Nottingham Transport – Text messaging Bus Timetables

ATTAIN – Advanced Traffic and Travel Information system

http://www.dcm.ntu.ac.uk/RTTS/Projects/grr32468/attain.html

Advanced Traffic and Travel Information in NOTTINGHAM (UK)

http://www.doc.ntu.ac.uk/RTTS/Projects/grr32468/public.html

Public ‘Instructions’ Poster

Service provides general information on the Advanced Traffic and Travel Information (ATTAIN) system, instructions for its use and the explaination of the cost of the service to the users.

The ATTAIN system has been developed by the Intelligent Simulation and Modelling (ISM) group in the Department of Computing and Mathematics at the Nottingham Trent University (NTU) in collaboration with the Nottingham City Transport, Nottingham Traffic Control Centre, MIRA Ltd and Nottingham Scientific Limited. The reference bus-stop information was provided by the Nottingham City Council.

The ATTAIN system is essentially an automated text messaging system that responds to specific requests for bus time information. The provision of customised information prevents information overload while affording more thorough examination of alternatives that are pertinent to a specific journey. The requests are made by means of SMS text messages and the replies are provided in the same way. The requests for information must adhere to some simple rules to ensure that the messages are easily understood while the amount of text that needs to be entered is as small as possible. The generic format of the messages and the specific examples are given in the following section.

The ATTAIN system is being introduced in Nottingham in three stages:

Stage 1 – involves provision of the information service for the bus route 87 (City to Arnold) on the basis of ‘standard rate SMS messaging’. This means that the inquirers will pay only for messages requesting the information and will not be charged for the cost of the reply messages (typically 10-12p/message). This stage forms an integral part of the EPSRC funded research project.

Stage 2 – involves provision of the information service for ten bus routes – 2, 3, 4, 6, 25, 30, 48, 53, 80 and 87 – on the basis of ‘premium rate SMS messaging’. This means that the inquirers will pay for both the initial request for information message and the reply message (typically 20-25p/message).

Stage 3 – involves provision of information for all NCT bus routes in Nottingham with a possible extension to other public transport providers. This service will be provided also on the basis of ‘premium rate SMS messaging’.

This is all part of the Nottingham Trent University Mathematics Department Research Projects

http://www.doc.ntu.ac.uk/RTTS/

These are all tools to get an ‘Integrated Transport Policy’ off the ground. Us environmentalist ‘types’ care very much about all this. Not any one system is a solution, to get people out of cars, but, taken together, may abount to something. System been going for while now in Nottingham, but been very under – advertised.

All very well and good, but all the above is doing, is broadcasting the exististing timetable, that still might not be accurate description of movements [as ever !] . However, the following is done via satellites, and tells you ‘what is’ by real time measurement.

Now Leicestershire is giving the advances system a go …….

Satellites take the wait out of catching the bus

Martin Wainwright

Thursday October 10, 2002

The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,808712,00.html

The great British tradition of queueing at bus stops in all weathers for hours is being threatened by the No 4 service between Loughborough and Shepshed.

The 10 mile round trip in Leicestershire has become the first in the country to allow passengers to sit in their armchairs and wait to hear the precise time a bus will arrive at a stop, relayed as a text message to their phone.

“It’s extremely quick,” said Sarah Taylor, a passenger, in Loughborough yesterday, wanting to check if she had time to shop before the next bus. “I got the message back in 15 seconds saying the bus would be there in three minutes, and it was.”

The system, which the blue and yellow No 4 buses are try ing out, involves people making a 12p text call and using a sequence of six letters specific to “their bus stop”. This triggers the 15 second response, which uses a ground positioning satellite system carried by the buses to calculate actual arrival time to the nearest minute.

The technology, which updates the buses’ progress every few seconds, takes “no-wait” technology a step further than the timetables of some bus firms already given by text or phone. The system, if successful, will extend across Leicestershire, and include East Midlands airport shuttles.

Keith Shayshutt, managing director of the Midlands operator Kinchbus, running the trial in Leicestershire, said: “We’re the first to give people ‘real’ arrival times.”