How to unify LPT information on a regional website
One of the critical factors that is most strongly felt in management of mobility and collective use of public transport, relates to timetable information available for users on the services provided by Local Public Transport (LPT) companies and those provided by suburban transport companies. The companies provide information on their own lines through their company websites, or in published timetables. As a result, those needing to travel over areas served by more than one carrier are unable to obtain up-to-date information. This resulted in the need to obtain clear, up-to-date information from a combination of different carriers. The aim was to identify a Timetable Search system as a single, flexible and powerful tool for mobility, of great use not only when looking for a LPT line timetable, but also an essential tool for mobility within the entire regional area.
A system of this kind is at the root of a fundamental and innovative form of integration, that must combine an integrated ticketing system for issue, payment, validation of tickets and detection of passengers throughout the LPT system involved.
The Pluservice solution
The procedure set up collects the thousands of figures for routes and times provided by all the companies offering LPT services, and combines them to form a single, continually updated database, indicating the position of all bus stops and the times at which all the bus services pass them. A search algorithm indicates the optimum travel solution from among the thousands of available alternatives, which vary according to the date and time and the preferences expressed by the user (fewer changes or shorter distances to travel on foot). The solutions offered are displayed on an interactive map, which highlights the stops and the sections of the journey to be travelled on foot.
On the Timetable Information portal it is possible to request timetable information to reach a given destination, using one or more travel options, also using intermodal and multiple carrier combinations, and to identify the best route starting from information such as the stop, the town, and a point of particular interest.
The software has been designed with an innovative vision of the project, open to integration of timetable information and connections to significant commercial operators, tourist areas and beauty spots, religious centres, trade fairs and the like. The portal offers various search options, according to the facts at the disposal of the user himself: if both the place of departure and the destination are known, the system will provide a timetable of services directly. Alternatively, if the user knows the destination he wishes to reach but not the stops closest to his place of departure, he can search “by stop” so that the map will display all the stops and identify the address to be reached and the stop that is closest to it.
The system also allows searches to be made by points of interest, for example hospitals, chemists, historic monuments: this is because the portal is not merely a local public transport information system, but a genuine information service for citizens.
