Technical Documents

This document offers best practise guidance on the successful project management of an RTI implementation project, in particular from a local authority or bus operator project officer perspective. It has been produced with input and comment from the three principal types of members within RTIG, namely:

• local authorities and public transport executives;
• bus operators;
• RTI system suppliers.

It has also incorporated information captured during DfT’s Transport Direct programme which helped fund 19 RTI systems across England.

This document represents a Position Paper for the UK Real Time Information Group (RTIG) on the means by which bus Real Time Information (RTI) might be delivered to the public. Its objective is to help produce a common direction on RTI delivery issues for those involved in the implementation of RTI across the UK, in order to inform the development and implementation of projects over the next 5-10 years. The linking of RTI services with other transport and travel services will be developed in a separate paper.

Passengers need multi-modal travel information which is accurate, timely, consistent and clear. Never is this more important than when a journey is disrupted. Arguably, disruption information is the most important information to passengers. When everything is running smoothly and as expected, many regular passengers will use information only to confirm what they already know.

It details a proposed solution for roaming buses for those implementing RTI systems.

The measurement - in real time, of vehicle occupancy for buses is not something that has been carried out regularly or, is in widespread use in the UK. The rail industry has more experience in it and is currently experimenting with providing information to the public.

This means that there is little experience in managing vehicle occupancy data within the bus sector.