Bus users in London are being promised more ways to access information on routes and bus arrivals, including via mobile phone and internet tools.
Transport for London has awarded three contracts to telent, ACIS and Trueform to develop mobile and web-based information, as well as oversee the roll out of new Countdown signs.
Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, promised passengers “will be able to find out exactly when their bus is due to arrive at their stop before they have even stepped outside their front door.”
London Buses’ Clare Kavanagh says the new service “builds on the success of iBus”, the information and vehicle location system initiated under former Mayor Ken Livingstone and recently completed.
Tim says
I wish they would have some of the countdown signs in more sensible places.
Vauxhall bus station is hugh, yet doesn’t have any. But go two stops and suddenly a minor stop has one.
TawkinSenz says
The countdown signs were great – until I discovered how inaccurate they actually are. If they could get the system working properly they would be a great addition to travel info.
Unfortunately like most things in Britain the job was done on the cheap and the result is a partially working service which only succeeds in frustrating the users when it frequently fails to deliver.
By the way this little ditty from Boris is impossible – the man clearly is misguided.
Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, promised passengers “will be able to find out exactly when their bus is due to arrive at their stop before they have even stepped outside their front door.”
So how does the countdown system allow for heavy or light traffic then? It can only register the position of the bus and not it’s expected journey time to your location.
I mean they can’t even get it right for the tubes (I’ve timed it) where there is no traffic – so how on earth can Boris achieve this?
Please, please, please someone rid me of this bungling charlatan. Are people so thick thay fall for this nonsense?
Come of City hall – someone point this out to the great blond buffoon.
Tom says
“Unfortunately like most things in Britain the job was done on the cheap and the result is a partially working service which only succeeds in frustrating the users when it frequently fails to deliver.”
Quite, that’s why iBus was introduced starting in 2005 – it’s much better than Countdown ever was, and was recently completed across the fleet, enabling this next phase of using the information from it to help the public. It does indeed make it possible to see when the next bus is coming before you leave, although on many routes this is irrelevant as the likelihood is you’ll miss the next bus if you hang about on the net looking it up, they’re so frequent. Unless Boris has plans for the frequency of course…
So, a good idea. Unfortunately it’s not Boris’s idea.
http://www.alwaystouchout.com/project/96