Go-Ahead London Uses Portable Printers
to Improve Ticketing at Wimbledon
OC2 portable barcode printer
on-site receipt and ticketing
“The Go-Ahead group is investing in new
technology to give passengers a better experience
and to speed up the whole system. But the
impact of the new system produced savings and
improvements for the Go-Ahead Group, far beyond
the original scope of the projects.”
-Nigel Holloway
Go-Ahead Group Account Manager
Go-Ahead London operates a wide range of bus and
transport services on behalf of Transport for London
and recently deployed a powerful new system to reduce
queuing for tickets for major events in London. The first
event to benefit from the new system was the Wimbledon
Tennis Championship in early summer.
Problem
Because Wimbledon is such an internationally prestigious
event for London, Go-Ahead likes to use what is recognized
around the world as a “London Bus”. The Route Masters
on board the London Buses don’t have the modern
ticketing technology to cope with the massive number of
passengers that attend the Wimbledon event.
Solution
The new system allows the pavement conductor to take all
the money and issue tickets before passengers board the
transport, saving time and ensuring all passengers have
a valid ticket. The pavement conductor ticketing solution
used by Go-Ahead London uses a combination of portable
hardware and intelligent software to produce tickets
efficiently. Hand held computers are used in conjunction
with the Datamax-O’Neil OC2 portable printers to produce
SOLUTION OBJECTIVES
• Reduce the time customers spend waiting in line
to board buses and receive tickets
• Take the guess work out of deciding when and
how many buses are needed for return trips
SOLUTION RESULTS
• Lines to board move quickly. Passengers are
issued tickets before boarding the bus.
• Information is relayed in real time to headquarters
so that the number and frequency of buses can
be controlled to meet demand.
the 2D barcode tickets for customers. The software driving
the hardware was written in-house using MCL by The
Go-Ahead team, with help and guidance provided by the
software team at Barcode-IT. The software was written to
allow for instant changes and additions, like price changes,
promotional deals, event tickets, etc.
on-site receipt and ticketing
Results
In addition to the speed of ticketing and queue busting,
the new system provides real time information back to
Go-Ahead London headquarters so that the number and
frequency of buses can be controlled to meet demand.
Also a 2D barcode is printed on every ticket, which can be
scanned on the return journey to determine the number
of customers that
need to be returned. A solution that
This allows Go-Ahead
includes the DatamaxLondon to adjust
O’Neil OC2 portable
the volume of return
printer eases
transports to meet the
transportations issues
remaining demand,
at the internationally
which is essential at
attended tennis
events like Wimbledon
tournament.
where the finish time
is not fixed.
The solution is being used for all kinds of special events.
The pavement conductor simply chooses the correct
location of departure on the handheld and then follows
simple steps to complete all the necessary information
to produce the ticket using the OC2 printer. These steps
include inputting the number of passengers, passenger
class (adult, child, senior, etc.) and destination. A ticket
is then issued for the correct amount with a 2D barcode
containing all of the input information plus extra information
on the journey, like the route, driver number, date and time,
price, destination, etc.
For more case studies, visit www.datamax-oneil.com
Copyright 2009, Datamax-O’Neil (rev. 20091124)