams leapt forward by converting from horse drawn power to electric, while trolley buses were another step forward for urban bus transport. Wholly electric buses without wires have never yet been a practical solution, but the application of hybrid electric d

Readers of my previous columns in New Transit magazine will be aware that I have been developing a discussion about the different business models that passenger transport providers can chose to pursue, and the issues they face in the particular business, political and regulatory environments in which they operate. I was aware that I was walking in a something of a minefield, and facing a real danger of just talking theory and concepts, rather than practicalities. So this time I’m going to

The commissioning of the first automatic trains on the Paris Metro’s oldest and most popular line at the beginning of November  was a world first for operator RATP in terms of technology and organization. For the first time, an existing subway line has been automated without any major interruption to services. Until December 2012, when all trains will be automated, RATP is also tackling the challenge of combining both driverless automatic and manually driven trains on the same line.

There is a tendency for important new technologies to find initial adoption slowly, and then witness a relative explosion of general application. There are several understandable reasons for this: scepticism about their value and significance; innate conservatism in the industries they will affect (coupled with some institutional resistance); and unattractive early economics, which make them seem expensive until the real benefits are demonstrated and the cost per unit comes down with volume pr

Stagecoach has hit out at Edinburgh City Council after it refused planning permission for facilities needed to run a cross-Forth hovercraft service. Plans for the service have now been abandoned with Stagecoach accusing the council of “stifling innovation”. Edinburgh’s planning committee rejected Stagecoach’s application for hovercraft landing and passenger facilities at Portobello only weeks after Fife Council gave permission for similar construction work at Kirkcaldy,

At present, public  transport provision, retailing and information is largely dominated by the agenda of individual operators and local authorities, rather than the way consumers would prefer to review the market and make buying decisions. Different transport offers continue to exist largely in silos. As a result, the services provided to the public continue to be based predominantly on the specialisms of the parties involved, and the products and services they feel comfortable in offering.

Annual events are a curious balance of continuity and novelty. A robust event has a clear and unambiguous function, and often a pretty stable following. But each year’s event has to be fresh and new too. In putting together our second Travel 2020 event, RTIG and our partners New Transit have been very conscious of this. We knew, based on the success of last year’s fantastic event, that we’d hit a good note, and we were pretty confident that we could pull it off again. What we

In a fast-changing world it’s a key challenge for all those involved in planning and providing passenger transport services to make decisions about how their products and services evolve, and address the next wave of opportunities and customer needs. Travel 2020 is the pioneering event that explores and analyses the future of passenger transport, its technologies, systems and markets. It addresses new approaches to the provision of rail, bus, tram and associated mobility choices, by embr

Manchester and London are vying to become the UK’s smartphone public transport commuter capital with new schemes to deliver high quality real time information to users. Working with technology service company Logica, Realtime information  specialist Vix-ACIS and First Manchester buses, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) plans a 2012 rollout of a ‘personal satnav’. It follows on from the Technology Strategy Board co-funded 18-month Empowered Traveller project, whic

Next year, Network Rail, the UK’s rail infrastructure organisation,  will exhibit at the massive Innotrans show in Berlin in a bid to kick start its ambitions to offer international consultancy and project delivery services. By that time, the company could have some tangible results to present on reforms it is making to deliver a more efficient supply chain and potentially offer attractive new cost effective solutions in railway project delivery to customers around the world. The c

Traveline Cymru has launched a bilingual iPhone app, developed by Trapeze Group. The free app allows passengers to plan their journey, find nearby bus stops and bus routes, locate park and ride sites, travel alerts, scheduled network disruptions and get contact details for bus and rail companies. Jo Foxall, marketing manager for Traveline Cymru, said: “All the information from our website is on the app, in a simple and easy to use format for people to access on the go. There are other tra

Global automated fare collection specialist Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) has partnered with US commuter rail operator the Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO) in a 12-month pilot to implement what they claim to be the first transit-branded, contactless Visa prepaid card in North America. Passengers in the Philadelphia/New Jersey region of the north east US can use the new Wave & Pay ANYWHERE Card for both their transport fares on the high-speed service and for retail purchases.

A pedestrian simulation tool has been launched by German software provider PTV to help inform railways station operators, city planners and architects. PTV says the new tool, Viswalk, can calculate the capacity of railway and underground stations, identify the best walking routes for passengers, assess queuing patterns at ticket windows and work out evacuation procedures. During the planning phase Viswalk can be used to help determine railway station design based on a set of criteria, accordin

Dynamic bus stations, already well established on the European mainland, are gaining ground in the UK. The latest, opening in October 2011 in Chatham, Medway, uses the dynamic bay allocation module of transport intelligence developer Vix-ACIS’ acis Interchange range of public transport terminal products. Conventional bus stations work by presetting the allocation of stands for specific journeys. While this has traditionally proved convenient for passengers, drivers and operations staff a

­T­­here  is an increasingly stark contrast between how sustainable mobility (especially public transport) is perceived by politicians and academics, and how it is thought about by the general public. Experts look at how it ‘delivers’ on paper while the public experience using it in practice. This year’s ‘Travel 2020’ conference is highlighting just how quickly things are changing in our transport systems, and what needs to be put in place  to

New multi-modal transport information and ticketing services which are expected to become available over the next decade are likely to have a profound impact on transport authorities’ role in delivering timetable and journey planning services to the public. While the public sector currently has a primary role in providing local service information to the public through its statutory responsibilities, Tim Rivett, head of information technology at South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executi

During the past year IBM has held a series of discussions with transport operators and authorities about the possibility of integrating ticketing and journey time information into a new mobility brokerage service covering all modes of transport. Data on collective passenger movements and journey purposes gained from bankcard payment datasets and mobile phone tracking could also be integrated into new information ledgers. So could individual customer movement data, although data protection issues

Cubic Transportation is among the companies presenting a new vision for transport systems at the Travel 2020 conference, based on integrating information and payment systems for all modes of public and private transport. The IT tools to implement its ‘Nextcity’ vision are in different stages of development and are being created from a range of Cubic systems explains Martin Howell, worldwide marketing and communication Director at Cubic Transportation Systems. Cubic is a leading pro

Amongst the continuing fundamental changes that are re-shaping the landscape of passenger transport provision, perhaps the most significant element, alongside the new technologies, is the arrival of more and more new players from industries that have previously had relatively little direct involvement in the transport sector, and who are now  beginning to take a significant interest in it. Mobile phone companies, payment card companies, and major IT system integrators are all seriously pl

The discussions and connections that will be made this year at the Travel 2020 conference and exhibition are likely to shape some very significant new developments. Last year’s inaugural event was a huge success, which set the bar high for this year of course. But it looks as though we will be going forward very strongly indeed. One of the key things we are trying to do is to get a big picture view without losing the relevance to specialist professionals. This isn’t easy but it is

Those at the leading edge of thinking and innovation will know from recent conferences, editorial commentary and political agendas, that a current major industry focus is on addressing Urban Mobility in its widest sense. This is an area offering huge potential in terms of both creative service and system development, and customer benefits. We must expect a paradigm shift towards intelligent urban and transport planning. It will be a key focus of the forthcoming Travel 2020 conference and exhibit

New camera technology that provides detailed images of faults on overhead rail wires is being rolled out by Network Rail. It is supplying 30 cameras to maintenance delivery units across the UK. Engineers can safely operate the cameras without turning off the power and closing the line. When carrying out track patrols, engineers can attach the camera to the overhead wire and hold it steady using two stabilising arms on insulated poles. The camera, supplied by Kongsberg Maritime Ltd, can tilt so

A new and innovative travel app based on the principle of social networking is to be launched in October. The Mynet app, developed by My Travel Network, will inform users of disruptions, rate and view user ratings of rail operators and stations. The free service will initially be available on iPhone, with a Google Android version launched before the end of the year. “The primary source of information comes from our users,” said Colin Macgadie, My Travel Network’s creative dire

Here’s a scenario: you are a commuter into a metropolitan area and out again. You travel to work in the morning, have to be at your office by 9 am, leave at 5, travel back home. You make the trip every  Monday to Friday in a normal week, for around 220 days in the year. Seems unremarkable, I know, but the demise of this kind of activity has been predicted quite often – for reasons ranging from the decline of cities as a focus of our economic life, to the rise of tele-working. In

Alexander Eriksen is the new chief executive at Nomad Digital, which provides the rail industry with broadband communications solutions. Eriksen, who is Danish and lives in the UK, founded Pulz8 and Commute Media, both of which developed applications for passenger, train operators and train builders. Nomad founder and executive chairman Nigel Wallbridge said: “Alexander knows our sector in detail and yet will bring a new perspective. He understands why we have been successful and the impo

The UK’s European leadership in contactless EMV bankcard transport payment is forging ahead. Shortly after Transport for London introduces EMV payment for bus and tube travel across its network next year, as the first city authority in any country to do so, passengers on FirstGroup services in the rest of England will also be able to pay for bus travel with contactless bankcards. The company announced at the start of this month that it would be fitting new ticket machines with dual smartca

FirstGroup’s announcement that it will skip a technology and introduce contactless bankcard payment across its English bus fleet from next year, is just the latest step in a revolution that is gathering pace. The past few weeks have also seen the UK’s Association of Train Operating Companies all but admit that operators have plans to close nearly 700 station ticket offices due to the growth in new ticket retailing technology, much of it used by customers well away from the station, a

Stagecoach chief executive Brian Souter has agreed to make the opening address at this year’s major Travel 2020 exhibition and conference which will take place on the 2nd & 3rd November 2011 at Kia Oval, London. He will join transport minister Norman Baker in setting the scene for two days of wide ranging discussion about the future of passenger transport service and systems development. Event sponsor New Transit and partners RTIG INFORM are pleased to announce that three quarters of t

Sometimes, it’s not the individual elements in the transport system that require a new way of thinking, but the links between them. Over the last few years, I’ve been very involved in the development of high speed trains around the world. It’s a really exciting time for this technology. One of our first rail projects was back in 2001 when we designed the Virgin Pendolino and Voyager trains. With our background in product design, the results were a departure from more traditio

For the past decade the Dutch company APTS,  a division of Netherlands-based bus manufacturer VDL Group, has been developing its Phileas bus based Rapid Transit system to incorporate a range of innovative features that can, in the words of managing director Rude Bouwman “replace all the trams in the world in 20 years” He believes the automation of passenger transport, and in particular introducing driverless technology, can mean buses offer a similar rapid transit service to tr

The last issue of this magazine considered the role of walking as a crucial part of the Mobility Mix. It was pointed out that virtually every public transport journey starts and ends on foot. The latter element is, arguably even more important than the former. Users are at their most vulnerable when completing the last stage of their journey.  The surroundings may be unfamiliar to them, the bus or train has driven off, it may be getting late in the day and the light failing.  That is n

Paris Transport Authoity RATP and train builder Alstom earlier this year created a joint venture Metrolab with the aim of developing the ‘automatic metro of the future’. As well as new systems, the partners are hoping to offer a proven approach to upgrading existing metro lines to driverless. Pierre Mongin, CEO of RATP and Philippe Mellier, President of Alstom Transport announced the project at the 59th UITP World Congress and Exhibition in Dubai. They said their combined expertise

Nexus has launched an interactive teaching pack to warn children across Tyne & Wear about the dangers of trespassing onto rail lines. Nexus, which owns and manages Metro, will be using the package during visits to more than 200 schools over the coming year. The package — devised by Nexus youth liaison officer Rebecca Ditchburn working with design agency Graphic Ad — allows youths to use a touch screen smart or ‘white board’. “The interactive nature of the software

Arriva UK Bus has reported more than a million tickets have been brought via its mobile phone ticketing application. In the first 18 months of operation, 40,000 users have registered to use m-ticketing, booking 1,020,181 journeys across the UK. The free app, designed by Concept Data Technologies and Arriva, can be used on any internet-enabled mobile phone. Once the journey has been booked, an e-ticket is sent to the user’s phone. This is shown to the driver as the start of the journey.&nb

Passengers in Poole, Dorset, can now check bus times by touching their smartphones to tag readers installed in ‘magic bus stops’. The system, developed by AZO Consulting, has been trialled at 10 bus stops since January, and Poole council plans to roll it out to 800 bus stops later this month. Nick Phillips, accessibility team leader at Poole Council, predicts that 100,000 passengers will use the service in the first year. The system is also due to be installed in Weymouth for Dorset

This autumn Apple – now reportedly the world’s most valuable company – will launch its online service strategy called ‘iCloud’, which since its June unveiling has helped drive the California firm’s stock skyward. In computing terms ‘the cloud’ typically refers to a migration from application and data storage on local devices to hosting on a vast network on online servers that can be accessed through the Internet from any device, anywhere you need.

The concept of vehicles drawing their energy supply from electric power as they move is not new. Trains, trams and trolley buses have done it for decades. But for road vehicles to be able to pick up their fuel without a physical connection would be a radical step. It is one which Bombardier believe is possible by inductive power transfer. With thinking initially developed to give trams and buses a wire-free energy source, the concept is now being promoted as a potential energy source for all r

Two months ago, Volo TV became the first company in the world to offer rail passengers on train movies, using its seat-backed screens installed on First Great Western’s long distance fleet running between London, South Wales and the West Country. The company has secured a deal to show premium quality Hollywood films to supplement its existing world-first offer of TV favourite comedies, cartoons and dramas. The initial service of information and TV favourites was trialled in 2009 before

When Paul Thrustle joined the rail industry in 2002 as head of projects and IT at London-Edinburgh-Aberdeen inter-city train operator GNER, one of his first thoughts was “what have I done”. The route of the “flying Scotsman” was known in the rail industry as a flagship for customer service. Yet Thrustle, who had spent 17 years developing customer service and mobile technology in several other industries including the water and legal sectors, was incredulous that on a th

New approaches to passenger transport provision and use are emerging in a variety of ways and a range of situations. Some are coming from an institutional level through the initiatives of large public authorities (mainly cities) or corporations (like transport vehicle makers). Others are more local projects to “join up” pieces of the jigsaw or add helpful new elements to the offer. 1. Transport for London Transport for London has promoted a widening definition of collective transpo

There is a potential revolution on the cards in how customers are offered their choices of how to travel. Rather than be faced with a myriad of options by different operators, each one of which offers an individual journey and requires separate research for information and a purchase transaction, the alternative could be a single source for the right combination to meet a traveller’s personal needs. Information is already being presented in multi-modal integrated forms with journey plann

Why aren’t taxis treated as a serious part of the public transport mix? It’s surprising that this question hasn’t been answered because taxis, and derivatives from them, bridging the gap between conventional public transport and the private car, offer a unique contribution to efficient and sustainable mobility. In 1999 a conference was held in Birmingham entitled “Taxis: the Cinderella method of transport” at which speakers including Steven Norris, then the Minister

Consumers in the US are now spending more time on mobile phone apps than on the web, according to a study by mobile application development analysts, Flurry. Confirmation – if it were needed – that the mobile phone and its derivatives are now the communication device of choice for most people. And those transport operators who ignore this fact in their ticketing plans are likely to be left stranded by an unstoppable technological revolution.  By 2015, according to another study

In 1998, when Virgin Trains was specifying the interiors of its Pendolino trains for the London-Glasgow West Coast inter-city franchise, Sir Richard Branson’s intention was that they should include an on-board, airline-style passenger entertainment system. When the costs were investigated, it was clear that there was no business case. Paul Soor, who was an executive at Angel Trains – the rolling stock leasing company which owns the Pendolinos – recalls that the costs were horr

The theme of the latest issue of New Transit might best be described as ‘The New Mobility’. This magazine has made its special role the exploration of what is the ‘New Transit’ – new approaches to the provision of rail, bus, tram and associated passenger transport services, and addressing a rapidly changing technological and customer service agenda. But there’s also things happening in parallel transport and travel worlds that are equally significant for th

Connex Transport Jersey is using a computerised fleet maintenance system is enabling to efficiently run its 84-bus myBus fleet and closely manage stock. The operator said that the Freeway software allows it to develop vehicle maintenance histories for each bus, so that the management team can see precisely how much each one costs to run? over its working life. “Each vehicle is logged within the system,” said Nigel Taylor, engineering manager, Connex Transport Jersey. “Work do

People moving to Greater Manchester can find out the journey time between new workplaces and homes by checking an online interactive map. Mapnificent, by IT developer Stefan Wehrmeyer, will allow users to check how well-connected their workplace is to public transport services. The free online tool will offer useful guidance to BBC staff relocating from London to the new Mediacity in Salford Quays. The map shows that Sale, Timperley, Irlam and Swinton or all within a 30-minute journey by public

Yellow Buses has launched a smartphone app for its journey planner. The system uses GPS navigation tracking to enable both iPhone and Android users to plan a journey in Yellow Buses’ coverage area including Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch and East Dorset. The app follows the launch in January of the journey planner, which was developed in partnership with Bournemouth firm Base Creative Agency. “The journey planner has already received many compliments for its simplicity and ease

As this issue of New Transit demonstrates, the pace of change affecting passenger transport provision shows no sign of slackening. Our focus on the topic of mobile communications and potential of Near Field Communications for transport is just one area where there is a major discussion to be had, and new ideas to be exchanged. The year’s key forum for this exploration of an exciting future will again be the Travel 2020 Show taking place in London in November. Last year’s inaugural e

Smart cards have been very popular with retailers, service-providers and users: the range of applications is constantly increasing and expanding for the debit, credit and loyalty cards that have been progressively replacing cash and cheques for the past couple of decades. As a result, we all carry wallets bulging with cards – for season tickets, banking, shops, libraries, clubs, work access....That can be annoying – especially if they are lost or forgotten. The dream solution wou

Most of us adore gadgets – and the one we love most is our mobile. I say ‘mobile’ in the singular, but according to the latest (2009) figures from the International Telecommunication Union, the UK has over 80 million mobile subscribers – that’s well over one per person. Mobile technology has swept through the world, connecting everyone, rich or poor, from Africa to Antarctica, sometimes (in China and Finland, for example) replacing fixed lines or creating new facili

Mobile phones have changed our lives - not least how we communicate whilst travelling. Now they are set to change the whole of the passenger transport business and its relationship with its customers. Near Field Communication (NFC) is the technology that everyone is talking about, but mobiles play a part in every aspect of travel: the phone has become much more than a means of communication. It is a universal ticket-wallet, travel document, timetable, work tool,  source of distraction and

Like the bus industry, the rail industry has traditionally been associated with ‘command and control’ management. Arguably the most radical step any train operator has taken in an attempt to create a new culture has been implemented at Merseyrail, the 75 mile  conurbation train operation run by Serco with Abellio, where the Fast Lane project has moved beyond empowering staff to a philosophy of customer service standards and initiatives being staff-led. Effectively, staff now def

The Handheld Group has won the contract to supply the Netherlands Railways with more than 10,000 Nautiz handhelds for ticket control, travel information and support of workflow processes. The order includes 6,000 Nautiz eTicket Pro units, containing an Arcontia RFID module. The contract was won by a consortium, HS Mobility, formed by Sweden-based Handheld Group together with the Dutch software partner company Sigmax B.V. The contract to supply the PDAs runs for five years, with most being depl

User-unfriendly ticket vending machines (TVMs) can deny convenient access to public transport for passengers with disabilities. Currently available accessibility features require disabled users to remember special activation codes in order to enter the system. Overcoming these problems is the aim of two new research projects, one European and the other based in the UK. In April APSIS4all (Accessible Personalised Services In public digital terminal (PDT) Services for all) started to receive fun

Smart phones now have many features that are relevant to the public transport user, and those in the business can apply these features to address user needs. We should not overlook the screen. A few years ago it was just a text display for the telephone number. Now it has an amazingly fine resolution, in colour, brightly lit and large enough to display graphics and photos. Most phones now have a better screen than the public monitors and electronic signs at the roadside or in stations which are

Chiltern Railways has launched a pioneering new approach to mobile phone ticketing with an integrated system that enables passengers to buy, instantly receive and validate tickets by barcode through an app on their mobile phone. Introduced ahead of an NFC capability, it is ready to embrace that element too Passengers who have bought mTickets with Chiltern through their mobiles are able to get through barriers equipped with optical barcode readers within seconds, without needing to queue at tick

At the end of last year, the board of German national transport operator Deutsche Bahn quietly made a major commitment to roll out its ‘Touch & Travel’ mobile phone based payment and ticketing project. The NFC based system was early piloted in 2008, with 200 users on the Hanover to Berlin line and in the city of Potsdam. It was then extended to cover travel between the cities of Cologne, Frankfurt, Hanover and Berlin in 2010. Alongside this, the Berlin regional transport agency B

National Express East Anglia’s fleet of Bombardier 379 fleet trains on its London Stanstead Express service now offers onboard broadband internet access. The system from Icomera provides internet access for passengers and gives staff access to staff and onboard systems including CCTV, passenger information and Bombardier's train management system. National Express’s Class 379 fleet contract manager Mike Watkins said: “The on-board broadband uses Icomera patented SureWANT techn

Professional. Positive. Innovative. Ambitious. Those are some of the words that would best describe the atmosphere that was experienced by the 2000 delegates at this month’s UITP global gathering of the public transport industry in Dubai. And a true gathering it was, involving  those at the sharp end of provision in 80 countries. If for no other reason, those attending had the substantial benefit of sharing the feelings and approaches of fellow professionals addressing similar chall

There was a distinct air of confidence about the future of public transport at the 59th UITP World Congress and Exhibition held in Dubai at the beginning of April. Whilst the 2000 delegates from 80 countries were hearing presentations relating to the Congress theme of ‘PT x 2’- the aim of doubling the public transport market share worldwide by 2025- there were many examples of innovation and imagination in vehicles, equipment and operational and marketing support systems to be seen

When I began my career in transport back in the 1980’s, with an Economics degree, my first posting after completing the Senior Management Training Scheme with the UK’s then state-owned National Bus Company was in its Planning Department, developing computer models to forecast demand for the group’s bus services.  We used these not only to give strategic information to government about the business, but also to assist local bus company managers in planning their services.&n

Bicester, in North Oxfordshire, is the latest town in England to implement the growing ‘kitchen as travel centre’ concept for new-build houses. This will equip each of them with a small, wall-mounted home portal featuring a conveniently-located, always-on, interactive colour touchscreen.  Family members can use it at mealtimes for journey planning, accessing real-time transport information on local bus and related services before going out. The aim is to woo new arrivals away

Tesco, now the third largest retailer in the world, has built the concept of customer loyalty into the core of its business. Terry Leahy, who has just stood down as chief executive, is credited with seeing the opportunity of a loyalty card system in the early 1990’s and pushing for its adoption. He recalls spotting another smaller company using the system , and preparing a report for the Tesco board on how it could help the supermarket chain. In some trepidation, he waited for a response

Customer data gathered through loyalty card schemes is a crucial part of business planning in the retail industry and other consumer sectors like holidays and entertainment. It allows companies such as supermarkets, department stores, hotels and venues to hold precise records of what each customer buys, when they shop and how their preferences change over time. Individual customers are targeted with special offers which prompt changes in  their behaviour, leading to them trying new products

Will Twitter’s contribution to the information revolution do away with the need for journalists? Probably not. And in a similar way, allowing “the crowd” to contribute an immediate  commentary on the transport system could open up new opportunities for transport professionals.  They will be vital intermediaries in making sense of a much richer stream of information than we have today. As someone directly concerned with the passenger transport information revolution, I

Bus operator Arriva has reported how its on-board CCTV system proved that two accident claims made by motorists were fraudulent. Thanks to the evidence captured on the system, supplied and fitted by 21st Century, the bus operator saved £14,000 and was also awarded court costs of more than £7,500. In the first case, a female motorist falsely claimed that an Arriva bus had collided with her car while overtaking another vehicle in four lanes of traffic. But the CCTV footage showed that

North American bus operator Greyhound Lines is installing 150 NCR self-service ticketing kiosks at bus depots across the USA. Passengers will be able to buy tickets at kiosks or pick up tickets  bought online. So far the SelfServ 60 kiosks have been installed at major stations in several cities including New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and Washington D.C. The system is being rolled out to cities including Houston, Orlando, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Seattle. To use the system, Grey

An ‘eco-driving’ system has been launched by Stagecoach for its bus operations in? Scotland, England and Wales. From April 13,800 Stagecoach drivers began using the GreenRoad ?system to help reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions, improve ?passenger comfort and cut the risk of accidents.?? Stagecoach is hoping to achieve a 4% drop in fuel consumption using the technology, which is being rolled out to its fleet of 6,500 buses outside London. The GreenRoad 360 system uses a da

Trapeze has launched its first Android application, MyBus, which uses data from journey information service Traveline to provide departure times at bus stops across Great Britain. The app, which is aware of the user’s location, also provides times for tram and light rail systems. After browsing an interactive map to find a stop, picking a saved favourite or searching by name, the user clicks a marker to reveal the departure board. Bus times shown are either real-time predictions or sche

Bus passengers in Hertfordshire are now able to use their mobile phones to access departure information for all bus stops in the county. Hertfordshire County Council worked with RSL, a supplier of interactive, public information systems, to implement QR codes. A QR code is a matrix barcode, consisting of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. These are specific to each bus stop and are being added to all the bus stops in the county, totalling more than 4,000. By dow

TransportXtra's news feeds provide a great way to keep up-to-date with the latest transport intelligence. In 2010, following consultation with local authorities, consultancies and passenger transport professionals, TransportXtra began providing news feeds separated into 3 distinct subject areas. Transport policy & transportation planning Passenger transport Parking & parking enforcement These in turn were broken down into further sub-categories, enabling

Solar powered customer information screens are to be installed at seven ScotRail stations in the Highlands. The screens, developed by Nexus Alpha Low Power Systems (NALPS), are designed to operate during prolonged periods of cloudy and overcast conditions. He added that the screens combine solar power and stored batteries to store excess summer energy to offer back-up during the winter. The screens will also feature automated speech for the visually impaired. By pressing a button, customers wil

East Coast Trains has selected Interfleet’s monitoring system to manage on-board operations, maintenance and energy usage. Interfleet’s Guru solution, based on hardware technology from Arrowvale and software from Nexala, is designed to allow real-time operating and speeding decisions. The solution will enable East Coast Trains to increase rolling stock reliability and improve detection of infrastructure faults, says Interfleet. The system is due to go live this summer and be fully i

The ‘open data’ agenda – the drive to make information more freely available and accessible to the public – is not exactly new for the public transport sector. In Victorian Britain, when there was a largely uncoordinated rail network and some 150 rail companies, one man, George Bradshaw, aggregated and reformatted a mass of data from all these sources, in multiple and different formats.  This point was made by Christopher Osborne, development director, ITO World,

How should a modern consumer industry set its objectives for providing its users with the services they want, retaining business and winning new custom? The passenger transport industry has its own well-established way:  find out what matters most to existing customers, measure performance in delivering it, and get that performance right. This has led to punctuality and reliability taking centre stage, coming through in survey after survey as the most important issue to passengers, and the

A mobile phone ticketing system, which will give passengers details of the cheapest prices and train times and then deliver the ticket as a 2D barcode, has been launched by Chiltern Railways. Scanners on gates at stations will read the iPhone screen to enable passengers to touch in and out of stations. The iPhone app will include details of delays and disruption. The app will remember favourite journeys and debit card details, so that travel can be made with “just a few touches of the sc

Retailers are finding new ways to harness the potential offered by smartphones to reach out to new and potential customers. ‘Apps’ have been developed that enable users to view and purchase goods and services on their smartphone, and these apps are becoming ever more sophisticated. Tesco, for example, has added a barcode reader to its groceries iPhone app that can add items to a customer’s online home delivery order. Retailers in the passenger transport sector are getting in o

John Groves Ticket Systems is now offering the Casio IT-3100 machine as a ticketing solution. This machine is a totally configurable Windows-based integral ticket issuing unit, and it does not require a separate printer. It has additional add-on options such as a bar code reader/scanner, which can take pictures, and a magnetic card reader. Bluetooth and GPRS capabilities are built in. An illuminated keypad and a colour display that features superb clarity make the Casio IT-3100 easy and quick to

Bus companies using 21st Century’s award-winning fuel management system EcoManager are finding that the system is identifying the optimum buses for each route. The route planning feature has been identified as an additional benefit of EcoManager’s extensive reporting capabilities. EcoManager assists drivers in adopting a more economic, smoother and safer driving style by highlighting when braking, accelerating and cornering is done correctly or otherwise through an Integrated Safety

It’s great to see people’s creativity in action at dozens of stations around Britain. Gardens, works of art, new community facilities, poetry and herb beds are just some of the things which are going on, transforming many unstaffed stations into vibrant community facilities. Along the Caldervale Line, in the heart of the Pennines, community-based station partnerships have created a ‘necklace effect’ of activities at virtually every station, like a string of pearls. The

Traditionally, the public transport industry has struggled with the concept of interchange, seeing it as a necessary evil which its customers simply have to put up with even though interchange can be seen by passengers as removing them from the safety and comfort of the vehicle to a “desert area”.  From the late 1990s, much research activity has been devoted to establishing concepts of best practice for public transport interchange – firstly with DETR and CILT from 1998 an

Thursday 9th December, 2010, saw the official opening of the new Accrington Eco Station. This innovative project developed out of a report jointly commissioned by Northern Rail and Lancashire County Council that was aptly named ‘Eco Stations’. Published in November 2006 it was the brainchild of Paul Salveson, then with Northern Rail, and John French of Transport Regeneration, and championed by Richard Watts, the Lancashire County Council rail projects manager. The project is innovati

For years, stations have had a reputation as the Cinderellas of the rail network, most recently because they have been perceived as having a low priority on Network Rail’s agenda. Train operators have complained that the company has been a poor landlord, distant and slow to respond to requests for improvements. However, last year Network Rail sent a powerful signal that a change of direction could be imminent with the creation of a new role - director of stations and customer service. Th

Heathrow Express, has launched a free mobile application allowing passengers to purchase tickets and receive them direct to their phones in less than 30 seconds. The app is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Java-enabled mobile devices and can be used up to 15 minutes before travel. As well as a sales function, the app provides live service updates to keep passengers informed throughout their journey. Other functions include a personalised fast-track payment process, which provides a

Fifty new low carbon vehicles will soon join Scotland's bus fleet thanks to £4.4m grant funding awarded this week to six bus operators across Scotland. Stagecoach Scotland West, Stagecoach Scotland East, Lothian Buses, MacEwens Coach Services, First Glasgow and COLCHRI will all benefit from the Scottish Green Bus Fund which provides help with the up front costs of buying new low carbon vehicles. This mix of both large and small bus operators will result in the new low carbon buses

At present, even those operators known for customer service innovation in the public transport industry recognise that they are some way behind the approach taken by leading consumer brands. Elaine Rosscraig, head of customer insight at Stagecoach’s UK bus division, regularly monitors companies such as Amazon, First Direct and Orange to understand the philosophies Stagecoach may need to adopt in the future. Lessons included Amazon’s policy of selling competitors’ products even

Local authorities as much as operators will need to make a cultural revolution if new ticketing and information technology is to be used to best effect. Colin Black, managing director of Contemporary Transport, told the Travel 2020 conference that while Britain often had world leading sustainable transport policy, implementation lagged behind Europe. The reason was that the various local authority professions engaged in delivering transport infrastructure tend to work in their own silos on ind

The Travel 2020 Exhibition, held alongside the conference, demonstrated that technology already exists to provide public transport customers with real time information and ticket sales whatever their location and through a wide variety of media. ACIS, YouTextus, and ITS exhibited personalised information services which enable passengers to plan their journeys according to latest real time information both on PCs and on the move via mobile handsets. Facilities for journey planning at bus stops v

Over the past month there have been signs that the long-awaited revolution in public transport ticketing and payment systems is about to take off. New smart ticketing schemes have been launched in Merseyside, Cardiff and Oxford. Meanwhile, In the South West, a new not for profit company has been formed by local authorities and the bus industry to deliver smart ticketing throughout the region. ITSO, the body responsible for smart ticketing standards, predicts further announcements will follow r

For supporters of smartcard ticketing, progress towards introducing it on local bus services has been painfully slow. However, the last month saw new smartcard ticketing initiatives launched in England, Scotland and Wales. And Stagecoach has become the first major UK bus operator to complete the installation of government-standard smartcard ticket machines on its entire UK bus fleet outside London. All 7,000 vehicles in Stagecoach’s regional bus operations are now ready to move forward w

Traveline, the service providing integrated public transport information in the UK recently launched its brand new portal website. The site, which acts as a signpost to the regional Traveline sites as well as providing travellers with other useful travel information has been given a brand new look and feel making it more eye catching and easy to use. Traveline, which also runs a telephone service and a number of mobile phone services, including Traveline-txt and NextBuses, launched the original

Travelling across Tees Valley is being made simpler with an improved web portal, launched by local transport minister Norman Baker in October. Baker was in Darlington to launch the upgraded Connect Tees Valley site, which aims to make travelling by public transport easier for commuters, and to view the results of the Sustainable Travel Towns project. The site can now be customised by users who can select which elements are relevant to them and to create a ‘MyConnect’ personal profi

In June 2009 at New Transit’s Passenger Transport Management Awards, Austin Birks and Kevin Short won the Innovation and New Thinking Award for a ground breaking initiative that provided text and web-based passenger real time information on a local contracted bus service that operated from Worcestershire into Birmingham. It was not the first time that the pair had been recognised for innovation. Just a year before Birks and Short met at the 2008 PTMA Awards, where they were both nominated

We’ve had another Underground strike so here is a story from nearly 20 years ago with a moral... In 1984 when I started London Pride Sightseeing we used to employ a crew of two - a driver and a guide. London Transport’s Sightseeing Tour had been completely unguided but you did get a helpful map. Cityrama ran in opposition with multilingual commentaries fed into headphones. When the competition heated up LT also offered a guide on some, and then eventually all departures. Our guides

New technologies for operational control and customer service in passenger transport are opening up new management challenges and areas for specifying and sourcing cost-effective systems. Real time passenger information provides a significant boost to the quality of the customer experience. But it also means defining and operating a robust data capture and information transfer regime. Mobile telecommunications have been the key to unlocking this capability – and that world has its own se

The Travel 2020 conference and exhibition which took place at London’s Brit Oval in September gave delegates a glimpse of how technology associated with travel information and smartcard payment systems will develop in the next decade. After a stimulating two days of presentations and discussions, the key question is how are the operators in the UK going to embrace the new culture of ‘personal real time navigation systems’ - incorporating information, planning, booking, smart pa

Operators, consultants and local authorities have painted an apocalyptic vision of the impact on bus networks from forthcoming changes to the English concessionary fares regime. The new system, which will come into effect in April, has been billed by the Department for Transport as a means of simplifying negotiations between operators and local authorities over reimbursement rates. However, at a conference sponsored by New Transit in early November, the DfT was warned that its primary impact w

It was a smaller Euro Bus Expo held in early November at Birmingham’s NEC, but there were still plenty of developments announced by the major bus manufacturers. And once again it seemed that greener technologies dominated the stands. Perhaps buoyed by the recent round of Green Bus Fund announcements, it was clear to see that all of the big firms see this emerging market as the future of their industry. Alexander Dennis Kicking off proceedings with a press briefing before the opening of

When Labour came to power in 1997 it was John Prescott who was handed the transport brief. Prescott was enthusiastically pro-public transport but soon found himself under fire for being “anti-motorist”. The current transport secretary, the first to be installed by the new coalition government is the polar opposite, and the transport world got to know him a little better at October’s Conservative Party conference in Birmingham. While Prescott pledged to transform the bus from &

It’s been voted the most irritating television advert of the year, but it’s hard to forget GoCompare’s offering. It involves a rotund and moustachioed opera singer, “Gio Compario”, popping up unexpectedly in everyday situations to urge us to visit the GoCompare website for the best deals on insurance. You probably know it, but did you know that one of the people behind it is Brian Souter? The Stagecoach co-founder and chief executive has recently gone public with

Falkirk-based bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis is set to make a major drive on export markets with both conventional diesel buses and ground-breaking hybrid-electric vehicles. Speaking at the Euro Bus Expo show in Birmingham this week, chief executive Colin Robertson revealed that ADL will deliver 30 Enviro200 midi buses and 38 Enviro400 double decks to Hong Kong operators in the months ahead. Robertson made it clear that he intends to take the business onto the world stage in a more “dy

In the four years since the government introduced free bus passes nationally for senior citizens, local authorities and operators have been caught up in acrimonious debate about reimbursement. The principle that reimbursement rates should leave operators no better off and no worse off sounds eminently sensible. However, the need to speculate on what would have happened without the concession has been a cause of numerous rows, not helped by the lack of decent quality data to determine additional

Almost 500 visitors came to the first Travel 2020 exhibition and conference which took place at the Brit Oval in London  at the end of last month. The New Transit-supported event showcased nearly 40 suppliers of technologies and support systems addressing ticketing and payment, passenger information, customer service and operational development issues. Alongside the exhibition, the two days included nearly 50 expert presentations plus six brain-storming discussions on the future in ‘

We have reached a point where most of us agree that cashless transactions are the way forward. There is still much debate about which new format will triumph but the direction of the trend is now clear. Whether through smartcards, mobile ticketing or contactless debit cards, cash transactions look set to fade away over the next few years and a golden cashless future beckons. Really? Does it? And if it does, have we actually thought through what this means? You see the trouble is that a lot of

New Transit was given a sneak preview of the prototype New Bus for London in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, this week. The mock-up of Transport for London's New Bus for London, nicknamed the Borismaster after mayor Boris Johnson, is being constructed by bus manufacturer Wrightbus in a top secret area of its Ballymena factory. It remains true to the design that was unveiled by Transport for London in May, and uses marine-style composite material to achieve a lightweight, curved rear end, complete

Networking The Young Railway Professionals will soon celebrate it’s first anniversary. YRP was formed in October 2009 and has already made large strides in its aim of becoming the comprehensive network for young people working in the railway industry. The group’s network has grown to include all types of industry professionals, including apprentices, drivers, graduates, managers with the group now comprising well over 500 members. The YRP aims are summarised by the three actions, pr

New Transit’s scene-setting preview for the Travel 2020 exhibition and conference At present, the way public transport is sold and services publicised remains more akin to a nineteenth century experience than the twenty-first across most of the country. The scene at large railway stations during peak times as passengers queue in slow moving lines to pick up paper tickets from booking office clerks hardly reflects the fast-moving, customer service-led private sector enterprises which passe

Rail travel across the UK is experiencing an exciting new era. As customer demand for buying rail tickets online continues to grow exponentially, the industry is adapting. Buying rail is becoming easier with intuitive and easy to use technology, leading to significant benefits for both operators and their customers. Operators are using this opportunity to get closer to passengers, cut ticket servicing costs and drive new revenue and repeat business through products and targeted promotions. For

My first encounter with real time passenger information (RTPI) was during family holidays spent in Europe. Most of the major cities I visited already had electronic signs at bus and tram stops which gave an indication of when the next service would arrive. When the opportunity to project manage procurement and delivery of a RTPI system for Edinburgh arose in 2001, I jumped at the chance. The project offered similar improvements to public transport, for bus passengers and operators, to those in E

London’s much anticipated Barclays Cycle Hire scheme was launched amidst much fanfare by mayor Boris Johnson at the end of July, despite the news that access to the scheme was to be limited to members for the time being. Johnson launched the scheme at an event held on July 30 by the London Eye with Marcus Agius, the chairman of Barclays and Peter Hendy, London’s transport commissioner. “Londoners have awoken to a new dawn for the bicycle in the capital,” said Johnson.

In less than two years’ time, 14,700 of the world’s best athletes will compete for sport’s highest accolades at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Everybody knows the famous faces - such as Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps and Sir Chris Hoy - who will compete in the new stadia. But few understand the sheer size, scale and complexity of the Games. Those athletes will need transporting to and from over 90 official venues, spread all over London and beyond. Around 20,000

As pressure grows on the railway to tighten its belt, train operators will seek to reduce staff numbers at stations, including those in ticket offices. Train operators will claim that their customers can instead purchase tickets at ever more sophisticated and user-friendly ticket vending machines or TVMs. These machines have colour, touch-screen displays and can accept payment by cash or by credit or debit card. The problem is, as new research shows, that many passengers simply don’t like

Robert Jack is quite right to point out in his recent editorial that customer ticketing technology is changing fast. The iPhone generation is looking for easy solutions that fit the way they use familiar devices such as smartphones to manage their lives. That is why our strategy of delivering smarter travel options for our customers is focused on a range of platforms. As well as pioneering the use of smartcard technology in our bus and rail operations in the UK and supporting the delivery of c

The first thing is to discount predictions by 50%, as changes over the last decade have not been fundamental. However, the Twenty Teens are predicted to herald the arrival of Peak Oil. This will finally bring home the message that our transport needs to change dramatically. If specific energy (the energy per unit mass) rises up the pecking order, then public transport is in for a sustained boost. This is not the only measure, however. Yes, a fully loaded A380 can match a driver in a modern eco

By 2020 whatever our mobile phones have morphed into will become our gateway to public transport use. Applications will have developed so that public transport users are able to use mobile devices in a similar way to satellite navigation systems. Users will be able to enter a destination, the device knowing exactly where you are, and the application will be able to tell you the quickest or cheapest or most scenic route taking into account real-time information. Your device will also include an i

Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) are likely to have continued to blur distinctions between travel time and activity time by 2020. They will have further equipped us to personalise our experience of public transport and will provide a rich array of possibilities of how to use our time in the highly connected ‘always on’ world we will all inhabit. Flexibility in time use on the move will counter unreliability and diminish the primacy of journey speed. However, will

Personal use of multi-media information, in-travel entertainment/communication, way-finding navigation, and smartcard payments/entry systems are important components of a modern public transport service. The evolution of the iPad/iPhone point the way to the future travel companion - incorporating all these services. The mass appeal of such interactive services is established, reducing boredom, anxiety, and uncertainty, states of mind often associated with travelling. With investment in the unde

Ready for the mobile travel transformation? Mobile devices have already transformed the way we speak to and message each other and the next 10 years will see mobile change the way we actually travel. By 2020, the majority of people will use their mobile device as their travel assistant, whether it’s for planning and booking a trip or finding out whether the route to work is going to get them there on time. New independent customer services will support these activities and updates from tra

Warwickshire independent bus and coach operator Johnsons has launched a comparative trial between the battery electric Optare Solo EV and its conventional diesel-engined equivalent in a trial that is expected to yield valuable findings that could accelerate the introduction of cleaner buses to Britain’s roads. The six-day trial, which began in late July in Stratford-upon-Avon and is being undertaken by Johnsons in partnership with Optare, Greenwatt Technology, local authorities and organi

The modernisation of how customers pay for their bus and train travel has take a long time to arrive. A very long time. Stephen Morris, external affairs officer at Bus Users UK, recalls a visit to Harrow bus station in north west London where he saw the first trial of smartcard technology - back in 1994. Think how much the technology that shapes our everyday lives has changed since then. We have bid farewell to telephone boxes and magnetic tapes and we have embraced mobile phones, MP3 players an

Fun and games on London Overground were recently reported by the Going Underground blog when passengers on one particular service were treated to every single prerecorded public address announcement.   Captured on the YouTube website, the dulcet tones of Emma Hignett, over a period of several minutes, announce gems that include: “The emergency evacuation stairs of this train have been deployed... please calmly evacuate the train”; “If there is a doctor or nurse onbo

Recent visits to the Continent have once again underlined to me the substantial difference in approach that exists in the way transport is provided, and decisions made about its design and development. Since deregulation and privatisation the UK industry has maintained a suspicious, and relatively detached, attitude to what is going on in France, Germany, The Netherlands, Scandinavia and beyond. It is as though there is a ‘them’ and ‘us’ approach and ‘we’ are

Thetrainline.com, the UK’s leading rail ticket retailer, has signed a deal for a mass-market mobile ticketing purchase and delivery system. The system will allow users to buy and display UK rail tickets direct from their mobile phones for any route on the National Rail network without having to visit ticket offices or ticket machines. The system is already in development with a rollout expected later in 2010. While it has been possible to purchase tickets online for some time, the Masabi

Response to the announcement of the New Transit-sponsored Travel 2020 event in last month’s issue has been exceptionally encouraging and supportive of the mission of exploring just how the face of travel is changing with new technologies and approaches to customer service. Being run in partnership with RTIG-Inform, the specialist for those in real time information, endorsement has also come from the Institute of Customer Service, Traveline, ITS UK and The Ten Per Cent Club. Other relation

Driverless transport systems are an inevitable and growing part of our future. 143 fully automated transportation systems are in operation around the world today carrying an average 5,817,000 passengers every day without a driver. US DoT statistics show that automated transit is significantly safer than non-automated equivalents. There has been no fatality on an automated system in the last 10 years. Given the immense changes to other parts of our lives provided by information technology, it

Only when it is safe and practical to do so. Most travellers simply want to get from A to B safely, with the minimum of fuss and expense, in the shortest time possible. Even though providing a driver, guard or other member of staff on a train is a means to an end rather than an end in itself, passengers’ perception and sensitivities are important and there will be work to do to assure passengers that driverless systems can be safely used. Automatically-driven trains have been around f

Full metro automation is not new. There are 57 such lines in 32 cities and 13 airports, some in operation for three decades now. Driverless metros have unbeatable safety records and can halve operation costs compared to conventional driving. Turning legacy systems into driverless represents a much greater engineering and organisational challenge. Paris and Nürnberg show it is possible. Other cities will follow. And the Tube? In any case, it could only be gradual. An investment strategy to

Under normal circumstances I would be tempted to dismiss the idea of driverless trains on the Tube as some kind of a joke, cooked up by anti-union fantasists, but in the current climate of cuts and attacks on public services we are taking it very seriously. People only have to look at the footage of the carnage down the Tube after the 7/7 bombings, and the brave and critical role played by train operators and platform staff in dealing with that emergency situation, to see why these crew are so

Yes. Driverless train systems are faster, safer and more efficient than the driver-operated alternative. In London, adopting a driverless Tube would have the added benefit of producing significant savings in wages. At present the RMT union is able to hold the travelling public to ransom, striking for the most trivial reason, causing misery for millions of commuters. Those who oppose a driverless Underground, point to the safety risks in introducing such an innovation. However, over the last year

I recall the late Matthew Bradley of Go Ahead Group returning from a trip to the giant Mercedes-Benz bus factory in Mannheim in frustration. Bradley was always looking at new ways of doing things and he wanted the Germans to help him to create the kind of vehicle that motorists might aspire, rather than loath, to use. When Bradley asked whether certain aspects of the interior could be changed the response was blank looks. The last thing Mercedes wanted was to complicate the production line by t

There is simply is no equivalent event in the UK. A total of 10,000 people attended the Transports Publics 2010 show in Paris last month. French public transport professionals, suppliers and elected members were joined by visitors from around the world, including a familiar face to those in the UK - Brian Souter. The Stagecoach boss did not fly home empty handed. He was handed the Special Career Service Award at the inaugural ‘Talent in Mobility’ awards. The awards were judged by a

Stagecoach chief executive Brian Souter has received a major European award for a career of service to public transport. The co-founder of Stagecoach, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, was honoured in Paris for transforming the perception of public transport and attracting people from all social backgrounds to get on board buses and trains. Judges at the inaugural Talent in Mobility awards praised Brian Souter's commitment to innovation and his leading role in encouraging car us

The Alternative Fuels & Vehicles National Conference & Expo held last month in Las Vegas, Nevada provided an important opportunity to highlight the commencement of two new rapid transit services featuring Wright Group’s StreetCar RTV. StreetCar RTV (Rapid Transit Vehicle) is at the very heart of this significant initiative by the Regional Transportation Commission of South Nevada (RTC). A total of 50 StreetCar RTVs are now in daily, fare-paying operation on two new rapid transit s

When the volcano crisis struck, business travellers booked to fly on domestic routes in the UK turned to their Travel Management Companies for solutions and they in turn looked to rail in order to keep businesses moving. For eight of the top 10 TMCs in Britain, the first stop was Evolvi’s online rail booking and ticketing fulfilment service. “What’s emerging now is the fantastic job done (and still being done) by TMCs in providing their corporate clients with information and

MOBIQA Mobiqa, the mobile phone ticketing specialist, is providing mobile ticket delivery capabilities to MyTrainTicket.co.uk. By offering the mobile channel as a delivery option, train companies will be able to send customers tickets to their mobile phone instead of passengers needing to print them out at home or in the office, or collecting them from kiosks at the station. MyTrainTicket.co.uk’s mobile tickets are delivered as SMS Web Links, Email Web Links or by MMS and contain a scanna

London’s transport system is, depending on your point of view, either world class or an embarrassment. However, in this new age of austerity, future improvements to the capital’s transport, before schemes already under way, will be few and far between. With this in mind, experts in various disciplines at transport consultancy Colin Buchanan have produced a collection of 10 innovative ideas, that are low cost and deliverable in the short term, for London mayor Boris Johnson and his t

an international show dedicated to all modes of public transport will take place in Paris on June 8-10. Over 250 exhibitors and 10,000 visitors from all around the world are expected to come and discover the latest innovations and best practice in sustainable mobility. Transports Publics 2010 will be the fourth show of its kind. The biennial event, which aims to showcase new products and services, as well as the most innovative transport policies. There is no equivalent of the show in the UK. I

Scurrilous website Popbitch recently reported a slight flaw in security at one London-based media giant recently. “Want to wander round The Guardian's new super-posh offices but without security clearance?” asked the website’s weekly newsletter. “Why, you can use your Oyster Card! We are told it gets you through about 70% of the gates and entry points. Even better, you don't get charged a fare despite it being in Zone 1.”

Technology is driving the future of travel. The danger is that innovation and the radically new will arrive from an unexpected direction, and potentially completely change the rules of the game. For decades the technology of transport was synonymous with the design, styling and operation of vehicles. And certainly the changing shape of trains, buses and planes was an undeniable feature of the 20th century. But how significant was that part of the mix compared with other less obvious technologi

It has been some months now since ‘Station Champions’ Sir Peter Hall and Chris Green delivered their verdict on the UK’s rail station infrastructure and last month’s New Transit-presented UK?Rail?Stations 2010 conference in London gave Hall an opportunity to describe his vision for Britain’s stations. Hall said there was a long way to go before passengers were signing the praises of stations. “Research shows that there’s a great deal of satisfaction amo

The arrival of French transport groups, Keolis, Veolia and Transdev, in the UK over the past decade has brought with it its fair share of legendary Gallic shrugs. The two countries may only be separated by 20 miles of English Channel, but the environment French transport professionals are used to in their homeland and the systems they have encountered in this country can often seem as though they are from a different planet. In the UK, promoting competition, minimising subsidy and proving the v

London’s Victoria station was the backdrop to this year’s New Transit-sponsored UK Rail Stations conference, now in its ninth year. The event has become the premier annual event for all those involved in rail stations in the UK, and this year’s event took place at the Grosvenor Hotel, adjacent to Victoria station, on February 24. Over 110 delegates heard presentations from a range of speakers, including the government’s “Station Champions”, Chris Green and Si

I was interested to read the last edition of New Transit (February) in which the cover story questioned the levels of communication between local authorities and their transport operators. Partnerships are indeed key to successful project implementation and there are indeed many worthy of mention from around the United Kingdom. One such example is Hertfordshire County Council. HCC became a pilot for greater partnership working between the authority and its local transport operators back in 1999

In France, the term Bus Rapid Transit is not as widely used as in the English speaking world and the French inspired COST Action TU603 goes under the anglicised title ‘Buses with a High Level of Service’, or, in French, ‘Bus à Haut Niveau de Service’, embraces more meaningfully the concepts of quality bus services and corridors together with Bus Rapid Transit in a spectrum of approaches to improving bus service performance and quality. So let’s look at some F

The current merger discussions between Arriva and French operator Keolis appear certain to kick off a new wave of consolidation in the European passenger transport industry. Whether or not the Arriva/Keolis deal eventually goes ahead, French groups are being actively encouraged to increase their presence on the world stage by their government as restrictions on competition are lifted. The ripples are being felt throughout the European transport industry as a whole. The move towards the long-pr

Few, if any, public transport information projects have been more ambitious than the Transport Direct website. Its origins lie in John Prescott's 10-year transport plan, which set out a vision for a multi-modal, door-to-door, journey planner incorporating information on public transport and car travel updated in real time. The idea was that by typing in any origin and destination, Transport Direct would provide details of how to make any journey the length and breadth of the country, including

Despite it only being several months since the last World Congress of UITP, the international association of public transport, plans are already being made for the next event that will be held in Dubai in April next year. In January, UITP announced that the theme of the next World Congress will be ‘Boosting Public Transport:?Action!’, demonstrating the associations agenda for increasing sustainable public transport use. Although Dubai has a reputation for being a city dominated by

Passengers want to see more station toilets, waiting rooms and better information on train arrival-times prioritised in works to improve small and medium-sized stations, according to a survey carried out for Passenger Focus and Network Rail. The national passenger watchdog has asked passengers their views on what improvements should be made to small to medium-sized stations as part of planning for the five year National Stations Improvement Programme (NSIP). NSIP has been designed to improve f

BRTuk’s recent annual conference in Cardiff was another opportunity to review progress for the mode For some years now the annual conference of BRTuk, the bus rapid transit interest group, has seen plenty of examples of BRT around the world, but this year’s conference in Cardiff heard of tangible progress being made with the mode in the UK. With the recent official opening of the Ftr Metro scheme in Swansea and progress being made on the delayed Cambridgeshire Guided Busway, there

During 2009, two on-screen adverts for train travel were so inspiring that I determined halfway through them to go somewhere - anywhere - by train as soon as I could. The first showed train travel as the gateway to life's exciting social and entertainment opportunities, while the second conclusively proved rail travel to be romantic and adventurous, and superior to any other journey mode I might be considering. Sadly, by the end of each advert I was left disappointed. The first turned out to

The New Transit ‘Power 50’ list shows the most powerful and influential people in public transport. As with any assessment of the most powerful people, companies and institutions, it will inevitably provoke an array of questions. Do the ‘Big Five’ transport groups wield more power than the government? Do ministers or civil servants hold the whip hand in the Department for Transport? Do local government’s representatives or the negotiators from the transport indust

The Stern Review’s three policy principles - introducing carbon pricing, focusing on technology policy, and focusing on behavioural change - are fundamental here. For me, the option offering the quickest savings to the transport sector - where the evidence suggests big improvements are unlikely to be cost-effective for at least another decade or so - is behavioural change. And the most likely source of this is providing drivers with in-vehicle information showing them how to reduce fuel us

Stagecoach Merseyside has become the first UK bus operator to accept contactless debit and credit card payments on its network following the launch of Mastercard’s PayPass technology on the operator’s 200-strong bus fleet. Vehicles have been fitted with reading equipment that will allow Stagecoach passengers to pay for their tickets using contactless Mastercard debit and credit cards. Stagecoach hopes that the payment technology will speed up boarding times on its services around Li

Transport group Arriva has launched what is the first nationwide roll-out of mobile ticketing technology in the UK as part of a new partnership with Concept Data Technologies. The new service, which will be available on all of Arriva bus routes outside London, will allow passengers to buy daily, weekly and four-weekly tickets via their mobile phones. Arriva has been looking at m-ticketing technologies for some time, even going as far to fit barcode readers to its vehicles on the Fastrack BRT ne

21st Century Technology Solutions, the UK’s leading supplier of WiFi CCTV systems for the passenger transport sector, has secured a three year contract to supply transport group Go Ahead with its bus vehicle and depot CCTV requirements along with the management of Go Ahead’s railway station platform CCTV installations. Dave Lynch, Go Ahead’s group technology & procurement director said that an innovative and functional mobile CCTV technology is crucial for any forward thin

The tram-train concept is one that many believe has considerable potential. It will be tested for the first time in the UK between Sheffield and Rotherham. The Department for Transport had intended this trial to take place on the Penistone line between Sheffield and Huddersfield, but critics questioned the logic of this choice as the line has no connection with a tram line. Instead, it was announced last month that the trial will be switched to an existing freight-only line between Rotherham Cen

Arriva has become the first UK transport group to introduce mobile phone ticketing for all its regional bus services outside London. Customers across Arriva’s regional bus businesses in England, Scotland and Wales, are now able to buy daily, weekly and four-weekly tickets via their mobile phones following the national launch of Arriva’s m-ticketing service. Arriva’s introduction of m-ticketing is believed to be the largest deployment of its kind in the world, covering appro

Two hydrogen buses are set to hit the streets of Sunderland as part of a unique research and development programme that aims to bring international expertise to North East England. One North East has invested £314,000 to sponsor the ECO2Trans project, which is converting two former Merseytravel Technobus electric buses into hydrogen vehicles using a fuel cell, battery and capacitor combination. The University of Sunderland’s Institute of Automotive and Manufacturing Advanced Practi

Trueform has been awarded a 12 year contract to design, manufacture, install and maintain new Countdown Real Time Information displays across Transport for London’s bus network in the capital. In conjunction with Trueform’s subsidiary company, Ferrograph, Trueform will be manufacturing, installing, and maintaining London’s new generation on-street RTI Countdown signs using in-house resources from the company’s London based manufacturing, installation and maintenance ser

Translink, the state-owned Northern Ireland bus and rail operator, today launched iLink, its new integrated smart ticketing system that aims to make using public transport easier. Catherine Mason, Translink's chief executive, explained: “iLink is the first integrated commercial Smartcard for Northern Ireland and is a big step forward in delivering integrated travel solutions for everyone. “It can be purchased for unlimited day, weekly or monthly travel on Metro, NI Railways and Uls

First Group has chosen the Icomera Moovbox M200 mobile broadband gateway for on-board Internet on its inter-city Greyhound coach services to operate between London and Portsmouth and Southampton. The free Wi-Fi hotspot service will provide passengers with Internet access at speeds up to several megabits per second, using a 3G HSPA network connection from Vodafone. "Despite our low fare prices we want to offer our customer the very highest level of amenities on board the new Greyhound

Technology firm 21st Century Technology Solutions has signed a landmark agreement with wireless internet specialist Icomera AB to distribute their range of broadband gateway products for use in passenger transport applications. Headquartered in Sweden, Icomera is a leading provider of cellular broadband gateways delivering in-vehicle internet connectivity for some of the world’s largest road and rail transport operators. The agreement gives 21st Century certain exclusive distribution rig

Parkeon’s recently launched range of rail ticket vending machines for the UK market has achieved Rail Settlement Plan approval for its ‘Ticket on Departure’ capability. The accreditation applies to both the Astreo and Galexio machines, enabling passengers who make on-line bookings for train journeys to collect their chosen tickets from the Parkeon machines. “TOD is a key element in the retailing channels being adopted by TOCs and by online rail booking specialists, so t

bus operators across the UK are benefiting from a host of ITSO ticketing solutions that have been developed by Parkeon. Parkeon remains the only ticketing technology company involved in every major ITSO scheme in progress or under development in Britain and the firm recently added a second ticketing platform - the Wayfarer 200 ETM - to its fully certified range of ITSO compliant on-bus systems. The certification is all the more significant because the Wayfarer 200, which is currently being in

The integrated ticketing strategy needs to send some clear messages that simple, unified and integrated ticketing systems delivered by smartcard are what passengers want and what they should get. Following on from Oyster card in London the next logical step would be to do the next tier of major city regions - which are the Met areas covering a population of 11 million people. Once London and the city regions are covered then you can build from there to cover the whole country. There is now a gol

He should: Publish details of the DfT’s proposed BSOG uplift for operators rolling out ITSO smartcard equipment, removing uncertainty that prevents accelerated investment now. Resolve the current lack of clarity of the relationship between Oyster and ITSO which places doubts in operators’ minds on the future role of ITSO as an industry standard. If ITSO is to remain the standard, simplification, reduced costs and timescales for the ITSO accreditation process would

In today’s economic climate smart ticketing will help people become more discriminating and greener in their use of transport through the choices it enables. It also removes barriers for people seeking jobs and reduces costs by providing transport subsidies only where they are needed. Leadership in UK transport requires finding solutions to challenging problems. A commercially-driven, publicly-committed smart ticketing scheme is an intelligent, measured response to the economic crisis a

ITSO’s open specification is the keystone to interoperable ticketing in the UK. Scheme operators can now source ITSO compliant components from a growing number of suppliers and can build smart systems capable of meeting Lord Adonis’s objective. Lord Adonis’s biggest challenge will be to persuade scheme operators - local authorities and transport operators - that they should “go ITSO smart”.  Smartcard systems are technically complex and don’t come cheap.

Tyne and Wear PTE Nexus, which owns and manages the Tyne and Wear Metro, has acted to close down a Facebook newsgroup aimed at tracking the movements of its ticket inspectors.   Facebook agreed on August 20 to close down the newsgroup, which had attracted several hundred members in the last two weeks, after Nexus complained that it broke the website’s guidelines.   Nexus is also seeking the closure of two further Facebook newsgroups which contain malicious comments and threat

Arriva have topped the latest survey benchmarking corporate websites ranking number two out of from the top companies in the FTSE 250 index.   The Investis Quarterly corporate website rankings show how well companies’ sites perform in the FTSE index, with each site measured against 188 criteria.   For the second quarter of 2009, www.arriva.co.uk scored 65% in the survey, pipped for top spot among FTSE 250 companies by defence and support services company VT Group. Nation

First has installed new GPS technology across its entire UK fleet of 9,000 buses to help improve driving styles and reduce the carbon footprint of its buses. The move follows a of ‘DriveGreen’ on 1,000 buses in London, Bradford and Glasgow, where they were fitted with the latest GPS technology that can detect dozens of driving movements per minute and immediately lets the driver know how well they are driving. A ‘traffic light’ LED monitor on vehicle dashboards flas

Bus users in the Berkshire town of Thatcham have received a boost with the handover of an advance Real Time Passenger Information system developed by Connexionz UK. A total of 15 buses are covered by the scheme, which provides up-to-the-minute operational and service information displayed at screens across the town. Five of the stops also feature the firm’s new in-stop ‘TFT’ screen, similar technology to many desk-top computers, that allows the clear and concise display of ser

Later this year will see the launch of the new Personal Rapid Transit system at London’s Heathrow airport, connecting Terminal 5 with parking facilities to the north of the airport. Airport operator BAA is already planning an expansion of the system that could eventually stretch across the airport. The driverless pods operate on a dedicated guideways and are able to convey up to six passengers directly to their destination and technology firm Eurotech, working in partnership with Arrowval

First ScotRail and Atos Origin have signed a new deal that will see the technology firm’s AVANTIX Mobile portable ticketing product rolled out across the Scottish train operators business. AVANTIX Mobile’s capabilities are well established in the industry with the system processing over 50 million transactions in 2008. The ScotRail contract calls for an enhanced version of the product with additional functionality including faster ticket printing to enable more sales on busy trains;

Stagecoach has expanded wireless internet coverage across its UK bus fleet with the introduction of wi-fi on buses in the east of England and Wales. The group has used Icomera’s award-winning Moovbox M200 Mobile Broadband Gateway system, which offers speeds of up to seven megabits per second, for some time on its Oxford Tube service between London and Oxford as well as bus operations in Oxfordshire and Scotland. The expansion will see wireless internet coverage introduced on the group&rs

Bus operators could cut their fuel bill by as much as 30%, saving as much as £2,000 per year per vehicle, by using a special device that has been created by technology firm 21st Century. As well as reducing fuel consumption, the ECOManager product can also reduce operator’s carbon emissions – lowering the carbon footprint of each bus by as much as 5,000kg every year. The system is the first fuel saving system that has been designed specifically for use on bus fleets and is cur

“I will never forget it. There was a big steep hill and most passengers on the bus service would get on at the top and get off at the bottom,” reminisces Traveline Scotland chief executive John Elliot. “It was a pretty short journey and most conductors would only collect about four or five fares before reaching the bottom of the hill, but this one conductor always stopped the bus halfway so he could collect them all.” So just who was this conductor? Step forward Brian S

I have never seen transport as merely being about the quickest route between two points on a map. In my view, you can tell as much about the values of a society from its transport system as by its schools and hospitals. I therefore reject the dialogue of despair that says we just have to grin and bear congestion; that we in Britain are incapable of carrying through long-term infrastructure projects; that you will never get people cycling on British roads; and, that our engineers simply aren&rsqu

How much is your rear end worth? This is a question that any bus operator must consider and reconsider. Rail operators must consider it too. Exterior advertising sells because it works. But if it works then why aren’t operators using it to advertise their own services instead of promoting magazines, cosmetics or the competition - cars? Of course, the revenue generated from advertising helps to balance the budget. So, operators are left with a difficult choice - take the money, or retain yo

Stagecoach has expanded its in-vehicle Wi-Fi services for passengers across multiple fleets in Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Wales. As part of a government-funded £116m scheme to bring better transportation to Cambridgeshire, Stagecoach has launched a fleet of twenty new state-of-the-art vehicles to operate on the 25-kilometre (16-mile) guided busway. Stagecoach already uses Icomera's Moovbox M200 Mobile Broadband Gateway to provide Wi-Fi on bus services in London, Oxfordshire and S

Kevin Short Youtextus.com Austin Birks Diamond Bus Kevin Short and Austin Birks have together introduced a real time information system that benefits both operators and travellers. Accessible to passengers via mobile phone or dedicated web page, both supported by Google mapping, the free to use service boosted customer confidence and provided Diamond Bus with both valuable daily vehicle movement charts and comprehensive schedule variation reports. The judges said: “We were greatly imp

The Integrated Smart Card Organisation is engaged with the future structure of the organisation and recently invoked an EGM to resolve it. Irrespective of the outcome, focus needs to move to the bigger and more detailed questions of ensuring the environment, and not just the specification, is configured to deliver what it set out to do 10 years ago – full interoperability. Over the past few years MVA has been at the forefront of work with many of the UK’s smart card schemes. Most of

GERMAN technology firm INIT is implementing an innovative high-technology ticketing system for four regional bus companies owned by DB Stadtverkehr in Bavaria. As part of the package, INIT is also supplying its multi-client fleet management system MOBILE-ITCS, with which more than 3,000 vehicles will soon be controlled by a single standardized system. The ticketing element of the package, which uses the sophisticated EVENDpc system, combines a ticket printer with on-board computer functionality

The UITP World Congress in Vienna this month saw a number of lightweight, folding bicycles on show, all designed with public transport in mind. The Belgian design pictured featured rubber chains to reduce its weight.

the 6,400 public transport professionals who gathered in Vienna this month for the World Congress of UITP, the international association of public transport, debated many issues, but high on the agenda was how to satisfy the seemingly inexorable rise in demand for mobility. The event’s keynote speaker, French trend-watcher Bruno Marzloff had a message for them: you can’t. Marzloff argues that the more that we try to cater for the demand for mobility, the more demand we create. He us

AT the last UITP?World Congress in Helskini in 2007 hybrid bus technology was very much in its embryonic state. However, this year’s event in Vienna saw all of the major European manufacturers demonstrating their hybrid developments. Belgium’s Van Hool announced the first entry into service of its production hybrid product by De Lijn, the Flemish region public transport operator. On display in Vienna was the first of an initial 79 Van Hool hybrids for the operator and the manufact

The last few years has been characterised by the sudden appearance and growth of social networking websites, blogging and SMS messaging and innovative transport operators have been quick to grasp the potential of the technology to keep customers informed about problems that may affect their journey. Chiltern Railways was an early adopter of SMS technology with its JourneyCheck system that allows customers to check what is happening to their service in real time. Now others are getting in on the

Omnibuses 2.0: New era dawned Electronic ticket machines have been with us for 30 years. Given Wayfarer of Poole was within Hants & Dorset ’s area, it’s not surprising that the National Bus Company chose H&D to trial the early Wayfarer ETM. The rest, as they say, is history... Click here to open the Omnibuses 2.0 story in another window

Northern Rail will be the first rail operator to issue BlackBerries to all of its conductors - over 1,000 - so that they can give customers faster and more accurate information. The £140,000 investment aims to get more and better quality information about any current services, whether there are any delays, onward connections at stations and planned engineering works. Heidi Mottram, Northern Rail's managing director, Northern Rail, said: “Our customers are increasingly satisfi

ScotRail will begin to trial the smartcard tickets among their staff members later this month, with Season Ticket holders travelling between Edinburgh and Glasgow first in line to try them in the autumn.       It plans to test up to 10,000 tickets and the technology over the next two years before any extension of use on other services. Unlike traditional magnetic-stripe tickets, smartcard tickets do not need to be put through a reader at station gates. 

Network Rail has called for the government to endorse a detailed long term vision for the rail industry. Without such a vision, the company warned that it will inevitably make wrong investment decisions. “We can’t keep planning in five year bites, we need a longer term view so we can do the right things now,” Network Rail economic analysis manager James Angus told the National Rail Conference in London this month. For example, he said that it was vital to establish as soon as

Train operators will be required to meet more rigorous station standards when new franchises are let, transport minister Andrew Adonis has announced. Adonis’s decision follows his tour of the country’s rail network during which time he used over 50 stations. In a speech to the National Rail Conference, Adonis said he was left with a marked impression “that the quality of stations is now far more variable than the quality of the trains that serve them, and that at some of our m

The Association of Train Operating Companies has called on the government to be more honest about the reason for large increases in rail fares. Chief executive Michael Roberts said that the Department for Transport’s repeated portrayal of fares as a commercial matter for train operators was disingenuous and could only harm the industry’s reputation. Given that it is explicit DfT policy to ensure that fares fund 75% of the industry’s cost rather than 50% at present, Roberts sai

Since it became fully ITSO approved over 12 months’ ago, the almex.mobile ticketing machine is still the only unit of its kind in the UK market to boast such a prestigious credential. And why?  Because Almex believe it is still some years ahead in its development due to the R&D expertise and experience of its parent company Hoeft & Wessel. The almex.mobile gained its draft certification in December 2007 to allow Almex UK, one of Europe’s leading ticketing system specia

Corporate travel buyers are increasingly turning to rail - and specifically to online booking systems - to manage the cost of UK business travel and to drive up productivity. Investment by train operating companies in technologies such as WiFi, mobile phone connectivity and quiet carriages, has helped to boost corporate rail travel dramatically over the last few years as business travellers look to optimise their journey times. To meet this demand, Evolvi, the leading online business rail book

Bus rapid transit can be an effective tool for encouraging modal shift at much lower cost than competing light rail alternatives. That was one of the key messages emanating  from the Transit-presented Bus as Rapid Transit conference that was held in London last week. Commenting on the experience of North America, Bill Vincent of Washington-based Breakthrough Technologies Institute said that   the United States was experiencing a renaissance in public transport use with patronage

Find out what BRT means in the North America, France and Africa at Transit's fifth annual Bus as Rapid Transit conference on April 22 in London. The director of BRT, Breakthrough Technologies Institute, Bill Vincent, from the United States will be speaking on how BRT is viewed and implemented in North America He will look at systems such as Los Angeles' Metro Rapid and Orange Line, Cleveland's Healthline, and Pittsburgh busways. "There is no common definition for BRT, said Vincent.&quo

Over recent years there has been a growing recognition of the importance of delivering excellent customer service in the passenger transport sector. Formerly state-run utilities, the bus and rail industries are seeking to complete the transition to customer-orientated retailers. There are a band of people in the industry who are absolutely passionate about the need to do this and they have been winning the argument. However, with the economy heading into recession and businesses under pressure t

ALMEX has achieved a milestone in the UK with its latest state-of-the-art ticket printing equipment. The Swindon-based ticket equipment supplier has now taken orders as well as implementing more than 4000 ITSO certified ticketing machines into the UK transport industry - achieved in less than three years. “This firmly places Almex at the leading edge of ITSO compliant revenue control systems,” said Alistair Aitken, Almex sales manager. “Sales into public transport operators

Parkeon, the automatic fare collection specialist, has added a second ticketing platform to its fully certified range of ITSO compliant on-bus ticket systems. The company has just received confirmation that the Wayfarer 200 ticket technology has achieved full certification to the ITSO standard, building on the accreditation already held for the Wayfarer 150 ETM. “This is excellent news for the Parkeon engineers who have worked so hard to achieve this certification -but more importantly i

Arriva has announced the installation of free Internet access and real-time vehicle tracking on its Green Line express coach service between Luton International Airport and Central London. The Green Line airport express operates a direct 24-hour service between Britain's fourth largest airport and London's Victoria Station terminus. Its fleet of buses has been equipped with Icomera's Moovbox M Series mobile broadband gateway that provides Wi-Fi connectivity on the move. "Internationa

Evolvi Rail Systems, the leading online business rail booking and ticketing specialist, has unveiled a record 47% increase in revenue for 2008. The company, which partners with eight of the top 10 corporate travel management companies in the UK, grew its rail business from £150m to £220m in the last 12 months on the back of major contract gains and renewals. Among the latest successes was the selection by the Home Office of Evolvi self-booking rail reservation and ticketing functio

It is of course a cross they have to bear; Network Rail that is. From the slightest gripes and groans of the commuter on the journey home (“leaves on the line at Surbiton” of the Reggie Perrin variety) to the sometimes rather more headline grabbing disruptions surrounding Christmas engineering works, Network Rail will always be in the headlines. They will be talked about at dinner parties the length and breadth of the land along with the bank, the building society, the estate agent,

Tyne & Wear PTE Nexus is teaming up with Stagecoach, Go North East and Arriva across North East England to develop the region’s first smart ticketing technology for public transport. Subject to approval from the PTA to submit a bid for government funding for pilot projects this month, the move means that passengers able to travel anywhere from the Scottish border to the Tees Valley using a single ‘intelligent’ card in place of cash. The system will charge a fare from t

THE CHIEF executive of Britain’s Institute of Customer Service has stressed that the current difficult economic climate makes it more important than ever to listen to customers and to understand and meet their expectations. Around 1,000 redundancies have been announced by passenger transport operators over the past month as they seek to strip costs from their businesses. However, David Parsons warned that job losses must not hinder customer service delivery. “Keeping the right peop

It would be so easy to dwell on the obvious disparity between the UK?and the rest of Europe when it comes to light rail - from the actual number of schemes, to the whole approach. Over the water, light rail has been embraced as an accepted mode of choice and getting on a tram is as normal as getting on bus in many major cities. Christian Buisson, consultant for Transdev, spoke at last week’s Light Rail Transit conference, of a light rail renaissance in Europe over the last 25  years

Transport minister Geoff Hoon has announced that the government plans to increase the Bus Service Operator’s Grant to reflect the 2p duty increase that chancellor Alistair Darling revealed in his pre-budget report. However, Hoon also revealed that there will be no further increases to BSOG until April 2010 when long mooted reforms to the £450m subsidy to operators will take place. From then BSOG rates will be uprated for those operators who have achieved an improvement in fuel effic

Advanced Transport Systems and BAA Heathrow have commenced running tests on the new ULTra Personal Rapid Transit system that will link the Terminal 5 with a car park on the periphery of the airport. The construction phase of the project was completed on time and on budget. ATS have now begun the fit out programme and extensive system testing in preparation for the launch of ULTra to passengers in autumn 2009. The £25m system is the first commercial PRT system in the world. Project manage

There is no doubt that the role of the railway station and the emphasis placed on it is changing in the eyes of the rail industry. Yes, its primary and most basic function is for passengers to get on and off trains, but for many of the speakers at the Transit UK Rail Stations 2008 conference last week, the station is or should be much more than that:? a gateway to a city, to a community; a retail hub; a stress-free environment where people want to linger, meet, and shop - in a move that transcen

This year’s BRT-UK conference was held in Belfast. A wise decision, as it turned out, since the event coincided with the news that the Northern Ireland Executive has given the green light for a £150m Bus Rapid Transit corridor in the city. In his keynote speech to delegates, transport minister Conor Murphy said the planned scheme, which will see a cross-city route linking deprived areas of east and west Belfast with the emerging developments of the Titanic quarter, would be a key co

Stagecoach-owned South West Trains has started the first public trials of the Department for Transport’s national rail smartcard. The project is taking place on a small self-contained part of the network between Windsor and Staines, and is limited to season ticket holders. Passengers are being given a discount to encourage them to take part. The system has already been used by staff for several weeks to test the reliability of the cards, validators and back office equipment. The public tr

Transport for London this week announced the agreement of a new contract for the future management and development of the Oyster card system and other ticketing services. Six million Oyster cards are in use across London’s transport network. The deal sees ownership of the Oyster brand pass to TfL ensuring that passengers will continue to have Oyster in their pockets for years to come. TfL claims that the deal will deliver great value for money over the coming years. The new arrangement i

Euro Bus Expo is a chance for bus manufacturers show off their new kit, but a niche hobby seems to have developed in parallel amongst the exhibition go-ers: spotting design errors. One vehicle presented limited legroom for occupants of one set of seats and lots of legroom for those sat behind. Could we be seeing the launch of business class for buses we wonder?

All of the major UK manufacturers demonstrated their new hybrid vehicle products at this week’s Euro Bus Expo show in Birmingham. While Scandinavian manufacturer Scania displayed its hybrid concept bus that was first unveiled at the UITP World Congress in Helsinki last year, rivals unveiled a number of hybrid models that will enter service in London in the coming months. UK?hybrid pioneer Wrightbus used the show to unveil its new Gemini 2 double deck model with a hybrid version destined

AIM-listed bus manufacturer Optare took the wraps off the Rapta, its new concept integral double deck bus at the Euro Bus Expo show in Birmingham this week. Although only a mock-up of the vehicle was on show, Optare believes that when production of the Rapta begins at its new plant in Blackburn next year it will be considerably lighter than its peers. With an unladen weight of 10,700kg it will be nearly 1,000kg lighter than its closest competitor resulting in a 5%  improvement in fuel cons

Scarborough-based coach manufacturer Plaxton used this week’s Euro Bus Expo show in Birmingham to unveil its new Elite premium coach product. Plaxton says the development of the new coach marks a significant investment in the business by its parent Alexander Dennis. “Our existing models are popular and are available with luxurious specifications,” said Plaxton’s sales and marketing director Kevin Wood. “Despite our success we are under-represented in that sector o

The annual Transit-sponsored Light Rail conference will this year take place in London on December 9. Light Rail 2008 will examine the new agenda and identify opportunities for light rail as a mode of transport ideally suited to address most if not all of the sustainability challenges. It will consider the success of existing systems within Great Britain and the rationale behind growth across the Channel. Policy issues will be closely examined but the major focus will be on how the current

George Muir will chair the eighth annual UK Rail Stations conference at the Hilton Paddington Hotel on November 27, 2008. For further details visit www.railstations.org.uk .  We have an Institution of Railway Operations. Do we now need one for Station Management? Why? Because, actually, Cinderella has had a lot of money spent on her and she is due for another billion in the next five years. She often looks pretty good - glam even - but there are holes in her tights and the make-up smu

Stagecoach and GMPTE have teamed up to in Manchester to introduce on-street solar-powered ticket machines, produced by Parkeon, as part of a 12-month trial. Around £80,000 is being invested in the project, which will make it even easier for customers to buy tickets in advance, speeding up boarding and helping services run on time. Commenting on the trial, Mark Threapleton, Stagecoach Manchester’s managing director, said: “We have chosen some of the busiest bus stops in Manche

Stagecoach is to launch on-bus debit and credit card payment on Merseyside next year in a new 12-month trial of contactless ‘PayPass’ payment technology. The trial, which the Perth-based group is undertaking in collaboration with the Royal Bank of Scotland and Mastercard, will see readers installed on 200 buses. The partners say the technology will allow passengers to make fast, convenient and safe payments simply by tapping their card on a dedicated reader. The PayPass system allo

New ticketing technology coupled with relaxation of restrictions on use of discounted tickets could hold the key to improving the rail industry’s stubbornly low value for money rating, the Association of Train Operating Companies believes. Speaking at the Transit-sponsored Mobile Generation conference last week, ATOC head of fares Andy Wakeford said he could foresee a situation in the medium term where passengers can choose to board trains at will without buying a ticket. Tracking their m

Lothian Buses chief executive Neil Renilson  this week visited Wrightbus’ factory in Northern Ireland for a special preview of the new-look Wrightbus Eclipse 2 single deck bus. The Eclipse 2 is the successor to what has become one of the leading single deck buses in the British Isles. The new model features new styling with a look that has been clearly influenced by the Wrightbus StreetCar trambus model. Ten of these new-styled vehicles are currently in the final stages of productio

The Department for Transport is looking at restructuring the way in which funds for England’s concessionary fares scheme are distributed in response to widespread criticism of the scheme. Speaking at the Transit-supported The National Concessionary Fares Scheme:?Six Months On conference in London this week, Richard Brude, the DfT’s head of concessionary travel, admitted that although changes may be made in 2011, it was unlikely that additional funding would be available to increase

The introduction of free concessionary travel is fueling significant bus patronage growth, delegates attending the Transit-supported The National Concessionary Fares Scheme:?Six Months On conference heard. Caroline Green, the senior policy consultant at the Local Government Association said that the start of nationwide free travel in England earlier this year had already resulted in a 20% increase in trips, but “in some areas this is much higher”. She said that in Devon there had

Greater manchester PTE is to install 200 new touch-screen ticket machines on the Metrolink network over the next three years as part of a £5.4m project. 121 of the machines will be installed at the existing Metrolink stops, replacing all of the ticket machines on the network. Another 108 will be installed on the new lines to Oldham and Rochdale, Droylsden in Tameside, Chorlton in South Manchester and MediaCityUK in Salford Quays. Up to five machines will be installed at each stop, with at

The challenge of motivating staff to deliver high standards of customer service was top of the agenda when the Scottish bus industry met for its annual conference last week. Two well-known Scottish entrepreneurs, Sir Tom Farmer and Brian Souter, offered their thoughts on how to motivate staff at CPT Scotland’s annual conference at Gleneagles. The pair were speaking after Scottish transport minister Stewart Stevenson urged bus operators to seize the opportunity offered to them by higher fu

Icomera AB, the a leading global supplier of Internet connectivity to trains, has agreed to acquire UK-based Moovera Networks, the award-winning manufacturer of fixed and mobile communications systems. As a result of the merger Icomera AB will become the foremost provider of in-vehicle, industrial-grade Internet access technology  encompassing trains, buses, coaches, trucks and ferries - with a global customer base including many of the world’s largest transport operators. Icomera sy

Since entry in the PTMA awards 2008, Textus has added two new products to its existing product range. Their aim is to challenge existing obstacles through partnership, where all operators can offer real time services to their customers at realistic and affordable costs whilst benefitting from many revenue generating opportunities. The Textus concept started with a simple question: what happens when someone wants to find out about a multiple-service journey? Chances are they’ll have to spe

Icomera, the world’s leading supplier of internet connectivity to trains, has agreed to acquire UK-based Moovera Networks, the manufacturer of fixed and mobile communications systems. Icomera, which is based in Gothenburg, Sweden, is best known in the UK for providing the technology that enables rail users on East Coast intercity services to access the internet during their journeys. Moovera has provided on-bus internet to a number of UK bus operators, including Trent Barton and the Oxf

Transys has been told by Transport for London that its £100m-a-year contract to run London’s Oyster card system will be terminated five years early. The contract was due to run until 2015 but TfL is exercising a break option to cancel it in 2010. Six million Oyster cards are in use across London’s transport network. In a statement, mayor Boris Johnson and TfL said they were convinced that any future contracts will deliver enhanced services for less money. “The mayor

Using Omnibus products to schedule, timetable and operate bus routes is to get a geographical boost with the launch of OmniMAP.  It is a tool developed specifically for bus operators and local authorities managing a bus network. Utilising renowned digital mapping to street level, and the internationally respected ESRI ArcGIS geographical environment, OmniMAP is an extremely user friendly and versatile tool for planning, displaying and editing bus services and stop networks. “This

A Dutch judge has ruled that details of how to copy Transport for London’s Oyster smart card system can be published by a team of researchers from a university in the Netherlands. The ruling overturns an injunction granted in June after the academics demonstrated how to copy cards and ride for free on the capital’s transport system. The team now plans to publish the details of their research in September. The weaknesses centre on the  Mifare Classic chip within each card

Five hundred public transport users in London this week began a six-month trial of a new mobile phone that incorporates Oyster ticketing technology. Transport for London and TranSys, the consortium that delivers the Oyster smartcard, have joined forces with mobile phone company O2 to trial the mobile handset. The ‘O2 wallet’ phones incorporate Oyster technology, allowing them to be used to pay for travel across London. Since its launch in 2003, more than 10 million cards have b

The third annual conference of bus rapid transit interest group BRT?UK, held in Cambridge last week, saw a focus on delivery and a clear emphasis by the group on what it can do in the future the promote the virtues of the mode, and perhaps more importantly, to define what BRT actually is. Indeed this was the key question of the conference. As Bob Tebb, First’s operations technical manager and chair of BRT UK, said: “What is BRT??Is it a top end bus? Does it include quality bus tra

The new website launched by National Express for its East Coast intercity operation has been awarded a top five-star rating from the UK’s best selling internet magazine. The review in the latest issue of Web User magazine praises the website’s ease of use, ticket searching options and new lowest fare finder tool, “making rail travel easier than ever”, and names the website as its ‘Site of the Fortnight’. It also highlights new features such as the option

Outdoor media firm CBS Outdoor has signed its first clients for its innovative Cross Track Projection (XTP) system on London Underground. Since this week, moving advertising from Nestlé, Sky, Magners, Paramount, InBev and Dewynters has been projected across tracks in full motion and HD quality at 23 sites at five of the busiest stations in the capital’s centre. The contracts with the six organisations will run for a minimum of 6 weeks from June 30. Piccadilly Circus, Bank, Li

The rail industry should not fall into the trap of thinking that “everything green is good” but should prioritise issues such as increasing capacity and speed, according to National Express Group chief executive Richard Bowker. Speaking at the Future of Rail conference in London this week, Bowker said: “What we as an industry have to be careful is not to be sucked into a greenwash. It is a real concern  thinking that everything that is green is good.” &ldquo

Britain’s bus industry could be about to enter a new area of high growth, according to Stagecoach chief executive Brian Souter. Addressing an audience of young bus managers last week in Birmingham, Souter said the future prospects for buses were strong. He revealed the results of a recent survey of 1,000 Stagecoach bus and rail customers. It found that a variety of factors have made people more willing to use public transport. As a result of this, Souter said that in some parts of th

Bus manufacturers have been urged to design vehicles that rival High Street shops in terms of comfort and ambiance. Roger French, managing director of award-winning bus company Brighton & Hove, called on bus builders to think about what passengers want. Speaking at last week’s Customer Service Excellence in Public Transport event in London, French said: “Vehicle ambiance is becoming increasingly important as we sit and sip our £3 cappucino in Starbucks we are in an en

Are you looking to reduce your number of bus accidents, improve your customer service, reduce your fuel bill and introduce better quality driver training? The Corys T.E.S.S. bus driving simulator addresses all these objectives and meets the European Directive 2003/59/EC on bus driver training that comes into force in September 2009, approving simulators for initial and periodic practical driver training. The Corys T.E.S.S. bus simulator offers an innovative design, driven by operator feedback

A new on-road training and evaluation system is captivating transit systems across the world.  The VigilVanguard, developed by Australia-based company Vigil Systems, is being used by some of the world’s largest transit agencies - such as Miami-Dade Transit Authority, Washington DC Metro, Toronto Transit Commission and KMBs in Hong Kong to help them improve safety, reduce accidents and manage driver performance. VigilVanguard was developed by Australian-based company Vigil Systems

Andy Cooper acknowledges that it would be something of an understatement to say Arriva’s plans for a “ticketing and information revolution” at its new CrossCountry franchise have generated a fair degree of scepticism. The response of the company’s new managing director to what he calls “the siren voices” is that they are indicative of the way the rail industry has been unable, and in some cases unwilling, to keep up with the explosive developments in commun

Arriva has launched a trial of the latest m-ticketing technology at its flagship Kent Fastrack bus operation. The Sunderland-based group is the first UK bus operator to adopt third generation mobile commerce technology to enable the purchase of bus tickets from a mobile handset. It allows passengers not only to pre-purchase barcode style m-tickets through their mobile phone, but also to automatically verify their tickets using on-board scanners. Arriva is looking for people who use the

Concept Data Technologies based in Mayfield, East Sussex, has developed a range of mobile ticketing solutions for the mass transit market. These m-ticketing solutions are unique within the UK and European market and provide passengers with a simple, secure, fast and low cost solution for purchasing bus, rail and airline tickets directly from their mobile phones. The purchase of a ticket from the mobile phone is done directly from a menu-based application on the user’s mobile phone and i

Wayfarer Transit Systems has launched a range of eco-friendly, off-bus ticket machines - the first new Wayfarer branded product line to emerge as a result of the company joining the Parkeon Group. The solar-powered Wayfarer Sprint is installed alongside bus stops and is designed to speed up boarding times by enabling passengers to buy tickets in advance of journeys using either cash, credit cards with chip and pin or stored value smartcards. The new range is not only solar-powered, which m

One of the strongest themes coming out of the biennial World Congress of UITP, the international association of public transport, held last May in Helsinki, was the issue of vehicle design. It would seem that both manufacturers and operators around the world have woken up to the importance of good aesthetic design for use in public transport vehicles. At the previous UITP World Congress held in Rome in 2005, the organisation announced the winner of its ‘Re?bus’ design competition

Triscan Systems Limited is pleased to announce their attendance at this year’s Commercial Vehicle Show. The Triscan brand, which has been synonymous with fuel management technology for over a quarter of a century, is keen to further publicise its market leading position following its successful showing at last October’s Bus and Coach Exhibition, also staged at the NEC. Triscan Systems Limited is a European IT systems company serving markets that include commercial fleet operators

We’ve got trains, and we’ve got trams, a few at any rate. But in 2010, the tram-train, that is a tram able to run on conventional train tracks, will be making its debut in the UK, as part of a two-year trial in Yorkshire which takes a leaf from existing systems in Europe. The trial, to be run in partnership by Northern Rail, Network Rail and the Department for Transport, “could herald the start of a new era in public transport,” according to transport secretary Ruth Kelly

Nathan ward is typical of the many young bus managers that Transit has spoken to in recent months. The 29-year-old is very enthusiastic about his job as assistant operations manager at Stagecoach Manchester, and he’d like the chance to share his experiences with those in similar positions. Ward began his career with Stagecoach 10 years ago as an analyst in the commercial department before switching to operations. “The bus industry is a very interesting and exciting place to work i

A brand new network of young bus managers was launched this week to help encourage and develop the next generation of talent in the industry. There was a lost generation of managers in the bus industry following the break-up of the National Bus Company and Scottish Bus Group and the demise of their management training programmes in the mid-1980s. However, two decades later a new generation of younger managers is emerging. Young managers across the country have told Transit that they would

DBS Software is offering affordable routing and scheduling software as well as their complete data management systems and mobile communication solutions to the bus industry. “There are a considerable number of routing and scheduling packages to choose from in this sector, most are stand alone and consequently need integrating into legacy systems,” said managing director, Colin Ferguson. “Furthermore, some of the providers in this area, although very good, are extremely ex

Trains have started using regenerative braking in passenger service on the DC network south of the Thames for the first time. Following successful trials (Transit April 25), Southern and Southeastern have both been given permission by Network Rail to use the technique on six Electrostar units. They hope to extend regenerative braking to the entire Southeastern Class 376 fleet and 28 Southern units in June, with a wider roll out this year. The companies expect the technique to reduce elect

Chiltern railways will become the first operator in the world to offer passengers the option of using their mobile phones to purchase and receive a ticket to travel. This innovative new mobile ticketing technology means that passengers will be able to securely buy a ticket from their mobile and receive it in seconds. It sends a bar code to the passenger’s mobile phone via a text message, which is then scanned at the ticket gates. It is a step further from the mobile ticketing intr

rail users believe that the rail industry is lagging behind in using such high tech systems, according to new research published by Passenger Focus. Despite a large increase in online ticket sales, and the use of the internet and mobile phones by the National Rail Enquires Service, users believe technology could play a bigger role in rail travel, as it does in other aspects of their lives. These findings, the result of focus group work in five UK cities, were revealed by Passenger Focus ch

One of the key issues set out by Network Rail’s Chris Green and Railway Forum chairman elect Richard Brown for the rail industry to address in its longer term planning was making the case for new electrification schemes, and proving that their capacity and environmental benefits would provide value for money. Brown, chief executive of Eurostar, said the government had “absolutely ducked the issues” in this summer’s white paper. However, Transport for London’s

T he fact that this year’s  Transport Innovations show was set alongside Bus & Coach Live at the NEC this year perhaps wrongly suggests that the event had little to offer the rail industry. In fact several of the most interesting and innovative exhibits were applicable to both modes, but the potential is still not grasped on the roads. Passenger-focused innovations are doing three things - providing information about the travel product; assisting the customer through the purch

Will he or won’t he? Only Gordon Brown knows if he will soon call a general election, but belief that one is on the horizon influenced the tone of the discussions at this year’s party conferences. There were many interesting discussions about public transport. Rail was as ever the subject of lively debate, but even the humble bus merited a mention in Brown’s maiden conference speech as prime minister. Listing changes needed to renew democracy, he included: “Change to s

Leeds-based bus manufacturer Optare will use next week’s Coach and Bus Live show at Birmingham’s NEC to unveil a new look version of its best selling Solo midibus. The move comes 10 years since the Solo was first launched, with more than 3,000 now in operation around the world. Initially at least, the new Solo SR model, which features new styling that strongly resembles that of the new Optare Versa midibus launched at last years NEC show, will be available to customers alongside

Passenger Focus has been deeply engaged for two years in the fares debate called for by Transit (September 21). These discussions are even more important as, under current government plans, passengers are going to be shouldering more of the burden of the industry’s investment. Fares and ticketing, alongside getting a seat, remain Passenger Focus’ main work priorities. Our work kicked off with a major conference, Un-fare? The future of fares and ticketing in Great Britain, held las

IN A STARK warning, Stagecoach UK Bus managing director Les Warnford has said that any attempt by local authorities to introduce a Quality Contract would likely be met by legal action from bus operators for the loss of their businesses. Speaking at the Association of Transport Co-Ordinating Officer’s Buses - what do passengers want? conference in York last week, Warnford  said that the biggest problem he had with Quality Contracts was what effectively amounted to the “confisc

With over 18,500 payment points across the UK and Ireland, PayPoint attracts more than 7 million customers every week who make regular household bill and mobile phone top up payments and many of whom are also heavy users of public transport. Many operators have found that PayPoint’s ticketing solutions can increase sales and repeat passenger journeys, while also minimising peak-time operational delays by reducing on-vehicle cash handling. Paypoint’s convenient locations and long

Wayfarer Transit Systems’ ground-breaking e-Bus Series will take centre stage at Coach & Bus Live 2007 (October 10-11), heralding the arrival of a complete family of state-of-the-art driver consoles delivering the full integration of on-vehicle applications. Wayfarer’s e-Bus family provides public transport operators with complete flexibility in driving on-bus systems - through a product line-up that delivers a ‘plug and play’ approach to the integration of on-vehi

TRANSPORT OPERATORS can expect to be soon paying $200 for a barrel of oil and, as a result, will have to look at using new technology, such as carbon composites, to improve fuel efficiency of their vehicles. That was the message of Virgin Group strategist Will Whitehorn to the assembled operators and local authority representatives at CPT Scotland’s annual conference at Gleneagles. “We are fundamentally now in a world where oil won’t get any cheaper,” said Whiteho

Stagecoach west Scotland could be named the UK’s bus operator of the year for a stunning third year in a row at the 2007 UK Bus Awards in November. The nominees for the 2007 awards were announced this week at the Transit-sponsored UK Bus Awards seminar in Birmingham. Stagecoach West Scotland is nominated for the Shire Operator of the Year. The winner of this prize will battle it out with the winners of the Titan Outdoor City Bus Operator of the Year and Scania Independent Operator of

This year’s Transport Innovations show, being held at the NEC, Birmingham on October 10-11 and attended by leading technology companies, is set to contain another quality line up. Exhibiting the future of passenger transport, the show is the UK’s leading technology exhibition in the sector. “With new features, such as short lunchtime presentations of key products, the ITSO Street and ECO-Village, the exhibition - the only one of its kind in the UK - will once again undo

Fastrack Route A connects Dartford town centre and its railway station, with connections to central London, with the huge Bluewater retail centre, via The Bridge, a massive commercial and residential development that is being undertaken by ProLogis. Road access to the new site is constrained by the local road infrastructure, in particular its close proximity to the busy M25 and Dartford Crossing, as well as a strict Section 106 planning agreement. ProLogis was required to ensure that neither

A NEW REPORT by the Economic Competitiveness Policy Group for the Conservative shadow cabinet has suggested that trains with rubber tyres, similar to those used on the Paris Metro system, could allow for significant increases in capacity on the UK’s rail network. The group, which is chaired by MPs John Redwood and Simon Wolfson, has produced proposals in its Freeing Britain to Compete   report that suggest that improving signalling and lengthening trains, which is currently se

Both the perception of on-bus advertising and the technology available to tailor it to the market have been changing recently. One of the latest techniques available is scrolling LED displays. CBS Outdoor has featured this technology on the side of 25 London Buses since 2005. The media firm says that this new and innovative form of advertising enables full colour movement and is eyecatching. The LEDs displays can automatically change their message according to where the bus is in the city, as it

MVA Consultancy is one of the leading companies providing independent consultancy advice and support to central government agencies, local authorities and operators in respect of smart card technology for ticketing. This advice covers the complete project life cycle, from scheme design, through business case development and funding to procurement, implementation and onward development of schemes. Besides practical advice on the procurement and issue of smart cards, this also includes the sup

Almex UK, the transport ticketing division of Hoeft and Wessel is reaping the rewards of embracing open platform systems some years ago. Successfully winning more than 50% of the systems to be implemented in the Scottish concessionary scheme, the Optima ticket machine and its associated family of products are enjoying the supplementary features that Hoeft and Wessel are adding. Autostage advance, local schedule adherence, driver defect packages, and driver bulletin systems have all been develope

Procyon, who specialise in the design and delivery of digital signage software and systems for the passenger transport sector, can boast of contracts with Arriva, Metroline, First Group and the East London Bus Group for their dynamic, eyecatching displays that staff can update in seconds. Easy-to-use d|sign systems deliver vital passenger information and advertising messages on board, or the latest news for drivers and other staff in the garage, depot or office. The software enables staff to

Advanced technology is allowing KeTech Systems, together with partners Cityspace, a leading provider of urban digital networks, to provide sophisticated and highly-specified travel information terminals for commuters throughout South Yorkshire. Bus, tram and train passengers using South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive’s transport interchanges at Sheffield, Doncaster and Rotherham are now able to access a remarkably high level and quality of travel information at the touch of a s

The message from all sectors of the media is clear; reduce your carbon footprint. Solar energy in the public transport sector will generate no carbon emissions but it can be impractical due to the size of the system required which makes the first cost too expensive. However solar power specialist Carmanah Technologies has combined solar power with LEDs, rather than conventional light bulbs, in order to allow the firm to put light where it is needed, when it is needed, and eliminate waste whic

Perhaps reflecting the growingenvironmental debate around the world, alternative fuels where high on the agenda at last weeks UITP?World Congress in the Finnish capital of Helsinki. Ethanol, as a fuel, is now well established in Scandinavia. As well as Scania unveiling an ethanol-powered hybrid concept bus (see below), Maria Ljung, environmental manager of Storstockholms Lokaltrafik, the public transport authority of the Swedish capital Stockholm, told a forum session that the city would ha

UITP used its 2007 World Congress to launch its new Passenger Charter. The document is a response to ongoing discussions on the political level in the EU and some member states to reinforce and enhance passenger rights. UITP’s charter offers guidelines on how to design a passenger charter. However, it recognises that each public transport operator will have to tailor the wording of its own charter to meet individual needs and local circumstances. The charter was introduced at last we

Public transport is leading the world in its commitment to meeting changing environmental and social agendas, but will need to adapt faster and more radically to the vast new demands which will be placed on it. That was the message from the International Association of Public Transport at its 57th World Congress held in Helsinki. UITP sustainable development manager Heather Allen said public transport could now claim to be the world’s most active industry in responding to climate cha

Scania used the exhibition at last week’s UITP World Congress in Helsinki to unveil a new ethanol/electric-powered concept bus. The hybrid vehicle can be powered by either ethanol or supercapacitors, which offer a longer life than batteries. Other features include a centrally-located driver seat and a full low floor interior. However, around 80% of the vehicle’s components are shared with Scania’s existing Omni range of buses. The Swedish manufacturer has built two of the 10.4-

One of the strongest themes coming out of the biennial World Congress of UITP, the international association of public transport, held last week in Helsinki, was the issue of vehicle design. It would seem that both manufacturers and operators around the world have woken up to the importance of good aesthetic design for use in public transport vehicles. At the last UITP World Congress held in Rome two years ago, the organisation announced the winner of its ‘Re?bus’ design competiti

Wave goodbye to cash, the banks are telling us. In September, Visa and Mastercard will be launching new “wave and pay” cards in parts of London, before rolling them out to the rest of the UK. It’s already happening elsewhere in the world. Contactless credit cards are now widespread in the US, for example, and public transport operators are having to respond to this development. In Stockholm, a regulation has recently been introduced, for security reasons, which prevents bus ope

UITP has unveiled an enhanced range of training programmes with the aim of “training tomorrow’s leaders”. There are training programmes on public transport managers, public transport fundamentals and security, and a summer course on marketing. For the first time there is now a training programme exclusively for organising authorities. “Over the last years, an important evolution in public transport has been an increased understanding that better trained staff and mo

Only 60 of the 2,000 delegates at this month’s UITP’s 2007 World Congress were from the UK. But while there may not have been many of them, the UK passenger transport professionals who travelled to Helsinki were impressed by what they saw. “This is the biggest gathering of transport professionals in the world,” said Conrad Jones, head of communications at Centro-WMPTA. “We are here to look at best practice, find out what’s new, talk to colleagues and exchan

Scheidt & Bachmann has recently installed its 1000th ticket vending machine on the national rail network at Bridge of Allan station, for First ScotRail. To commemorate this landmark achievement, Scheidt & Bachmann and First ScotRail jointly organised a 1000th TVM event at Bridge of Allan station, which was held on March 26. Representatives from both companies were present to celebrate the occasion of the 1000th TVM official handover; including, Steve Montgomery of First ScotRail; Andy

Public transport will play a central role in the development of a new industrial age, an influential US academic told a global audience of public transport professionals last week. The remarks were made by Jeremy Rifkin in his keynote speech to the opening ceremony of the biennial World Congress of UITP, the international association of public transport, which was hosted by Helsinki this month. Rifkin is president of the Washington-based Foundation on Economic Trends. An activist who seeks

Alternative fuels were a major topic at this year’s World Congress of UITP, the international association of public transport, in Helsinki. Most of the major European manufacturers used the show to announce new products that will either use hydrogen or ethanol fuels, or hybrid technology in an effort to enhance the green credentials of public transport, and, perhaps more importantly, to improve their own economic  performance. US-based economist and futurist Jeremy Rifkin, who gave

Real-time information at bus stops was once an optional extra for local authorities and bus operators but as communications technology develops rapidly, there are growing expectations that such information will be available at bus stops or via devices such as mobile phones. Millions of pounds have been invested in real-time technology but in some areas customers mistrust the information because it is sometimes inaccurate. Installing equipment is relatively easy when capital grants are avail

stagecoach claims rail users have switched to its rival Oxford Tube coach service after it offered free email and internet access as part of a trial of Wi-Fi technology. Around 4,500 users registered for the service during the three-month trial, which saw all 25 Neoplan Skyliners in the Oxford Tube fleet equipped with Wi-Fi technology supplied by Moovera Networks. Research by Oxford Tube has revealed that a number of commuters have transferred from First Great Western’s trains and

The introduction of concessionary travel has been a contentious issue for many involved in passenger transport, but its introduction, both at countywide level in England as well as the nationwide schemes in Scotland and Wales, has seen transport operators looking at the implications for their business models. But it is not just transport operators who have had to do this. Malcolm Daughtrey, the recently appointed managing director of National Transport Tokens, believes that he has found

There is perhaps no-one in the bus industry that symbolises deregulation and what it meant for the bus industry better than Brian Souter. Together with his sister, Ann Gloag, he founded Stagecoach, and when buses were deregulated on October 26, 1986, the fledgling company was ready to take advantage of the new legislation. Today Stagecoach is one of the UK’s largest bus operators, and as its chief executive, Souter is still very much involved in the industry. It was for this reason th

But ‘Ptegasauraus’ bites back.. While Brian Souter was branding the PTEs as dinosaurs and blaming them for the decline of buses in Britain’s big cities, Allen Brett, vice-chair of Greater Manchester PTA, must have been itching to respond. He was among the delegates at the conference in Leeds, where Souter made his comments, but he got his chance to speak up during the question and answer session that followed. “Yes, everything wasn’t perfect and everything now

Go North East managing director Peter Huntley has expressed his frustration with the lack of co-operation he is receiving from Nexus, the Tyne and Wear PTE. Huntley, who quit his job with the TAS Consultancy to take over at the Go Ahead subsidiary earlier this year, has ambitious plans to develop the 700-vehicle business. But he has become puzzled and exasperated by the attitude of the PTE and local politicians, who he claims are unwilling to engage with him. Speaking at the Transit-sponso

I visited Euro Bus Expo 2006 on Tuesday, and was one of the 3,500 visitors to the Birmingham NEC to arrive that morning. Was I impressed? Well, sort of. Full marks go to the organisers for their attempt to build it into a truly international show. But whilst it attracted a good number of visitors, I could not help  but notice the extent to which exhibitors seemed not to be doing business. And, as the chairman of one of the UK’s major bus manufacturers said to me, we need some quick cl

Optare surprised the industry this week with the unveiling and launch of a new single deck model at the Euro Bus Expo show in Birmingham. The Leeds-based manufacturer also announced that it had captured a significant order from Stagecoach for 100 vehicles. The new Optare Versa sits between the manufacturer’s existing Solo and Tempo models and will be primarily seen as a competitor to the ever popular Alexander Dennis Dart. The Versa will be available in two lengths, seating either 36 or

London mayor Ken Livingstone last week issued a challenge to UK bus manufacturers when he announced that the first to produce a workable and competitive diesel-electric hybrid powered range of vehicles would scoop the lion’s share of future London bus orders. Livingstone made his comments at the City Hall launch of the first hybrid double deck bus in the world. The vehicle, which has been produced by Northern Ireland-based Wrightbus, will enter service with Arriva on route 141 between

Wherever one sits on a train, a plane, a coach or a bus, passengers all around are busily interacting. They are tapping at keyboards, pecking at palmtops, fiddling with phones or just lolling back listening to the latest download. Even the Quiet Coach is continually interrupted by electronic beeps and tics. This isn’t just a fact of a life – better, it’s a sales opportunity. The generation of children who grew up with computers in the house in the 1990s are now earning and trav

ANDREW GARDNER, assistant director Midland Metro at Centro PTA, has expressed his concerns that recent patronage figures released by the Department for Transport may show a figure lower than the actual number of passenger journeys taking place on line one between Birmingham and Wolverhampton. Latest DfT figures show that line one carried 5.1 million passengers during 2005/06, an increase of 2.2% on the previous year but still well below forecasted levels. However, Gardner told last week&rsquo

There ARE now only a few weeks to go before the Transport Innovations show, the UK’s leading transport technology event. The new Transit-sponsored event is an exhibition of the technologies, services and passenger transport operators who are shaping and creating the transport of tomorrow. Visitor registration has opened for the show, which will be staged alongside the Euro Bus Expo bus and coach show at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC), Birmingham, on November 7-9. Visi

Planning, design and management consultancy Halcrow has been appointed by Swindon Borough Council to lead the specification and implementation of a real-time information system for buses in Swindon. The work is being undertaken as part of a partnering contract between Halcrow and the council. The scheme will use satellite tracking technology to provide information on the arrival of buses at key bus stops and on a website. It will also provide bus priority at major traffic signal junctions in