It pays to display

The main bus stop shelters in Plymouth usually have a large display case for the bus operators to display their timetables for the travelling public. These displays are nice and large and where there are few routes, offer the operator a lot of space to sell their services. Lets have a look and see how the two main operators use this space at stand 1, Derriford Hospital.

Note the only the one service uses this stop so the actual timetable, or rather the departure list only takes up a small amount of space. The rest has been used to the max with large posters in a fairly consistent design, selling the large range of tickets which are available. Compare this with…

First actually need more space to display their departures as more services use this stop but what a wasted opportunity with all that blank space. A couple of posters saying where you can get more information and buy tickets bit that is all.

To be fair to First I feel that their departure list is a lot better than the one Citybus offer:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The First departure list is clearer and easier to use especially where more than one route is listed as the route numbers appear in different colours. The biggest complain I have on the Citybus version is the lack of travel time information. From this bus stop you can pretty much use First to see how long it takes to get to town as they both follow the same route, but I often get buses from Derriford to Mutley Plain, served by quite a few buses on several different routes. If I have an ide of how long each route takes to get to Mutley I can make an informed choice of what bus to catch. Do I take one which goes around the houses but leaves 10 mins earlier or wait for the direct one. If the long way round only adds 10 mins to the journey time I might as well catch it. Of course full timetables would be the preferred option any day. There is enough space to display both a departure list and a full timetable for each route.

Royal Parade offers a similar contrast:

Citybus offer a network map and some basic fare information for their one route (50) while once again First give us a lot of empty space.

Of course the Plymouth passenger does not just have the timetable display case at their disposal. Oh no. Many (actually not that many) have real time departure information displays. The day I took these photos Derriford was offering:

while Royal Parade offered us a little bit more...

Sadly all to typical these days as the real time displays are often broken. However all is not lost for the technically savvy passenger with access to a mobile phone as you can use the Traveline service and text the bus stop number to Traveline as helpfully displayed at the bottom right of each timetable display case...

Of course it would help if the bus stop number was indeed printed in the box! To be fair the code is printed on many of the newer bus top flags as seen on this nice clear display on the left but many bus stops do not have this so you wont know the code.

There are other options of course. There are some great little apps which offer timetable info. one of which I use all the time and will feature in a post in the near future but even that only offers timetabled information as real time information hasn't been available for ages. This applies to the Traveline service as well.

I assume that's the city council’s side of things rather than the bus operators but it does appear that the council are no longer interested. I guess its an outside contractor that provides the service so presumably there is an agreed level of service which should be provided which presumably the council should be insisting is met. Am I presuming too much?

As always you thoughts on this are welcome, especially if anyone does know what is going on with Real Time Information and why its just not happening?

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Bloggers

• What's all this I hear you say - well it's a little something extra that isn't strictly Plymouth but maybe has a connection to the City, & more importantly offers you a short guide to a day trip out for the family without having to spend a fortune & seeing for yourselves the living history that surrounds us in all it's splendor Hidden Plymouth
• adamant the the new Partnership deal would bring significant improvements all-round and "many of the things that you point out will be resolved as we progress with a positive attitude of working together". Really? Public Transport Experience
• The latest salvo in the Battle for Southampton launches in earnest today. First ups the 7s (Southampton to Townhill Park) from every 10 to every 7½ minutes. And it starts its new hourly bus service 11, to Hythe. Omnibuses
• Welcome to the first of Hidden Plymouth Excursions, & a nice car journey that takes us to Dartmoor for a popular destination for Plymothians to discover - Wistman's Wood. Hidden Plymouth
• Everyone who talks about transit in Hong Kong seems to talk about the MTR subway system. Yes, it's sleek, and clean, and massive in its capacity, and beautiful in many other respects. But as someone who looks to actual network outcomes, I remain struck by its lack of self-connectedness. Human Transit
• Where once you went to a retail park for something specific, you can now get, often, all you would have gone to town for. And, of course, the retail park is characterised by free parking and little alternative means of getting there. Omnibuses

Playing with Placr

I have had a chance to play with the new mobile 'app' as launched for Plymouth Citybus:
First you get to choose your local operator...

You can then select Routes and then select the route number (or search by route number). For some reason the screen shot would not work at this point, but its very straight forward and clear.

The one unique feature is the 'activity' view which simply gives a list of the relevant Twitter feeds for this route. This is so you can see the latest news about how this route is running. This is only as useful as the tweets themselves. The screen shot for the 50 demonstrates the shortcomings of this. The top two entries fare from 2 days ago and the others are a month ago. There have been a lot more relevant tweets especially about the almost daily diversions around the Cattedown area. Clearly not many of these tweets actually mention the 50 by number. "All buses diverted via Gdynia Way" wont show up on this view. Hopefully now that this app is live the Twitter feed will be updated more frequently and make sure all route numbers are mentioned. Citybus could look to sister company Southern Vectis for their detailed reports when specific journeys are delayed through breakdowns etc.


To get to the timetable view you select the direction and the day of operation. This is important as it seems the app can tell the time but not the day of operation.

 

When you select your stop from the list it tells you the next bus from that stop. This is where its important you selected the right day timetable on the previous step.

I have circled the line which I feel explains why this app isn't quite the app it should be. No access to live data. This is a real shame as its the big missing link in this whole app. Real time information in Plymouth has never managed to live up to the initial promises made all those years ago. The Twitter feed is a nice idea but will never fill the gap of real time information.

The maps in the app come from OpenStreetMap and are pretty clear. They are not as detailed as Google Maps but are more than adequate for the job in hand.
As well as the search by route number you can search by bus stop. This is where mobile smart phones work so well as they will usually know your location. On my PC it tells me the nearest stop is Royal Parade! The mobile correctly offers me the correct stops. It tells you the next buses to depart (or arrive) at this stop.



if you select a listed departure you get the full journey displayed as above.

Is it useful? Up to a point I would say yes. Its certainly easier than trying to view timetables on the Citybus web site, especially on your mobile. If they can get real time access then it would be a very useful app. My own route, the 50, is really suffering from late running due to all the East End roadworks and the congestion zone that is Derriford Hospital. Knowing that the bus is actually on its way and will arrive in a few mins makes it easier to plan which bus to catch and which stop to use. At the moment I use the text service which costs 20p. I only use it when its pouring down with rain as we have no shelter at our stop so I like to leave it till the last minute if I can. This is useful if you know the bus stop code, but many stops dont actually display the code anywhere.

It seems that Placr are also hoping that passengers will also add to the twitter stream from within the app.

“You can also find out live information from a bus operator and other passengers in the activity stream. You can contribute to this activity stream by posting a tweet for a bus route or stop to start a conversation with others. Feel free to just say hi and be sociable, but we're also looking for comments on the bus service, compliments to the bus driver, or reports of long term or short term issues”

If you use the comment link within the app it looks like it will be picked up and appear in the Twitter stream for others to view. I will have to test this myself to see if it works!

The last word to Placr:

placr.mobi is in early testing. We have a few glitches to iron out still. We'll be making some improvements over the coming months. Thank you for getting in on the action early. We hope you like it!

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Elsewhere on the net

• With thanks to those who voted in the Omnibuses blog survey for the best bus livery we’re now able to reveal the result. Omnibuses
• Wickham will add Go South Coast to his current responsibilities at Plymouth Citybus. Dorset Bus Blog
• The Green Era # 1 TGP Photos Unlimited

Unreal Time Info

I normally catch the same buses at roughly the same time each day on nice frequent bus routes so don't often need to use the new RTP Info system. However, yesterday evening I was at a friends house picking up my son who had stayed for tea. I was keen to get him home and we knew that the bus was due at 6:58 (47) and there wasn't going to be another one for an hour. If we missed it we would have to walk to the Ski Lodge and hope to catch a 50, assuming there was one. I was cutting it a bit fine to get to the bus stop on time but we would have seen it if we had just missed it.

At about 7:10 I thought we had missed it. I noticed that this was one of the new bus stops with the text code - great! Sure enough a few seconds later I had confirmation that the next bus was indeed due at 8pm - we had missed the bus. I was a bit cross it had seemingly been early but accepted the fact that we were not at the bus stop on time anyway so it was our fault. I then began to explain to my young son that we would have to walk a bit. He wasn't too happy and wanted to wait for a bit 'just in case' the next one was early! I managed to get him to agree to wait for 20 more cars to drive passed - and then we would start walking. Just 5 cars went by and then the 47 appeared - over ten minutes late!

I wasn't angry that the bus was late - this is Plymouth, traffic is bad, buses often run late. I was angry that if I had started walking I would probably have missed it as there is a section of the route where we would not have been able to flag it down.  I know that some of the older buses don't have the full RTP trackers fitted but this was one of last years Enviros having a break from the 34s. I thought the whole point of the RTP system was to show the next bus, and highlight if the buses are running late so you can make an informed choice on what to do. This was the first time I had used it at another bus stop other than my own local stops (mostly for testing!). As more of the new style bus stops spring up with the text code then more passengers will try the system. Misleading info is almost worse than no info at all.

Original photo by PowerUpMobile (Creative commons)

RTP Update

Just a quickie update to my post on 1st April (not the April fool one!)

The Taxifast part of the Northern Connect is being added to the RTP system and should be live on Monday. It wont be the full live service as the cabs dont carry the live tracking equipment but at least the time tables will appear.

Thanks to the Transport Dept at the City Council for letting me know. (By pure coincidence I also ended up sharing a cab home tonight with the gentleman who sent me the email - nice to meet you!)

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Also updated today:

Real Time v Real Life

Its 11:30 and my wife needs to get a bus into town for a meal and is worried that the buses might be running late. Not a problem anymore I thought - Real Time Information is available - and its working this morning! It also gave me the opportunity to try the online display against real life action at the bus stop...

We can already see that bus number 1 will arrive after bus number 2! Pitty for passengers who have been waiting for the 11:35 this morning - its very cold out there!

Bus number 1 seems to have caught up a bit and is now due at the same time as number 2.

Bus number 1 really is in a hurry! its found another five minutes in the last 2 minutes

So its now due and my wife is at the bus stop knowing that the bus is due now.

11:49 and the bus arrives. It was the only one that appeared at the bus stop so i can only assume that one of them cut across the top and left out Keswick altogether. This does make sense as there is no point in both buses following each other down the hill. My wife informed me this bus was almost empty so it must have been following the earlier one.

A few minutes later and both buses are still showing as being due.

A few minutes later I have just seen the 46 go up the hill. It is indeed a non-low floor bus. The Real time display though shows the bus as being due in two minutes...

It does seem that the service is pretty accurate as long as you dont leave it down to the last couple of minutes. Im just the sort of passenger who would see the next bus due in 2 mins and then go to the bus stop as its less than one min walk from my house. The service would though have saved waiting for the 11:35 as it clearly wasnt going to get here at that time.

Just one final note - the bus stop information handily gives details of the facilities at each stop with Keswick being shown as having a shelter but not a raised kerb or a seat. Well actually it does have a raised kerb - and it does have a kind of seat - one of those horrible two bar seats ideal for pensioners with lots of padding but no good for me!

Real Time review Part Two

After my first attempt I tried again a short while later and got back into the web site. This time I tried something different

and tried By Service

and hit the Search button

This time I will look for buses from Derriford to the City Centre, so I select the bottom option and then click Use Service...

The interesting thing I notice here is that the bus stop I want is called 'Research Way'. I never knew that the road into the Tamar Science Park was called that until I looked it up in Google Maps earlier this afternoon. This may explain why I had a job finding the bus stop last night. Its easier finding bus stops in this system if you know what the council have decided to call it! Anyway... lets use this stop

Finally I get to the useful information that I wanted in the first place!

The map is correct - that is the stop I wanted all along. I can change the number of buses I want to check on by using the Lines Displayed option if I want to.

Now according to the City Council Help section the display in black box simulates what would appear on the real time display at the bus stop - if it had one. According to the council Firstly, a bus on the real time system which is less than 20 minutes away will show its departure time as a countdown in minutes. If the bus is more than 20 minutes away or not on the real time system. As I type this up, the bus shown as due at 21:14 has just passed my house - and it was a non low floor Dart. I guess from the help text it means that this bus did not have real time monitoring equipment fitted as otherwise it would have displayed the number of minutes left. Also I note that the next bus is displayed in minutes even though the departure is more than 20 minutes away.

One good feature is the 'book mark this page' which adds a book mark to your Explorer which means you can go straight to the bus stop you want. I now have the Tamar Science Park bus stop (Research Way as I am supposed to call it) set up on my PC at work. At home I now have the local stops on Keswick crescent in both directions. This is a real time saver and could be made more obvious on the web site as a feature.

I have also tried the text sms service when I found out the bus stop code for Research Way and it was fairly accurate. It did not show the bus I caught - but then it was a duplicate service so I guess that's fair enough really. Also, as the first stop after Derriford Hospital - itself one of the major bottle necks, a bus could well be shown as leaving on time, and take ten minutes trying to leave the site!

Conclusion (at last!)

All in all this has a lot of potential once things have settled down. Even tonight where I have at last managed to get some information out, the system has errored out three times. Once you get a location set up on your computer and saved then your next bus is indeed just one click away. Getting that initial bus stop set up can be a real pain if you dont know what the council have decided to call the bus stop.

Its a real shame that the council have decided to make the whole web site to fit the same dull design as the rest of the city council site. It would make much more sense to go for a brighter, easier design just for this service and really make a useful web site that could easily incorporate decent maps and other useful information. Less corporate image - more design and functionality.

The poor mapping is a real hindrance though. As an avid user of both Google Maps and Microsoft etc I am used to decent well produced maps that can be moved around and zoomed in and out of to find your location. It seems that the council, like many others is stuck with what looks like the Ordanance Survey mapping service which is light years behind its rivals and a lot more restrictive. The fact that as tax payers we are all paying for this service and yet cant make use of it is a whole issue on its own (not for this blog!) Many councils are cutting loose and starting to go with Google and the others.

With this step, and just a bit of effort by the designers this web service could be a really useful tool to both serve the bus passengers and promote the local services.

Real Time Review Part One

Bus passengers in Plymouth can now receive up-to-the-minute bus times and information on their mobile phones and computers.

At least that is the claim in This is Plymouth today...

Well I had to try the online version first. www.checkthatbus.plymouth.gov.uk

So lets try to find buses from my place of work.

Search by location button brings up this screen

 

I try the post code search first PL6 8BX

Oh dear! First impressions are not good - I look through all 5 pages returned in this search and none of them are anywhere near where I work.

Thats better, at least I can select the correct location although the screen design is not that clear. To check its correct I select the View on Map option.

Oh dear (again!) Plymouth City Council sadly dont use Google Maps or any other decent service and instead we get this rather poor map. Not that good to look at, and not that easy to use. The zoom controls didnt work and unlike Google (or most others) you cant just drag the map around to get to the correct location. The biggest issue with this map though is quite simple. You cant see Tamar Science Park on this map - as its not actually pointing to the correct location. Because you cant drag the map its not easy to move it to the correct location either. When there are so many really good free mapping services out there its a real shame to see the council stuck with this. They are probably stuck with it and paying a fortune on it as well!

So back to the search by location and try again and this time I use the 'Use this location' button to select the bus stop right outside the Tamar Science Park.

Now this should give me the correct bus stop right outside Tamar Science park, but I have looked through three pages of results - and its not listed there. The stops are all at the Asda end of Estover - pretty much where the map was pointing to! Not good for me.

I go back to the main search page (screenshot 4 above) and this time try the second entry 'Tamar Science Park' - the one with no address details. Maybe thats the one.

Err no! I did try to see if another of the search options work but now I just get this...

I did try the text service - but the bus stop outside Tamar Science Park doesn't have a number on it. (or a time table, shelter, or light either)

I have now tried again and got back into the service. A postcode search on my home postcode was also complete rubbish so I try typing 'Keswick' into the search.

Well after hanging around for five minutes it gives up and I get the same error message.

This posting may sound critical - and to be fair it is. It is early days though and I hope it will improve quickly. It will be of use to me in the morning as relying on the 50 to get me to work it would be nice to know I don’t need to stand out in the rain with no shelter as the bus is running ten minutes late - a regular occurrence (to be fair the bus does have to come through Marsh Mills before it gets to me - that's where it seems to be held up which isn't Citybus fault.)

TO BE CONTINUED...