Global Public Transport Review 2019

GLOBAL PUBLIC TRANSPORT REVIEW 2019

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G LO BA L PU B LI C TRAN S PORT REV IEW 20 19 CO NTE N TS

WELCOME Welcome to the Global Public Transport Review 2019, a publication devoted to this vital sector. This publication from Passenger Transport, based in London, has been produced to co-incide with UITP’s Global Public Transport Summit in Stockholm on June 9-12 – the world’s biggest public transport event. It features contributions from a variety of organisations involved in public transport around the world, and highlights some of the latest innovations and achievements.

5 FOREWORD UITP president Pere Calvet looks ahead to the Global Public Transport Summit in Stockholm

17 INIT INIT’s ‘tap and go’ solution spells success for National Express West Midlands’ EMV accreditation

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UITP

STOCKHOLM

OPTIBUS

UITP’s Global Public Transport Summit will address big changes in the world of urban mobility

Nine things that you (probably) didn’t know about public transport in Sweden’s capital city

We speak to Leon Daniels, Head of Strategy at Optibus, about the future of scheduling and planning

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brought to you by:

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MTR CORPORATION

TOWER TRANSIT

Dr Jacob Kam, the new CEO of MTR Corporation, says that he is building on strong foundations

Bus operator is working in partnership with city authorities in London and Singapore

Editor: Robert Jack / Deputy Editor: Andrew Garnett / Designer: Keith Simpson Passenger Transport Publishing Limited, PO Box 75210, London SE1P 6FB, UNITED KINGDOM T: +44 (0)20 3950 8000 / E: editorial@passengertransport.co.uk / W: www.passengertransport.co.uk / Twitter: @passtrans

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DIRECTION UITP Stockholm 2019 The premiere of the Urbino 12 hydrogen on 10-12 June 2019 (stand A1100) www.solarisbus.com www. om

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G LO BA L PU B LI C TRAN S PORT REV IEW 20 19 FOREWORD : PERE CALVET

UITP GLOBAL PUBLIC TRANSPORT SUMMIT

THE FUTURE OF URBAN MOBILITY wo years on from ‘Leading the Transition’ in Montréal, the defining event in public transport has returned to Europe (Stockholm, June 9-12, 2019).

The UITP Global Public Transport Summit is the largest event of its kind in the sector and brings together a diverse programme of leading conference sessions and an outstanding exhibition full of the latest innovations, solutions and products. Covering all urban and regional transport modes across the globe, more than 350 exhibitors will join us in Stockholm alongside over 100 leading sector figures participating in our conference.

Deciding on the location and theme for each UITP Summit is a careful process that aims to bring the very best elements of the sector at the time, and a connection to our host city, into play. Stockholm is the city where public transport is a form of art. It is believed that there is a genuine craft in using

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public transport to unite city districts and the archipelago, to create a better environment and dynamic growth, and improve people’s quality of life.

The entire Stockholm region is connected by an efficient public transport system, whether above ground or below, on land or on the water. Almost 800,000 city inhabitants use the ever-growing transport network every day, and the percentage of people travelling on public transport versus those travelling by car has increased since the turn of the century, with 49% of all journeys within the county now made by public transport.

With our 2019 theme ‘The Art of Public Transport’, we have drawn inspiration from our local host SL, and the Stockholm metro as the longest art gallery in the world.

Constantly evolving, public transport is defined by the needs of a city and designed by experts looking towards the future. We are all visionaries in this sector, as we build connections and provide

services to create a culture that brings people together, through a craft that truly moves you: The Art of Public Transport.

Staying with our artistic theme, world-renowned artist, author and animator Christoph Neimann will be our keynote speaker, aiming to bring out the mobility artist in all of us.

So what will be discussed during the three days of the Summit?

For the past few years public transport has been at a turning point. With changes in the sector from digitalisation and autonomous vehicles, to the arrival of new mobility players and the development of Mobility as a Service, public transport had reached a crossroads. With the UITP Summit our visitors have the chance to see what the changes look like and why we’re no longer at a turning point.

That future will be on display in every part of the Summit.

Our conference will host a very special Plenary Session on ‘Redefining Public Transport’

featuring politicians, CEOs and high-level figures from global companies such as RATP, Arriva, Moovel, Siemens, Go-Ahead, Uber and RTA. This session will also feature content from our collaboration with BBC StoryWorks in the form of minidocumentaries on the changing faces of urban mobility.

There are many more standout moments planned for the 2019 UITP Global Summit, providing the best forum for the entire sector to meet and discuss the path ahead.

Don’t miss the chance to be part of that discussion.

I hope to see you then!

Pere Calvet, UITP President

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THE ART OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT UITP’s Global Public Transport Summit is coming to Stockholm.

It will offer an opportunity to examine the challenges – and the big changes that are on the horizon he biggest event in global public transport returns to Europe in June.

The biennial Global Public Transport Summit will take place in Stockholm on June 9-12, sandwiched between the 2017 event in Montréal and the forthcoming 2021 event in Melbourne.

Organised by UITP, the Brussels-based international association of public transport, this gathering has a long heritage – the first one took place in Berlin in 1886. Stockholm will host the 63rd edition of this flagship event, formerly known as the World Congress, and it will be the biggest one yet.

The Summit itself is very much focussed on the future of transport, rather than its past. As ever, conventional public transport will be in the spotlight – but so too will emerging forms of mobility, such as bike, car and scooter sharing.

The exhibition at Stockholmsmässan, one of Europe’s largest and most experienced congress and exhibition centres, will cover 40,000 square metres and is expected to attract 15,000 international visitors. Running alongside this, a full conference programme will be available to 2,500 delegates.

“What makes the UITP Global Public Transport Summit the biggest of its kind is that we cover all modes,” says Mohamed Mezghani, the secretary general of UITP. “We have mass transit and shared modes and new players all under one roof.

“It is also the global reach that makes the UITP Summit special.

Our worldwide attendance will

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reach up to 90 countries.”

The theme of this year’s Summit is “The Art of Public Transport”.

It was inspired by the 65-mile Stockholm Metro system – which is described as “the world’s longest art gallery”. Hidden beneath the Swedish capital, more than 90 Tunnelbana stations are decorated with sculptures, mosaics, paintings, installations, engravings and reliefs by over 150 different artists. Each one has its own unique look and feel.

But “The Art of Public Transport” theme is broader than the artistic aspect. “It is also the

excellence, the art of providing former transport,” Mezghani explains.

“It is the art of the people working in public transport.”

Mezghani is Tunisian. He studied industrial engineering in Tunis, before gaining a masters degree in transport in Paris.

He spent the past two decades working for UITP and has headed the organisation since January 2018. It has been a period of great change, but Mezghani believes that greater change is coming.

“The summit is taking place at a very critical period for mobility,” he says. “Public transport is at a turning point ... The demand for mobility is growing all over the world and for that we need public transport, we need mass transit and we need it within very short time lines.

“This is the challenge we have with public transport. The time

“Public transport is at a turning point... The demand for mobility is growing all over the world and for that we need public transport”

it takes to decide to develop the metro system and the time it enters into operation - it takes years.”

Mezghani cites London, Paris and Melbourne as cities with huge emblematic rail projects that are the culmination of years of planning. But he also points to other parts of the world that have realised the need for mass transit and have acted quickly to get schemes underway.

“In China they have built 100 metro lines in 10 years, which is amazing,” he says. “And in Saudi Arabia they are building six metro lines simultaneously. They will open in two years.”

At the same time, the lines around public transport are blurring. Growing digitalisation and the emergence of the sharing economy have given rise to new mobility services that are flexible and on-demand.

“It pushes us to redefine public

ABOVE: Mohamed Mezghani RIGHT: The Stockholm Metro

Laura Shoaf, Managing Director of Transport for the West Midlands: ‘It’s events like this where you learn’

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AT A G L A NC E

transport,” says Mezghani. “We must integrate this within public transport. It is not mass transit against these new mobility services. No, it’s putting them all under the umbrella of public transport - they are shared modes and the sharing could take place within the same space.”

Stockholm – the host city The local host for the Global Public Transport Summit is SL, the public transport administration (Trafikförvaltningen) at Stockholm County Council. It has overall responsibility for transport services in Stockholm County, in which over 780,000 people travel by public transport by every day 49% of all journeys.

The various modes of transport - buses, the metro, commuter trains, local rail services and ferries - are all co-ordinated within an ever-growing transport network.

Outlining the key features of Stockholm’s transport system, Jens Plambeck, Director of Strategic Development at SL, points to the involvement of private sector operators.

15,000

“We have had an open market for tendering public transport for 15 years and so I think we are pretty good at that,” he says.

He also points to the significant expansion of the city’s metro network and the close relationship between land use and transport planning.

“We have been working closely with the government on new housing projects to make sure that public transport links are there, and car dependency is not ingrained,” he explains.

Land value capture has also been feature of transport projects.

Going forward, a decision

by Sweden’s three biggest cities - Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö - to finance high speed rail is driving further transport investments within these cities.

Plambeck also highlights the partnership working between the capitals of Nordic countries, which meet twice a year and have an ongoing benchmarking exercise.

“We are working really closely together and exchanging experiences and doing projects together,” he says. “So when visitors are coming to Stockholm they will also be visiting all of Scandinavia.”

international visitors from 90 countries

350 40,000m2 270 exhibitors

of exhibition space

conference speakers

n UITP, the international association of public transport, is a passionate champion of sustainable urban mobility and the only worldwide network to bring together all public transport modes. It has 1,600 member companies giving access to 18,000 contacts from 99 countries.

The members are public transport operators and authorities, policy decision makers, research institutes and the public transport supply and service industry.

Sharing experiences The Global Public Transport Summit provides an important opportunity to exchange experiences with transport professionals from around the world, and see the latest technological developments. Laura Shoaf, an American who heads Transport for the West Midlands in UK, is a great believer in this knowledge sharing opportunity.

“One of the challenges that we are having is that we have fabulous growth within the city of Birmingham but it is not everybody that touches and feels that,” she says. “You don’t have to go very far out of the city centre to find people who are very disconnected from all that growth and opportunity.

“So we have been trying to work to expand our metro system so that it is connecting those communities to all the cranes that

are in the middle of Birmingham and making sure that that transformation helps everybody in society and not just the people who you could argue are already benefiting from it.”

As a member of UITP’s Policy Board, Shoaf is aware that she and her colleagues are not alone in facing this challenge.

“When you have what I think is the great privilege to help shape how urban areas grow and change through public transport infrastructure, it’s events like this where you learn and you see what is best practice from around the world,” she says.

“It’s really important to recognise that our country does not have all the answers when it comes to public transport. There are countries all over the world that are pushing boundaries and changing the way that people think. The pressures that cities feel are the same pressures that all cities feel.”

Shoaf continues: “Most cities are seeing urbanisation, most cities are seeing digitalisation, most cities are struggling with sustainability and capacity ... So when a conference like this comes together it’s just a fantastic opportunity to start to see how other people and dealing with some of those challenges.”

Transport for the West Midlands wants to be at the forefront of emerging mobility models. It is already trialling Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in a trial with Finland’s MaaS Global and last year it was awarded £20m by the UK Government to pioneer innovative new transport schemes as the UK’s first Future Mobility Zone.

TfWM is investigating how to use “mobility credits” to incentive changes in travel behaviour that reduce car use. It is also examining what opportunities can be gained from Birmingham and becoming the UK’s first 5G city.

“Just when you think you are ahead of the curve you will go to an international meeting and you realise that other cities have already done it and that there are good lessons to learn to stop you making some of the same mistakes they did,” says Shoaf.

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The Passenger Transport Authority (PTA) for the Stockholm Region is SL – which really does not exist any more. Some years ago the name of the authority was changed but absolutely nobody uses the new, bureaucratic and very long name – Trafikförvaltningen. Everybody sticks to the old name, which also is the brand that the PTA uses. So SL it is. SL covers the entire Stockholm Region which is pretty large, roughly 150 kilometres long and populated by more than 2.3 million people. SL:s buses and trains have 2.8 million boarding passengers every weekday.

VÄLKOMMEN TILL STOCKHOLM – WELCOME TO STOCKHOLM! Sweden’s capital is the venue for this year’s UITP Global Public Transport Summit. Swedish journalist Ulo Maasing reveals nine things that you (probably) didn’t know about its public transport system

The backbone of the transport system is the Metro, “Tunnelbanan” with an average of 1.3 million daily passengers. The system is some 110 kilometres-long with 100 stations which makes it the 22nd largest metro system in the world, thus beating many larger cities. The first line opened in October 1950. Extensions with new lines and 17 new stations are under construction.

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The metro is often referred to as the world’s longest art exhibition. Many of the stations are dominated by artful decorations, like the biggest station T-centralen with walls and ceilings covered with blue flowers and plants…

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…or Kungsträdgården station where passengers feel like walking in an exotic cave, 40 metres below ground level.

Sculptures create the feeling of of walking through the ruins of an ancient palace, long buried in the ground.

SL prides itself of running a 100% fossil-free bus service since September 2018. Almost all of the more than 2,100 buses now run on biogas or biodiesel. Stockholm is the first major city in the world with a bus fleet entirely running on renewable fuels. The metro, trams and commuter trains all use green electricity. Electric buses, though, are few. Only five run in the northern town of Norrtälje. But electrification is taking off the coming years.

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Stockholm is literally a city on water. A large part of the city is built on 14 islands, connected by bridges, tunnels and ferries operated by SL. But east of the city is the huge archipelago with some 24,000 islands and skerries.

Several of these are served by small ships from a subsidiary of SL, Waxholmsbolaget, connecting Stockholm with the islands.

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This is not a test but a permanent operation. In the suburb of Barkarby, northwest of Stockholm, one of the first regular autonomous bus routes in the world (SL 549) has operated since October last year.

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SL has a flat fare system making short single trips expensive but longer journeys, as well as frequent travels cheap. A single, prepaid adult ticket is 32 SEK (â‚Ź3.00) downloded on the SL smart card or 45 SEK (â‚Ź4.21) bought in a ticket machine. It can be used for unlimited travel and transfers on the entire system for 75 minutes Typically a prepaid pass for unlimited travel in the entire system under 30 days will be 890 SEK (â‚Ź83) for adults.

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Rail revival. Stockholm had an extensive tram network until September 1967. When Sweden changed from left-hand driving to right-hand the network was closed down and only a few light rail lines remained. In the last 10 years a new tram line opened in central Stockholm and several light rail projects have opened or are being planned.

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G LO BA L PU B LI C TRAN S PORT REV IEW 20 19 P RO F I L E : M T R

BUILDING ON STRONG FOUNDATIONS FOR GROWTH Dr Jacob Kam, the new CEO of MTR Corporation, is confident about the future his year, MTR Corporation marks the 40th anniversary of the launch of our first passenger rail service in our home city of Hong Kong. From day one, the commencement of a safe, fast, convenient and comfortable urban rail service was immensely popular. More than 250,000 passengers took a train ride along an eight kilometre stretch of track in Kowloon on the opening day (October 1, 1979). Services across Victoria Harbour began the following year. As the railway network expanded and people could travel more quickly from point-to-point, the city became better connected which contributed to a significant uplift in economic growth, enhanced social mobility and an improvement in overall living standards.

Hong Kong’s experience in this regard is certainly not unique.

Cities around the world recognise that low carbon railways can create enormous public value in terms of generating economic activity and driving societal and environmental benefits. However, cities also face many competing demands for limited public resources - and we all know that new rail lines are very expensive to build and then require continuous investment for operations and maintenance. I believe that the experience of MTR in addressing these issues has relevance to growing cities around the world.

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Pillars for success and expansion When I came on board MTR in 1995, we were a respected but local Hong Kong metro operator with a route network of 43 km and average weekday patronage of 2.37

MTR operates more than 8,000 train trips a day in Hong Kong with over 99.9% of passenger journeys on-time

million passenger journeys. Today, our home-grown Hong Kong company has extended its reach to become a multinational railway operator providing services in the Mainland of China, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Australia.

Worldwide, our average weekday patronage has reached 12.7 million passenger journeys (5.9 million in Hong Kong) and our route length is more than 2,000 km (257 km in Hong Kong). I have been privileged to participate in MTR’s tremendous growth over the past 24 years and I am honoured to now be leading the company as the CEO. My immediate priorities as CEO are to focus on maintaining safe, reliable and value-for-money service for the millions of passengers we carry every day; ensure the smooth operation of MTR businesses in Hong Kong and globally; and work to rebuild public confidence, especially with regard to issues we have faced on our new railway

projects in Hong Kong.

We are fortunate that our business has very strong foundations. Looking back over the past 40 years and particularly on my time at MTR, there are a number of critical pillars that have contributed to our growth and facilitated expansion into new markets. Apart from the “safety first” culture which is a prerequisite for everything we do, let me highlight two others.

The first one is a relentless commitment to operational excellence and a culture of continuous improvement. The professionalism and sheer hard work of colleagues have enabled us to achieve and sustain a world class standard of over 99.9% of passenger journeys on-time in Hong Kong, even as we operate more than 8,000 train trips a day on one of the most intensively used rail networks in the world. On those rare occasions when something

does go wrong, we will investigate the root cause thoroughly and find improvement measures.

The second pillar that I want to mention is our end-to-end railway experience. Unlike most operators, we don’t only operate and maintain railway systems; we also plan, design, build, and commission new railway projects. This enables us to integrate operational considerations and the needs of customers into the earliest stages of our project designs. The result is that the railway service ultimately operates more efficiently and we can provide high quality customercentric services.

These pillars have given us a wealth of railway expertise and experience which support our business in all of the communities that we serve. They are also underpinned and reinforced by our financially sustainable business model based on the integration of rail with surrounding properties.

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‘Rail plus Property’ model Since the very beginning when MTR was established as a Hong Kong Government-owned company, we have operated according to prudent commercial principles. We all know that large-scale investment in new infrastructure creates tremendous value for communities. What we have evolved in Hong Kong over the years is a method of capturing and monetising some of the value created by our investment in new railway projects and then using that captured value to support the long-term operation of the railway service. We call it our ‘Rail plus Property’ business model.

The way it works is this: As part of our new railway projects, we plan and design residential and commercial properties above and around some of the stations or depots along the new lines, and then we work with developer partners on the construction.

With the provision of the new railway service, the value of these properties increases and we capture a share of the uplift in property value through sales, ownership and rental, plus provision of management services to tenants.

What the ‘Rail plus Property’ model enables us to do is to supplement the fare revenue paid by passengers with additional property-related revenue streams.

The new properties, which are fully integrated with the rail network, also serve to drive more patronage for the railway. By integrating rail and property, this value-capture system maximises the use of scare land resources in the city and creates a transit-oriented pattern of urban development. It also ensures, subject to normal business risks, that we will have the financial resources that we need for the long term operation and maintenance of our railway assets.

In 2018 alone, we invested HK$9bn (€1bn) back into the Hong Kong rail system to maintain, repair, upgrade and replace infrastructure and assets. Being financially sustainable means that we have been able to keep passenger fares at an affordable level (average

12.7million

domestic fare of HK$7.92 in 2018, equivalent to €0.90), without any taxpayer subsidy for our day-today operations. Our shareholders also benefit from the company operating profitably (MTR Corporation was listed as a public company on the Stock Exchange in Hong Kong in 2000 with the Hong Kong Government as the majority shareholder) through the payment of regular dividends and steady share price appreciation.

‘Rail plus Property’ demonstrates how integrating railway expansion with property development can help to make public transit systems financially self-reliant while also contributing to the community’s need for more housing. It is a way to support sustainable urban growth, which is relevant to growing cities around the world.

average weekday patronage, worldwide

257km €1bn

route length in Hong Kong

invested back into the Hong Kong rail system in 2018

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destinations in mainland China connected by High Speed Rail service direct from Hong Kong

1.55million

average weekday patronage for MTR railway services in Sweden

MTR’s international business Having a financially sustainable business model and strong pillars of operational excellence and end-to-end railway experience has allowed MTR to enter new markets. With strong local management teams in place, we have been awarded operations and maintenance contracts and delivered enhanced standards of service to railways in London, Stockholm and Melbourne, as well as invested in and subsequently started to operate high quality rail lines in Beijing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and soon in Sydney.

We have also recently opened up new horizons for our home city, Hong Kong, with the launch in

n Dr Jacob Kam was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of MTR Corporation with effect from April 1, 2019. Dr Kam joined MTR in 1995 and has held various positions in the Operations, Projects and China & International Business divisions.

He was the Operations Director from 2011 to 2016 and the Managing Director - Operations and Mainland Business from May 1, 2016 until March 31, 2019. He holds a doctoral degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of London (University College London) in the United Kingdom.

The Stockholm Metro is one of three railway services operated by MTR in Sweden

September 2018 of our convenient and comfortable High Speed Rail service that connects from West Kowloon into the 29,000 km national high speed rail network in the Mainland of China, with direct service from Hong Kong to 44 destinations without interchange.

We look forward to sharing more information about our business at the upcoming UITP Global Public Transport Summit in Stockholm from June 9-12. The venue and timing of the Summit holds special significance for MTR. This year is not only the 40th anniversary of our service in Hong Kong; it is also the 10th anniversary of the start of our railway service in Sweden, where we were awarded the operations and maintenance concession for the Stockholm Metro in 2009.

Today, we are the largest rail operator in Sweden by passenger volume, with average weekday patronage of 1.55 million in 2018 across the Metro, the Stockholm commuter rail service, and our MTR Express intercity service. We are proud that our subsidiary, MTR Tunnelbanan, recently received the Swedish Quality Award 2018 from the Swedish Institute for Quality for its outstanding quality work in operating and maintaining the Stockholm Metro.

MTR Tunnelbanan was previously honoured with the same award in 2014, and has now become one of the very few two-time recipients of this prestigious honour in Sweden.

I do hope participants and visitors at the UITP Summit in Stockholm will take some time to stop by our exhibition booth to see us.

MTR has overcome many challenges in the past and I am confident about our future. As we move forward, the fast-moving pace of technological change and innovation presents exciting opportunities to uplift the capacity and efficiency of our transport networks. I believe that by building on our strong base, we have a greater chance of grasping these opportunities. We can better connect and grow the communities that we serve and contribute to their brighter future.

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Tower Transit employs over 1,500 colleagues and operates over 400 buses in the intensive London bus market

TOWER TRANSIT: YOUR PARTNER IN MOBILITY Tower Transit is working in partnership with city authorities in London and Singapore ncreasingly, local solutions are playing a greater role in the delivery of services and this is especially true in the field of transport. It is here that the Tower Transit Group believes it has a distinct advantage over larger multinational mobility players – Tower Transit is big enough to have the ability to deliver world class service and experience while being small enough to ensure top group management focus on its major city networks; none of its operations will ever be ‘just another contract’.

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Australian roots Tower Transit was originally formed in London following the acquisition of key depots and routes of an existing London bus operation.

The company’s roots lie in Transit Systems of Australia. Neil Smith is a joint founder, key shareholder and current Chairman of both groups, and Clint Feuerherdt, the Chief Executive Officer of Transit Systems also owns 18% of Tower Transit. Although separate corporate entities, Tower Transit and Transit Systems have regular interaction and close working on a number of projects and initiatives, including the development of demand-responsive transport through BRIDJ, a Transit Systems subsidiary.

The purchase of the London bus operation saw Tower Transit becoming a major operator in the UK capital. There it operates about 400 buses and employs around 1,500 people to deliver routes on behalf of Transport for London (TfL). Since 2016 Tower Transit has also operated the Bulim network in Singapore on behalf of the Land Transport Authority (LTA).

Partnership working Tower Transit has a clear philosophy and history of working constructively with local authorities, rather than simply adopting the position of being a private supplier to a public body.

For example, in London the company has worked closely with

TfL to facilitate their recent round of service rationalisations. Clearly these changes will reduce the size of the Tower Transit business there, and, while the company would obviously prefer that never happened, it understood the issues and drivers behind the move, and worked together with TfL on finding solutions; the Group understands that sometimes local authorities and government departments often have to make difficult choices.

Safety a priority Safety is part of the DNA of Tower, and forms the context in which they operate. Tower Transit actively supports TfL and the Mayor of London’s Vision Zero plan for bus safety, and continually aims to reduce safety incidents and accidents throughout the Group’s operations, with a particular focus on vulnerable road users, such as cyclists and pedestrians.

Senior managers meet monthly at a Safety Performance Group to

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review performance and identify issues and practical actions. Safety initiatives are continually reviewed, and this constant adaptation is a key factor in maintaining and improving the Group’s safety performance standards.

Aside from “business as usual”, such as forensic investigations of all safety incidents, a programme of staff communication campaigns has aimed to raise awareness of a wide range of issues. These have been backed up by a series of innovative videos that have been developed in partnership with TfL as part of the Bus Safety Innovation Fund scheme.

These short, punchy films aim to communicate key messages surrounding the importance of safety to front line colleagues.

Tower Transit’s safety system means it constantly achieves excellent results in TfL’s Safety Performance Indicator. The message is clear - safety is a key priority for Tower Transit.

Operating in London In London Tower Transit operates the vast majority of its routes in central London and congested areas. Much of this area is highly congested and puts the Group at an obvious disadvantage when compared to the performance of many other London bus operators who have the “balancing” effect of also operating routes in the city’s less congested suburbs. This is clearly recognised, and over the past year TfL has awarded Tower Transit new contracts for five additional routes in the face of stiff competition from other operators. All five of these routes have now been launched successfully, demonstrating the ability of Tower Transit to deliver in a highly challenging operating environment.

Success in Singapore Competing against a number of the world’s major mobility players, in 2015 Tower Transit was awarded a contract to operate in the Singaporean bus market. It operates 26 bus routes and 370 vehicles from a brand

Tower Transit aims to ensure consistently high standards across its operations

new, 10-hectare, governmentowned site at Bulim in the west of Singapore. Singapore’s LTA granted the contract to Tower Transit on the basis of the quality, confidence and value for money that the group offered to the LTA, rather than simply a bid based on the lowest possible price.

wider Transport for New South Wales (TfNSW) contract held by Transit Systems. Development work on BRIDJ continues with improvements planned for both the customer-facing app and the software’s dynamic capability.

Tower Transit believes BRIDJ has a number of key elements that set it aside from its competitors, having been developed with access to the operational and service planning expertise of Transit Systems, where the technology has been shaped to reflect real world customer and operational requirements. Through its relationship with Transit Systems, Tower Transit has access to the BRIDJ technology, and is looking to develop opportunities throughout its operations.

Mobility on demand with BRIDJ BRIDJ is a proprietary, on-demand transport solution which uses a highly-developed and refined algorithm to offer a dynamicallyrouted, premium bus service to complement a city’s public transport. It’s technology that aims to enhance accessibility.

The on-demand service was first developed in Boston in the United States in 2014. In 2017 it was acquired by Transit Systems and following a successful pilot in Sydney, BRIDJ has now expanded to a full network in several operating areas as part of the

Greener and cleaner with hydrogen and electric Tower Transit are entrusted to operate hydrogen buses in

Some of the Tower Transit team based at the group's Bulim depot in Singapore

London on behalf of TfL. The project was initiated as part of the Clean Hydrogen in European Cities (CHIC) project, and Tower Transit originally operated eight hydrogen fuel cell buses in the capital. To support this project the depot infrastructure was customised in order to both fuel and maintain the vehicles in a safe environment.

As a continuation of the TfL sponsored project, Tower Transit is now participating in the operation of a new generation of hydrogen buses, with two further fuel cell vehicles joining the fleet in late 2017.

Aside from Hydrogen, it is clear that electric vehicles will play a key part in sustainable passenger transport, and preparations are well underway to ensure that the group’s London operation has both the electric infrastructure and charging facilities to be part of this vision.

Tower Transit has been involved in the deployment of a small fleet of specially developed hybrid electric vehicles in the British capital city as part of Project “ZeEUS” – Zero Emissions Urban Bus System.

This project has involved many organisations, including bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis, The European Commission, IPT Technologies, UITP and TfL, and Tower Transit operates a trial hybrid electric double deck vehicles on Route 69 between Canning Town and Walthamstow Central. Instead of conventional plug-in charging, special inductive charging pads have been installed

by TfL at both ends of the route, allowing the vehicles to replenish their batteries between trips.

Meanwhile, in Singapore, Tower Transit is looking forward to take part in the LTA’s trial of electric vehicles and in Australia, Transit Systems will soon commence a trial of electric buses as part of the TfNSW Region 6 Bus Contract in Sydney. It will see the Group introduce four electric buses into service, with each expected to travel a minimum of 200,000 kilometres each year.

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G LO BA L PU B LI C TRAN S PORT REV IEW 20 19 P RO F I L E : I N I T

TAKING CONTACTLESS PAYMENT TO THE NEXT LEVEL INIT’s ‘tap and go’ solution spells success for National Express West Midlands’ EMV accreditation n March this year, major public transport provider National Express West Midlands’ contactless solution was upgraded to Mass Transit Transaction Model (MTT) (Model 2) accreditation by banking giant Barclaycard, thanks to INIT’s innovative ticket solution.

Working in close partnership with National Express West Midlands, the largest bus operator in the UK’s second largest city region, INIT developed its contactless bankcard payment solution, achieving full compliance with VISA and Mastercard’s latest transit implementation guides.

The in-depth EMV (Europay International, Mastercard and Visa) accreditation is in recognition of its contactless bankcard payment solution achieving full compliance with VISA and Mastercard’s latest transit implementation guides and helps meet the transport provider’s business objectives: supporting efficiencies and improving passenger satisfaction and comfort.

Jens Mullak, Managing Director of INIT UK, said: “We are thrilled to have our solution accredited for National Express West Midlands.

“We believe that we are the first smart ticketing solutions provider to have achieved this accreditation.

It’s an exciting step for the business and transformative within the industry - and is a UK first outside of London’s Oyster card solution.”

times can really add up over a long route. And with more and more of our customers choosing to pay for their travel using digital, it will become even more important.”

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Growing popularity of contactless payments Mullak continued: “There is definitely a growing trend for contactless payment around the world. With the popularity of contactless bank cards and the

Contactless payment with the bankcard. Image: National Express West Midlands

usage of mobile phones, this will surely replace cash payments more and more, particularly as the majority of public transport passengers are students and young people, who rarely use cash and value the convenience and speed.

“Automatic daily fare capping gives National Express customers one less thing to think about and confidence in the knowledge that their daily fare has been calculated without any forward planning.

Being able to simply tap your contactless bank card or use your smart phone to pay for travel also speeds up boarding times and reduces cash in the system for the transport operator.”

drivers what they want.

“The INIT system gives us the technology to realise the benefits of modern ticketing by fully integrating with our other on-bus equipment.

“One of the most important benefits for National Express has been how well INIT worked with our drivers to make the system as intuitive as possible. We’ve had great feedback from all our garages about how the INIT kit helps our drivers and saves them time so they can concentrate on their driving.

“INIT has also provided us with more legible tickets that give clarity for our customers. The flexibility in ticket layout has helped us tackle fraud by using things like a word of the day.

“The new machines have helped with operations by speeding up boarding times. This is especially important in an urban area like the West Midlands, where dwell

A long-term partnership Since 2018, National Express West Midlands whole fleet of 1,600 buses have been equipped with INIT’s TOUCHmon2 driver consoles, COPILOTpc2 on-board computers, PRINTmobil ticket printers and PROXmobil3 validators.

Martin Hancock, Development Director, National Express West Midlands said: “We chose INIT because they provided us with a flexible, future-proof solution that gives our customers and our

“Being able to simply tap your contactless bank card or use your smart phone to pay for travel speeds up boarding times”

‘Rigorous testing’ In order to receive MTT (Model 2) accreditation for National Express, INIT’s open loop, account-based ticketing solution underwent rigorous testing scenarios and were seen to meet the requirements of the major banking providers.

The second level certification means that liability for failed payment transactions is transferred to the card issuer and reduces the transaction cost for the transport provider.

Mullak continued: “We’re one of the few solution providers that can provide a turnkey open account-based ticketing solution that importantly also offers cross-network integration of other public transport providers. It’s an exciting development, as this interoperability gives customers the platform for future growth.”

Driving developments in technology INIT’s technology is driven by the demands of both passengers and transport providers, ensuring that buying tickets for public transport is as easy as possible.

As a worldwide leading supplier of integrated planning, dispatching, ITS and ticketing systems for buses, light rail and trains, INIT has been assisting transport companies in making public transport more attractive, faster and more efficient for more than 35 years. Today, more than 600 customers rely on its innovative software and hardware solutions. n For more information, visit www.initse.com

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G LO BA L PU B LI C TRAN S PORT REV IEW 20 19 P RO F I L E : O PT I BUS

FOCUSSED ON THE FUTURE Leon Daniels says Optibus is equipping operators with technology that will help them keep pace in a fast-changing world have always been excited about what the future holds for transportation and what the market disrupters will deliver,” says Leon Daniels, reflecting on his decision to join Optibus, a provider of next-gen planning and scheduling softwareas-a-service for public transport.

“Mainstream public transport faces the increasing demand of delivering faster response times, meeting shorter deadlines, and delivering an economic return on investment. Optibus is giving exceptional new capabilities to transport operators that will enable them to become more agile and deliver significant efficiencies.”

Daniels’s last job was as Transport for London’s Managing Director of Surface Transport, where was responsible for all surface transport modes in London, including buses, trams, bikes and taxis. His seven-year tenure included the 2012 London Olympic Games, when he and his colleagues succeeded in keeping sport in the headlines while the transport system quietly did its job.

As Head of Strategy at Optibus, he brings understanding of the complex inner and outer workings of city-wide mobility. This is helping the company with its mission to use advanced optimisation algorithms and artificial intelligence to deliver savings for public transport providers, and improve on-time performance.

“My career in public transport taught me that scheduling is the cornerstone of mass transit operations,” says Daniels. “I was one of the early adopters of computerised scheduling, when it

I

was first became available, about 25 years ago. I was just amazed at what it could do. Until then I had teams of people drawing lines on graph paper with pencils. They were doing a great job, but the process was entirely manual.

“Yet, I must admit with great sadness, that when I took a look at the scheduling systems that transport operators are using now not much has happened in the last 20 years. Certainly, the equipment that it is used on is a little bit more modern, but in essence, it’s the same thing. It’s something that requires detailed manual intervention, at all stages of the planning and scheduling process.”

In contrast, Daniels believes that Optibus represents a significant step forward. It allows agencies and operators to plan public transport on one cloud-native, holistic platform quickly and effectivelyfrom routes and timetables, to vehicle and crew scheduling.

Built to support anything from the world’s most complex transport operations, to simpler, smaller systems, Optibus has been chosen for more than 300 cities worldwide and the company now has offices in San Francisco, London, Tel Aviv and Düsseldorf.

The platform’s powerful algorithms and technology deliver super-fast results. It takes minutes (or fractions of minutes) to create and evaluate complex scenarios that used to take hours or even days. Harnessing this speed, users can run many ‘what-if ’ scenarios in minutes, with ample time to evaluate all options and then take smart data-driven decisions. They can even do this daily, responding to changes with optimal vehicle and crew schedules.

Users of Optibus can model their transport network’s rules and preferences at the most granular level. This doesn’t just generate a

Optibus can predict the likelihood that each vehicle trip will be performed on-time

Optibus Route Planning offers map and satellite views, as well as street-level views

quality schedule, it also highlights the business key performance indicators and cost data that are needed to make optimal schedule and cost decisions. In fact, Optibus claims that users of its platform have generated significant cost savings of up to 15%, with better on-time performance.

Optibus is a software-as-a-service platform, which means no IT effort, no hardware and continuous feature improvements. Customers always have the most up-to-date version. And with a modern user interface that’s easy to use, training doesn’t take long and work can immediately become more efficient.

The platform also addresses the

Leon Daniels: Head of Strategy at Optibus

need to achieve a better on-time performance. Optibus leverages artificial intelligence and historical data to predict and analyse on-time performance, so that whenever a customer makes schedule changes, they can immediately see the on-time performance impact and suggested schedule improvements.

This prevents delays at the outset and precisely shows the cost and service impact of schedule changes.

The Optibus platform is exciting for Daniels because he knows that accurate and actionable plans are vital for public transport.

“Schedules should be absolutely right: be feasible for drivers, for the buses you have and any other regulatory requirement or business need,” he comments.

“Whenever we get schedules wrong it is a bit like flying a plane just one degree off course.

It doesn’t sound like much, but it will end up being a really long way off course. So, it’s really very important for operators to have a schedule to keep them on-course so that the quality and the quantity of trips happen as it should, and that this will be done at the lowest

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Optibus features specialised Electric Vehicle Scheduling, using EV-specific metrics to create the most integrated and optimal operational and charging plan

economic rate.”

Daniels is pleased that this technology is shedding some light on the “dark art” of scheduling.

“Scheduling is a bit like magic,” he explains. “The public sees a timetable; the staff get their instructions. It takes place behind the scenes and has been a dark art for ages. Schedules are tricky and getting them optimised is trickier.

I think most people aren’t aware that the technology to create schedules hasn’t come of age until very recently, and that they were more dark art than science-based.”

In his eyes, the ability to scrutinise schedules will result in better decisions, and it will open up new possibilities.

“When you start asking questions, you start to uncover shortcomings, on a micro and macro level,” he says. “People tended to think about planning and scheduling as averages, but, in real life, the characteristics of each day are quite different. Fridays are quieter than Thursdays - people are working from home, in anticipation of the weekend. Equally, school days are busier than school holidays.

new technology that will help them meet the fast-changing requirements of transport users.

“All around the world, operators are under a lot of pressure to reduce costs - and it’s not because no-one needs public transport, but because consumers are more discerning,” he explains.

“People are making tougher value for money decisions and want the money they spend for public transport to deliver value. At the same time, the sharing economy is all around us and in public transport we will see services that fill a bit of a gap between the top end of taxi, and the bottom end of the mass transit bus.

“The biggest change is the smartphone interface. You use the phone to indicate where you want to go and get anything from a taxi to a demand-responsive bus. If the market is going to be continuously optimising its network, its transit options, than the mass transit operators must move with those times. In the future, mass transit operators will be in the business of providing services based on demand. Not historical demand,

“In the future, mass transit operators will be in the business of providing services based on demand” When it’s raining the traffic is slower. But the manual scheduling that we’ve always used in transit tended to ignore this and has been a pretty heavy average, designed to cope with all conditions.”

He adds: “The tools we have nowadays allow us to be much more precise, using real-time information, using all the knowledge we have about the different traffic conditions, and different demands on different days of the week.

“I can remember asking for special schedules for Fridays and being told it was impossible. It has to be the same as Mondays and Thursdays. Now I think we can have schedules for school days, Fridays, non-school days Fridays, summer Fridays, Christmas Fridays, Friday the 13th…”

Daniels believes that Optibus is equipping operators with

but much more short term demand, something that consumers will indicate on their smartphone.”

For Daniels, the future is an exciting place.

“Throughout my career, I’ve always been interested in the future,” he says. “I am also interested in transport history. During my career we’ve had amazing sorts of developments on the engineering side, on the operational side, and here we are now - just on the cusp of some huge developments. We are approaching a time where everybody’s life is far more reliant on their smartphone. The future is extraordinarily exciting.

“Like I say, I’ve always really been interested in the future and one of the reasons I chose Optibus is because, having had a career in the transport industry, I am as fascinated as ever to know what’s going to happen in the future, and it was really important to me to join a company who was absolutely focused on the future.” n Leon Daniels is speaking at UITP’s Global Public Transport Summit in Stockholm on June 12.

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Reasons to Attend All public transport modes are covered.

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Hear the views of ministers, CEOs, leading operators, industries and visionaries.

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