On the 26 March, Buses Minister Nusrat Ghani announced the allocation of £4m for a platform which will provide passengers with location information about bus services. This will enable passengers to have more knowledge about bus arrivals in rural areas and reduce uncertainty which has been identified as one of the biggest factors dissuading young people from bus travel.
The platform allows app developers to use information from GPS trackers, which are fitted to 97% of buses, and help people in rural areas to navigate and plan their journeys more easily.
The funding comes as part of the push towards open and improved data and push bus travel towards mobility-as-a-service and on-demand bus travel which is already available in Liverpool through ArrivaClick.
As part of the Transforming cities fund, Derby and Nottingham, the North East, Portsmouth and Southampton will be receiving £2.5bn to develop bus priority traffic lights, to speed up bus journeys.
Nusrat Ghani said: “People expect to turn up to a bus stop knowing when their next service will arrive, particularly in rural areas. We’re investing in systems to make it easier for people to find out where their bus is, how much it will cost and how long it will take. This will save the time people waste waiting, give more people certainty over services and help increase passenger numbers.
“It could help revolutionise bus travel and move us one step closer to mobility-as-a-service and on-demand public transport systems.”
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