eGovernment
Improving Public Transport
Anne Graham
Director of Public Transport Services
eGovernment Successes Conference
Wednesday, 28 March 2012
Who we are
• National Transport Authority established on
1st December 2009
– Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008 and Public
Transport Regulation Act 2009
• Responsible for a range of functions including:
– transport planning and capital investment in public
transport in Greater Dublin Area
– delivery of public transport services nationally
– bus regulation nationally
– national taxi regulation
Also
• We manage for the Department of
Transport
– The Regional Cities Grants for traffic
management
– The national Accessibility Fund
– the national Smarter Workplaces travel
programme
– Oversight and funding of the Green Schools
programme
– Rural Transport Programme
eGovernment and the NTA
The Authority are committed to implementing eGovernment
best practice to optimise services for
• Customers (e to c)
RTPI & Leap
• Employees (e to e)
Intranet
• Business
Online services for bus & taxi
(e to b)
industry
eGov and Public Transport
Customers
Direct Consumer Products
• Real Time Passenger Information
• Leap Card
• National Intermodal Journey Planner
• Transport for Ireland brand & website
eGov and Public Transport
Customers
Products to improve regulation & compliance
Indirect benefit to Public Transport Customer
• CABs
Small Public Service Vehicle (Taxi)Licensing
System
• Bulit
Bus Licensing Tool
REAL TIME PASSENGER
INFORMATION
Benefits to Customer of Real
Time Information
• Best way to engender confidence in bus service
• Individual’s perception of waiting time reduced
• Reduces passenger stress
• Potential increase in patronage - average 5% in
other cities (pre-recession)
• Increase in customer satisfaction
Real Time Passenger
Information Vision
Improving the experience of using the
bus by providing bus arrival times on:
Signs
520 On-Street Displays in Greater Dublin
Area, 50 in Cork, 20 in Galway & Limerick and
10 in Waterford
Integrated Website
Real Time information for all public transport
modes and for all stops
www.transportforireland.ie
SMS service
A One Number text service for all real time
transport 53035
Smart Phone Apps
The RTPI system
Other operators
AVL-equipped fleet
AVL-equipped fleet
Not AVL-equipped
AVL =
Automatic
Vehicle Location
GPRS
Server & time
estimation system
Server & time
estimation system
No Server & Time
estimation system
Future Project
Preceding Project
Dual Interface
Development
CENTRAL PREDICTION SERVER
gprs
DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL
sms
WWW
On –Street Signs
SMS service
Website and Apps
Real Time
Progress 2011
• 370 Signs erected in Greater Dublin Area
• Dublin Bus iphone and android app with Real
Time
– 2.5 million web and app requests per month
– Over 500,000 unique users a month
• Phase 1 Transport for Ireland website developed
• Improved accuracy of Dublin Bus data feeds
RTPI Plan 2012
• Complete sign roll-out in Greater Dublin Area (520 signs)
• Complete sign roll-out in Regional cities; Cork, Limerick,
Galway & Waterford
• Launch Integrated Website with Real Time for all Dublin Bus,
Bus Éireann City Services, LUAS
• Launch Transport for Ireland Android & I-phone Apps and API
for other developers
• Commence Tender for Commercial Bus Operator system
• Commence sign erection in regional towns
Real Time Passenger
Information
Measured level of accuracy
• On going testing for data accuracy and resolving issues
• Signs have to pass accuracy test (>90%)
• Recent NTA surveys show that:
•
•
90% of Dublin Bus services are showing on RTPI system
Of those 90% the times on the signs have a 96% accuracy level
Feedback on signs
• On feedback website 73% find the service helpful or very helpful (even
when commenting on specific error)
• 64% say that it would encourage them to use the bus more often
Dublin Bus RTPI
• Awareness of RTPI is reasonably high
– Although there remain a significant cohort who have
no knowledge at all of RTPI.
• Awareness generally centres on RTPI bus stops
– Which most associate primarily with city centre and
other prominent locations.
• As such, while most see RTPI as a very positive
development, many see little tangible benefit for
themselves as RTPI is not available on ‘their’ bus stop.
– “I’ve seen the bus stop there in Ranelagh alright and
that’s great if you’re getting the bus from there, but
between there and Windy Arbour I don’t think there’s
one, so it’s not much good to me really, is it?”
Dublin Bus RTPI
Dec 2011/Jan 2012 research
• There is also a degree of scepticism about RTPI, with
many querying whether the information on the bus
stops would be accurate
• Awareness of the RTPI app is relatively low, but where
known is felt to be a very significant innovation:
– It lacks the physical presence of the RTPI bus stops,
but arguably is felt to be far more useful for those
who have the app.
• Several had downloaded the RTPI app – often following
being tipped off about it by their children – and is felt to
be extremely useful
www.leapcard.ie
LEAP CARD SCHEME
Customer Appeal
• Easy to use, flexible and safe
• Lower cost than using cash for each leg of journey
• Exact change no longer required on buses
• No queuing for tickets on Luas and DART
• A single card working across all GDA public
transport services
• Very similar to other schemes, Oyster in particular
Leap Cards are ideal for fast &
safe entry/exits at busy stations
18
Customers do not need exact
change for Dublin Bus
Customers can buy
and Top Up Leap
Cards at convenience
stores in GDA
Leap Card – the basic elements
Customer
Tops Up
their Leap
Card
Funds
Data
Operator’s
HQ Systems
Customer
uses Leap
Card on
Luas or
Rail
Depot
Infrastructure
Leap Card
Back Office
System
Customer
uses Leap
Card on
buses
Brand Identity
Leap Card Key Brand Benefits
“Makes travelling easier” is the most prominent Key Brand Benefit identified and will underpin all
communications. Flexibility and value for money are also key benefits of the Leap Card
Topping Up and Buying Products
At Ticket
Machines
In convenience stores
Internet sales
Enhancements planned for 2012
Private
Buses
Bus
Éireann
+
+
+
School & Student
travel cards
+
Ticket products
on Leap Cards
Instant
Top-Up
using
direct
debits
Smart
Ticketing,
+ e.g.
capping
+
Annual/Monthly
passes
Public Services
Card
Free Travel
Pass
interoperability
Leap Card Highlights
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
Total Transactions (top-up and
usage)
Total Cards issued
Cumulative 21 March
2.9 million
Luas replacements
5,700
Irish Rail replacements
2,400
Payzone sales
Web sales
50,700
16,000
74,800
Top-up Value Cumulative
€4.3 million
Usage Value Cumulative
€3.6 million
Total journeys
2.01 million
Leap Card enhancements
Indicative
timeline
Planned enhancements
Q1/Q2
• Extension to more operators – e.g. Wexford Bus and Bus
Éireann customer pilots
• Iarnród Éireann vending of card sales & top ups
• Luas & Iarnród Éireann vending enabled for web collection
• Auto-top facility launched (available across all operators)
Q2/Q3
•
•
•
•
•
Tourist & visitor promotions
Bus Éireann full integration
Additional private bus operators
Fare capping on Luas and Iarnród Éireann
Student travel card scheme launch
Q3/Q4
•
•
•
•
Benefit-In-kind (taxsaver) annual & monthly cards
Range of time-based products introduced
Integration with Free Travel Scheme
Fare capping across Dublin city services
National Scheme
• Supports roll out nationally of Public Service Cards for free
travel
• ITS systems are all fully scalable
• Tourism Spin-Off e.g. Golden trekker on ITS
• National infrastructure investment required
 Top Up network (Ticket Vending Machines and Shops)
 Validators on Buses and at Rail stations
National Intermodal
Journey Planner
National Journey Planner
• Built off National Public
Transport Database
• Door to door
• Multi-modal
• Multi-operator
• National coverage
• (+ Northern Ireland late
2012)
• Journey Plans
• Timetables
• Interactive maps
• Printed maps
• Walking routes
• Available in several languages
Launch April 2012
Journey Planning on the go
• Available for Android and iOS
• mobile web formats
• Location aware
• Real time integration
Mobile web
App
Transport for Ireland
Brand & Website
Transport for Ireland
Website
• Web portal in development for information
on all public transport nationally includes:
– Real time information
– Multi-modal journey planner
– Better maps and timetables
• www.transportforireland.ie
• Customer information on Taxis
• Fares calculator
Transport for Ireland
Data Management in the
NTA
Data Management & NTA
• Data is managed so that it is Fit for purpose and suitable for
re-use by many systems
That is achieved by…
• Use of Internationally recognised data standards for all public transport
data (SIRI, TransXchange, VDV, NaPTAN, GTFS)
• Compliant with the INSPIRE Directive for Transport networks data
• Open approach to data – published the maintained national Transit nodes
database for general re-use on an INSPIRE portal and the
www.dublinked.com data sharing website (Fingal,DCC,DLR,SDCC, NUIM)
PT stops
Localities &
addresses
Routes &
schedules
Collect once – use many times
national journey planner
Social inclusion analysis
bus licensing
Real Time
Fleet monitoring
Open data
national public transport database
Open Data
The NTA are committed to allowing open access to good quality
public transport data where possible
People want to access public
transport data (It is the most sought
after type of data on the Dublinked
Website)
External re-use of PT data
www.mapnificent.net
Areas accessible within 15 mins of a Helsinki suburb
By public transport
Internal re-use of PT data
Accessibility and social inclusion analysis – can people access
opportunities in reasonable time and reasonable cost
Conclusion
Challenges in Delivery
• Integrating Systems of Different
Operators
• No direct control of Operators’ suppliers
• Interface requirements under estimated
Opportunities
• Delivery through different agencies
– Dublin City Council & other Local Authorities
(RTPI)
– Railway Procurement Agency (Leap)
• Delivery to different agencies
– Fáilte Ireland (Journey Planner)
– Public Transport Operators (Journey
Planner)
Future Challenges
• Keeping Data Up-to-date
• Building Awareness of Products
• Financing improvements & extensions