Tees Valley Combined Authority to roll out live bus tracking technology
Teesside bus passengers have been promised “bang up to date” information on services courtesy of new real-time displays being rolled out by the Tees Valley Combined Authority.
A meeting heard that while 93 such displays were already in use at bus stops, some were not properly functioning.
The authority’s infrastructure manager Tom Bryant said the current system in use was based on when services were timetabled, whereas the replacement displays would take advantage of tracking technology.
Mr Bryant said: “They are going to be replaced by bang up to date new displays that are genuinely real-time.”
The new displays have been ordered and are expected to be fully installed by the end of March next year.
There has been involvement in the project also from Tyne and Wear passenger transport executive Nexus and Durham County Council, to ensure compatibility for services that operate on a cross-boundary basis.
Some members of TVCA’s overview and scrutiny committee, which heard details of the scheme, asked whether more new displays to complement the 93 replacement ones might come on stream.
Mr Bryant said there were 5,000 bus stops across the Tees Valley and there needed to be a “value for money” case for specific locations, in terms of how heavily they were used in order to justify further investment.
However a “next phase” was being looked at.
Mr Bryant said the data being gathered was coordinated via an urban traffic management and control system currently based in Middlesbrough.
He also suggested the combined authority could develop its own mobile phone app – as many bus operators already have – in order to share the information contained on the screens.
However Councillor David Branson, a member of the committee, pointed out that many bus passengers were elderly and not all had mobile phones.
Committee chairman, Councillor Steve Nelson welcomed the new displays and said: “It is a great development and I am really looking forward to it coming in.”
Commercial transport operators and the TVCA – as the regional transport authority for Tees Valley – currently work together in a so-called enhanced partnership agreement, although powers exist in order to take the likes of decisions over fares and routes back under local control.
Bus service standards and reliability have previously been criticised by councillors who are co-opted onto the authority.
Last year Councillor Carl Quartermain, who has the highways and transport brief on Redcar and Cleveland Council, described an “unprecedented” level of complaints being received from the public.
He also criticised the state of some shelters and inadequate timetabling information within them.
Selected members of the overview and scrutiny committee at TVCA are currently undertaking a review looking at how bus and rail services can be better integrated, meanwhile.