TransLoc Customer Story
GoTriangle
REGIONAL TRANSIT SERVICES SUCCESS STORY:
BRINGING ALL SIDES TOGETHER
IN NORTH CAROLINA’S TRIANGLE
For the very first time in the U.S., an entire region’s transit information – across
seven distinct agencies – has been unified and is now collected, managed and
distributed in real time to riders.
The impact is both impressive and quantifiable: a 26 percent increase in ridership.
A result so astonishing, the project even caught the attention and earned the
congratulations of the White House.
The accomplishment is made all the more remarkable when one considers the
unusual configuration, character and culture of the region. North Carolina’s
“Triangle” is comprised of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill – each with its own
major university – at its corners. The world-class science and technology complex
known as Research Triangle Park is situated in the middle. Large and rapidly
growing suburbs unite the various entities into one large population center.
Clearly, unifying the region’s seven different systems and providing pertinent and
valued real-time transit information for the myriad users was no small feat.
It fell to GoTriangle, formerly Triangle Transit, to do just that.
Divergent needs
The most problematic issue at the time of the unification was inconsistency. All the
transit agencies were collecting data from different Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL)
providers. Discarding any of these systems was not an option, so GoTriangle needed a
real-time passenger information system that could integrate with the existing hardware of
nearly 500 buses.
Fortunately, GoTriangle also had a number of favorable factors to draw on: a regional call
center, a popular online regional trip planner, and high quality data. And all parties were
eager – or at least willing – to collaborate.
Parallel objectives
Because the Triangle’s rider population is unusually diverse – in age, education level, and
technological skills – GoTriangle agreed early on that real-time information needed to be
available and accessible to all. At a minimum it would require delivery via the web, mobile
app, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), and text messaging (SMS).
Other goals established prior to vendor selection included:
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easy-to-use interfaces that showed vehicle locations, representations of bus routes,
and navigation features
the use of open data to help tap into the specialized skills of the area’s not-insignificant
population of high-tech enthusiasts and programmers
a separate interface for call center staff
Working the angles
According to Brian Fahey, customer relations administrator for GoTriangle and thenmanager of the regional call center, the most crucial task was getting buy-in from all the
regional transit agencies. ”We accomplished that task,” he says, “by clearly defining the
benefits that the agencies, both individually and collectively, could expect to gain.”
The first of these benefits was reducing the volume of calls to the regional call center by
five percent. Opened in 2007 and supporting five municipal transit systems, the call center
had experienced call volume increases of 300 percent in three years and so had been
required to hire additional staff.
Other potential benefits included providing a higher level of customer service for interagency travelers at a minimal cost to the cities, no change to existing AVL systems, and
90 percent of the first three years of hosting and maintenance paid by a state technology
grant with the remaining 10 percent split among all the agencies.
Once goals were established and the various
agencies were in agreement, all that remained was
investigating and selecting a provider. GoTriangle
officials wondered whether it would actually be
possible to find a partner capable of unifying the
different transit agencies and their different routes
into a single interface, accessible by all riders.
A square deal
“TransLoc’s interface
was the most friendly,
their systems the easiest
to use, their technical
ability outstanding.”
After an extensive RFP process and thorough evaluation of all the options, GoTriangle
selected TransLoc. Brian Fahey delineates the reasons:
“TransLoc displayed a thorough understanding of our desired scope of work. Their
interface was the most friendly, their systems the easiest to use, their technical ability
outstanding.”
Brian was very impressed that TransLoc personnel rode the GoTriangle routes, getting to
know the riders and their needs first-hand, in order to meet those needs with pinpoint
accuracy.
“And there’s price,” adds Brian. “TransLoc fared very well there as well.”
The winner’s circle
Together, GoTriangle and TransLoc have created America’s first multi-agency, real-time
transit information system covering an entire region.
Real-time information is available on the web, so riders have access from their office,
home, or on the go. ”Triangle riders now have up-to-the-second information in a variety of
formats, including:
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Desktop-based live maps @ triangle.transloc.com
Mobile applications for iPhone and Android
Mobile website @ triangle.transloc.com/m
Text-based information that is ADA friendly
And the results? In a word: impressive.
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Ridership increased more than 26 percent.
The average length of a call has been reduced
“TransLoc has a really
by six seconds (with about 1,400 calls per day,
good grasp of the transit
the total time saved is significant).
industry and how to
Phone calls to the call center have leveled out.
Because call center personnel now know
present information
precisely where the buses are, phone calls
to the public...”
from the call center to dispatchers have been
reduced by 68 percent.
No additional staff is planned for the call
center.
Customer satisfaction has improved, as witnessed by feedback via email, phone, in
person and web survey.
The shape of things to come
Go Triangle officials are confident of continuing success with TransLoc as a partner.
Concludes Brian Fahey, “TransLoc has a really good grasp of the transit industry and how
to present information to the public as well. They’ve been the best experience I’ve ever had
working with any technology company. They make life easy.”
7
TRANSIT AGENCIES
500
BUSES
26%
INCREASE IN RIDERSHIP
“...the best experience I’ve ever had with any technology company.
They make life easy.”
Brian Fahey, Customer Relations Administrator, GoTriangle
© 2004-2015, TransLoc Inc.
Covered by U.S. Patent 7,920,967
CONTACT US:
www.transloc.com
info@transloc.com
888.959.3120