Electronic bus and train timetables two years away
23 July 2008
REBECCA THOMSON
Bus and train passengers are still waiting for a $10 million electronic timetable system, even though other New Zealand cities have had them for years.
A real time information (RTI) system delivers information to electronic bus stop display boards telling passengers whether a bus is "due now" or in "10 minutes".
Greater Wellington regional council plans to roll out an RTI system in 2010.
Design and development manager Brian Baxter says it's a complex project because communications and computer systems, and global positioning systems (GPS) need to be installed in 500 buses and 100 hundred trains, as well as at bus and train stops all over the region.
"The way it works is that every bus has to have a GPS to track where it is. That sends a signal to a satellite, which sends a signal to a computer and the computer calculates - using historical data - how long the bus will take to get to the bus stop."
That information is relayed back to bus stop signs, cell phones and the Internet and Mr Baxter says the regional council needs to ensure the system works in the tunnels and around the hills.
"Trains suddenly go into a tunnel and the signal goes dead or buses go up into the hills and the signal cuts out.
"We will be trialling the system to make sure that when buses or trains go into tunnels or up into the hills, the system delivers."
Environment Canterbury regional council introduced RTI to Christchurch bus services in 2000 and passenger service manager Wayne Holton-Jeffries says it's popular.
Auckland City Council introduced RTI in 2003 and since then more than 730 Auckland buses have been fitted with GPS and more than 180 electronic display boards have been placed throughout the city.
Mr Baxter says until now Greater Wellington regional council has had other priorities. "We have been buying new trains and new trolley buses - we've been focussing on that."
However, he says that because Wellington is introducing the system later than other cities, it will be 'state-of-the-art' and information will be also be available on the Internet and by cell phones, something not available in Christchurch or Auckland.
Tenders to set up and run the system will be issued later this year and Mr Baxter says it will be trialled early in 2010, then progressively rolled out later that year.
"It would start maybe in Wellington, then Hutt Valley, then Porirua - not necessarily in that order. It might better to start with a smaller area.
"We do need to do it so that all the buses in one area are on the system at once."
Eastbourne ferries and cable car will not be included in the system because they largely run to schedule, he says.
"The ferries and cable car don't get caught with traffic the same way that buses do," Mr Baxter says.
© 2008 Fairfax New Zealand Limited.
The Wellingtonian
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