John austin pt fares & info integration some uk devmts 04

Public Transport Fares and Information Integration – Some UK developments John Austin, MA, FCILT

ITS Euskadi – 24/10/14

My Background  

A Transport Consultant since 1994, trading as Austin Analytics A member of (TAN) – which is a member of ITS UK - and am currently TAN’s Chair •

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The information to speak at ITS Euskadi came via ITS UK

TAN is a UK-based network of independent transport consultants, with around 25 members. We have a wide range of experience, and together cover all modes of transport As well as working in the UK, I also have worked on a number of European collaborative research projects In 2000 I visited Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore, as a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellow, to study busways, smartcards and electronic public transport information systems In the last 18 months I have also worked in Nigeria, Indonesia and Kazakhstan

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Why look at the UK? (1) 

Mixed regulatory environment for public transport • Very heavy regulation for trains and generally high subsidy, but market pricing for certain trains • Very heavy regulation for buses in London • Generally light regulation for buses outside London • Long-distance buses (‘express coaches’) receive no public financial support

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Why look at the UK? (2) 

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Mixed modes of public transport, and mixed organisational approaches, like Euskadi?

Quite a lot of innovation: some pioneering approaches A large market Huge size of London in the economy compared to other cities / regions • London is world-class • Other cities in UK would like to be like London in terms of public transport organisation • Those cities outside London who want to develop public transport realise they need to be innovative

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Two major world-class sporting events recently 4 of 48

UK Road-based Public Transport Regulated and Unregulated London: standard red livery, ‘New Routemaster’, London TfL symbol, RATP-owned operating company

Competing buses in Nottingham, in different colours. Same route number

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London – Key Public Transport Features (1)

492 m bus kms pa 2,390 m bus passengers pa 2013/14 (1,502 m in 1970) (5,233 m GB total 2013/14) £4,093 m pa Fares income all modes; £5,939 m pa Operating expenditure all modes > 90% of paying bus passengers use Oyster (rest will mostly use Travelcards)

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London – Key Public Transport Features (2)

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Outside London – Key Public Transport Features Includes major conurbations and cities   

Public sector financial support for public transport falling Major groups seeking to grow customer base, but also to cut costs Major groups now having some brand diversification Arriva First

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Some smaller bus operators selling up Big city areas still seeking to innovate Bus services still changing frequently (although at slower rate) 8 of 48

London – Fares integration for a better mobility TfL as a success case ď Ž

Details of Oyster are from information in ITS UK presentation from Brian Dobson at Transport for London

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Public Transport in London 1969 to 1999 (Some) Political decisions becoming accepted belief   

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1969 – London Transport focused on Greater London only 1970 – Came under control of Greater London Council (GLC) Bus passenger numbers in London still declining in 1970s and 1980s, apart from when ‘Fares Fair’ came in in 1981 1981 – Four new fare zones, but also large fares cut (c. 1/3) 1982 – ‘Fare’s Fair policy stopped (legal challenge) but two central area zones retained 1983 – Intermodal Travelcard season ticket launched 1984 – One day Travelcard launched 1985 – London Regional Transport (LRT) formed: reported to Government 1986 – GLC abolished 1987 – Docklands Light Railway opened 1988 onwards - Privatisation of LRT bus operations 1989 – Travelcard could now be used on British Rail services in London 1994 – A series of extensions to DLR begin. Countdown RTI began 1997 – London River Services formed, integrating and extending boat services on the River Thames

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Public Transport in London from 2000 An integrated network 

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2000 – Greater London Authority formed and took over LRT – which became Transport for London 2000 – Tramlink opened 2003 – Oyster card launched – new functions added gradually 2007 – Transport for London takes over some under-used and selfcontained National Rail routes in London as ‘London Overground’ 2010 – London Overground extended 2010 – Oyster pay as you go accepted on National Rail within London 2011 – Real-time passenger information on-line / on-phone introduced 2011 – Countdown Real-Time Information on-street roll-out complete June 2012 – Over 80% of all journeys on Public Transport in London made

by Oyster card 2012 – Bus usage in London reaches 60% increase since 2000 July 2014 – Cash fares on buses abolished

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Oyster success Oyster has delivered the business case  High gate throughput prevents bottlenecks constraining ridership growth on rail  Fast boarding time minimises bus fleet sizes and drives up appeal of bus vs. car  Fraud has been hammered But Oyster has issues:  Expense is uncomfortably high given TfL’s need to reduce operating expenditure  Customer experience is far from perfect 

So TfL is planning to move to Contactless payment bank card

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Oyster plans

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i-bus Real Time Information Some information taken from presentation to ITS UK by Simon Reed of Transport for London

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History of i-bus 

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Countdown Selective Vehicle Detection System in operation (gradually) since mid 1990s But technology became out-dated i-bus system introduced from 2007 (gradually)

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Information during big events Building on tried and tested systems for the Olympics – 2012 From information in ITS UK presentation from Nada Duhindan at Transport for London

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Underlying Information Systems already in place

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Countdown – Signs and SMS

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Countdown – Web & Mobile Web

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Preparation for Olympics       

Extra capacity Re-routing Awareness Campaign Plenty of Olympic Volunteers Plenty of Olympic Signage Campaign to change travel behaviour Special Journey Planner developed • Using existing Transport Direct team to supply • But with extra features, e.g.

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MANAGING Demand (so not necessarily the QUICKEST route)

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Information on Accessibility

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What happened

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Information during big events Commonwealth Games – Glasgow – 2014 From information in ITS UK presentation from David Bonn at Glasgow City Council and David Currie at Mott McDonald Ltd

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Key features 

Truly multi-agency set-up • • • • • • • •

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Transport Scotland Glasgow City Council Strathclyde Partnership for Transport Network Rail / First Scotrail G2014 Organising Committee Travel Demand Management Police Scotland / British Transport Police / Military Other Local Authorities (on key event days)

A single co-ordination centre But with control and final decision making taking place in local control rooms Large coordination team: operating hours 0600 to 0100, 7 days a week Started planning Testing and Exercising 9 months out See www.gameslegacyglasgow.com 26 of 48

Other Issues 

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Contracted Objective: “to get 90% of the athletes from the Village to the Games venues within 20 minutes” • About 1500 cars used • + Large numbers of buses Physical Improvements made to network (e.g. restrictions introduced, junctions upgraded, etc.)

Co-ordination between different local authorities was a challenge Incident Management Software based on Mott MacDonald’s existing Merlin incident management product

• Use by Future Cities City Observatory. More information on this aspect from Robert Rogerson, Institute for Future Cities, r.j.rogerson@strath.ac.uk The control

room in action

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The challenge of changing information – using Social Media From research conducted by John Austin, 2010 to 2013

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UK – Winter 2010/11 Areas most affected where Social Media was used prominently 1 Scotland central belt Lothian Buses; First Glasgow; Traveline Scotland, Tactran 2 North East Go North East; Arriva NE; Traveline NE

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3 Yorkshire First W, N & SY; Arriva Y; Metro (WYPTE); Transdev

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4 Nottingham area TrentBarton; Nottingham City Transport 5 Reading Reading Transport

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6 London and the South East Metrobus

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7 Wiltshire / Hampshire / Dorset area Wilts & Dorset; Southern Vectis 8 South West First D&C, Plymouth Citybus Plus National Rail universally, plus several TOCs

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Winter 2010/11 in the UK Go North East during the crisis (1) 

100 to 200 tweets per day.

Nearly all related to disruption

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Link to separate Posts pages on Facebook giving area info

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Q&A on website about Facebook page

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During the crisis Website seemed to be subordinate to Facebook

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Drivers’ reports came in from 0530: Facebook page updated from just after 0600, from 3 control centres. Was updated regularly as morning picture emerged, and through the day

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Winter 2010/11 in the UK Go North East during the crisis (2) Extract from website Q&A page. Plus: “During severe weather conditions or during other major incidents Facebook is proving an extremely valuable way of keeping customers informed” Though shortly after Q&A page was written Facebook went into “meltdown” 5,000 fans Sep 2010 25,000 Dec 2010 38,000 June 2011 38,500 Aug 2011 Multi-disciplinary team leads Facebook site, plus about 10 staff adding information received from Service Delivery Centres, incl. the MD

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The UK PT industry on

in 2012

By Mode c. 40 bus operators 3 ITAs TfL National Express Coaches + Greyhound

The Groups NEG First GAG

NRES >10 TOCs

(but after 2012 now has national strategy)

<10 ferry operators <10 airlines <10 airports ….. BUT Traveline Cymru, Scotland, UK A handful of coach operators

Arriva: handful of individual subsidiaries The Stars: No. of ‘Fans’ British Airways 516,362 easyjet 118,800 National Express Coaches 88,100 Virgin Trains 55,400 Eurostar 53,000 Go North East 48,700 There are another 14 at >10,000 32 of 48

The UK PT industry on

in 2012

UK Public Transport Operators / Authorities: Top Twitter accounts 'Followers' at June 2011, April 2012 and November 2012

British Airways London Heathrow Airport TfL National Rail easyjet Manchester Airport London Gatwick Airport Virgin Trains London Midland First ScotRail First Great Western Eurostar Edinburgh Turnhouse Airport First Capital Connect Lothian Buses Glasgow International Airport National Express Coaches Southern Railway Birmingham International Airport Flybe East Coast Trains

June 2011 April 2012 November 2012 ??? ???

207,829 53,009 67,093 110,954 6,562 25,619 55,268 14,098 34,602 53,637 596 33,947 53,120 19,341 29,184 40,625 20,903 30,444 40,236 8,023 17,453 30,940 6,686 15,529 24,043 5,062 16,810 23,392 678 14,921 23,380 5,802 15,899 22,095 11,328 15,986 20,241 4,738 10,561 16,189 7,753 13,453 16,062 7,986 12,530 15,567 1,766 4,664 14,395 717 7,796 12,797 4,765 8,526 11,088 4,459 7,807 10,923 No Twitter a/c 4,038 10,356

There is a much greater representation of the UK Public Transport industry on Twitter than on Facebook Many operators now have Twitter accounts (>100) Stagecoach has pilot Twitter accounts but AFAIK no pilot Facebook accounts

Showing A/Cs with > 10,000 followers in Nov 2012

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The challenge of changing information â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Information at the stop â&#x20AC;&#x201C; E-paper From information in ITS UK presentation from IBI Graeme Scott; gscott@ibigroup.com

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The challenge ď Ž

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Centro (Public Transport Authority for West Midlands) owns and maintains over 11,000 stopping locations It produces and distributes hundreds of posters each month to ensure timetable information at these locations is up-to-date The process is labour intensive, has high operational cost and is quite hard to manage

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The E-paper solution

• Developed by IBI • E-paper is designed to mimic the appearance of ordinary ink on paper.

It reflects light like ordinary paper. It can also hold text and images indefinitely • Display Unit with NFC tags • Timetable Management System, including Real-Time Passenger Information 36 of 48

E-paper trial 

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Proof of concept field trials in one location, September 2013 Trial not marketed Very positive satisfaction 80% wanted to see further development Phase 2, using solar power, implemented January 2014 Phase 2 trial 37 of 48

The challenge of changing information â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Information at the stop â&#x20AC;&#x201C; QR Codes From information in ITS UK presentation from RSL Adrian Greenslade; adrian.greenslade@rslkiosks.co.uk

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QR codes at use in Hertfordshire

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RSL’s m-EPI software 

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QR code gives link to mobile departure board which can be accessed directly on smartphone Information is consistent, accessible and up-to-date Information can be displayed for a ‘cluster’ of bus stops Content management system is a key

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The challenge of changing information

â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Content Management across many platforms

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A UK-based example – BusCMS.com The UK market is large enough to stimulate development of products and services in this field Images Copyright © Netescape Ltd

Publish to • website • facebook pages • twitter account • iphone app • Android app • Dedicated mobile-friendly website • innovative SMS text integration • near field communication (NFC) & QR codes 42 of 48

Market Innovation in Information and Ticketing Provision

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Transport Direct • www.transportdirect.info • From anywhere in GB to anywhere else in GB • 2004 to 2014 • An initiative of Government, NOT the market. But was very successful • Championed by Secretary of State for Transport 1997-2001, John Prescott • In order to deliver it data supply systems / protocol / processes had to be set up • These were first devised for regional Traveline information services developed c. 2001, but Transport Direct was more demanding, had higher profile, gave more impetus

• Government’s release of Open Data killed it • Is that good or bad?

• Will the necessary systems / protocols / processes last if government is no longer championing them but merely ‘taking an interest’?

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Tools to check the data Many companies involved in this field (some international) have developed tools to make data checking faster and easier in the UK public transport industry, e.g:  Trapeze  Hogia  ito!

ito’s Transport DMP tool is used to get public transport data correct for Google Maps in the UK

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Mobile Ticketing Originally, rail was the first market But as technology develops and speed and accuracy increase, is being used for bus more and more Examples  Masabi  CoreThree

Some of CoreThree’s clients listed: 13 of these are public transport operators

Barcode or Human-Readable UK Rail Market with large numbers of train franchises has encouraged innovation 46 of 48

Conclusions 

UK experience shows that an overriding vision is needed if integrated information is to be provided to enable better mobility • Regulation and organisational structures can certainly help greatly with this • But they aren’t sufficient by themselves • Champions are needed

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Technology is changing and improving rapidly But Financial constraints are getting ever tighter As transport professionals we know that sustainable transport systems are essential to the wellfunctioning life of a modern city life • But many (most ?) people don’t accept this • So we have to make public transport the mode of choice

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Innovative use of ITS can go a long way to achieve this

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THANK YOU John Austin E-mail: john@analytics.co.uk LinkedIn Public Profile: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/johnaustin01 Website: http://www.analytics.co.uk Twitter: johnaustin01 UK Phone: +44 7730 943415 48 of 48