Skip to main content

Getting real with fleet management and passenger information

UK ticketing technology company Parkeon has partnered with information specialist Cloud Amber to develop a new way of using the in-built GPS/GPRS functionality of an electronic ticket machine to improve the scope and accuracy of real time information systems while reducing system cost, complexity and maintenance requirements. Newport Transport is to take advantage of the alliance to become one of the first bus operators in the country to take direct control of its real time information systems, using the te
September 2, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
UK ticketing technology company 251 Parkeon has partnered with information specialist Cloud Amber to develop a new way of using the in-built GPS/GPRS functionality of an electronic ticket machine to improve the scope and accuracy of real time information systems while reducing system cost, complexity and maintenance requirements.

Newport Transport is to take advantage of the alliance to become one of the first bus operators in the country to take direct control of its real time information systems, using the technology to drive its real time communication across its fleet of buses via architecture built into its newly-ordered Wayfarer200 ticketing platform.

The move to the Wayfarer200 platform enables Newport Transport to take responsibility for its own RTI performance across its 100 strong bus fleet and to deliver true real time, dual language (English and Welsh) messaging to its customers via on-street displays based on actual travel information data rather than historic journey times.

The system will enable the operators to improve fleet management and reporting in areas such as schedule adherence, including early and late running indicators and two-way digital driver messaging, while passengers benefit from an information flow that’s always up-to-date.

Scott Pearson, managing director of Newport Transport, sees the investment as key to enhancing operational performance: “We are taking advantage of technological innovation to bring a truly ground-breaking RTI system under our own control. The ability to access highly accurate data in real time will facilitate better day-to-day running, offer more flexibility in decision-making and provide much more accurate information to passengers.”

Says Gavin Trimnell, Parkeon UK head of sales: “All of this is facilitated directly through the Wayfarer200 ticketing platform, meaning there’s no need for traditional on-vehicle “black box” technologies, thereby reducing equipment and deployment complexity, and lowering maintenance costs while improving data accuracy.”

Related Content

  • June 5, 2015
    Mega trends will challenge transport technology
    Jon Masters investigates some of the longer term trends that will shape transportation over the next 20 years. Business analysts and investors have already placed their bets on a future of technological smart mobility services. In December last year, the Wall Street Journal reported that Uber, the on-demand taxi and lift share smartphone app and start-up business, had been valued at $41.2 billion which, as the Journal reported, is an incredible vote of confidence for a company only five years old.
  • August 13, 2015
    Jonathan Raper from TransportAPI is surfing the open data tidal wave
    Jonathan Raper, managing director of the TransportAPI talks to Colin Sowman about the benefits open data can bring to the public transport sector. That the digital revolution would change the world, including transport, was never in doubt but the question has always been: how? Now, with the ‘Millennium Bug’ relegated to a question on quiz shows, the potential and challenges of digital technology are starting to take shape - and Jonathan Raper is in the vanguard. Raper is managing director of the open data t
  • February 27, 2013
    The benefits of combining enforcement and traffic management
    Jason Barnes considers how combining enforcement equipment with other traffic management technologies might benefit our future – if only the will were really in place to do so. During the ITS World Congress in Vienna in October last year, Navtech Radar and Vysion­ics ITS announced a strategic partnership that would combine the expertise of Navtech in millimetre-wave wide-area surveillance technology with Vysionics’ machine vision-based automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) and average speed measurement
  • January 23, 2012
    Centralised traffic control, managing changing traffic demands
    Paul van Koningsbruggen and Dave Marples of Technolution BV describe, using a national example from the Netherlands, how smart add-ons to traffic control centres combine to increase cross-centre capabilities and cost-efficiency. Increasingly, traffic management is becoming the natural partner of the civil engineer, improving flows over existing infrastructure to deliver an alternative to laying more blacktop. As in any emerging market, the first steps towards mature traffic management have not necessarily r