Originally published @ 9:11 pm, Mon 20th Dec 2010
Nottingham City Transport today formally received a new suite of offices at their headquarters that will unite the operations with a tracking system that show the progress of most of their buses on the city network.
From the end of January, most of the network will be actively managed using a technology whereby each vehicle is individually tracked and mapped against start of service entries made by the driver, in turn mapped against the database of service timings and bus stops.
News of other events, such as reports of lost property, are available to operators in e-mails.
Nottingham City Transport now carries more passengers on its buses, even after the new tram took the lions share of its trade to and from Bulwell.
Branding of buses, especially painting the whole front of buses on certain routes a distinct coulour, rationalisation of bus stops in the city centre, a re-organisation of traffic in the city centre to give priorties to buses, extended and extensive use of smart cards (way before the oyster card), integration of ticketing with the tram and even a form of joint ticket with a rival Trent-Barton, purchase of new vehicles, that now carry cctv and screens showing the next stops on a bus' journey, all leads to a pioneering service that wins respect and support from the local people. And largely in the public ownership of the people of Nottingham through the City Council.
Maybe a vindication of those who worry about the loss of wealth to the people through surplus value.
The next aim for the technology is to seek to improve reliability and customer assurance, especially trying to detect and tackle bunchng.
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