Traveline started seven years ago. It's internet hit rate is growing well, though traditional telephone inquiries are dipping. It’s developed into a fairly sophisticated method of bus timetable information and it’s come a long way. But like any internet solution, it raises expectations and could improve. What next at Traveline?
1. Lo-call
National call rate is an annoyance to a significant number of people: why should they pay an 0871 premium when once they could phone their neighbourhood operator at local rate? Then, there are those on otherwise 'free' non-BT call plans that actually charge for 0870-type numbers but not 01 and 02s. Bus operators already pay per call received. Now that Traveline is established, would it be that much more if the number was lo-call?
2. Fare Information
Yes, this is complex and expensive. Yes, some Travelines do give maxima over the phone (e.g. day ticket prices). But if National Rail can do it for the complex fares structures on British rail, why not on the buses? And it’s part of the mix – people need times *and* fares. The issue here, of course, is that unlike bus times, there’s no legal requirement to make fares data collection easy.
3. Travel News
If Google can scrape the internet for searches, can Traveline do the same for travel news? Making it an automated process would improve efficiency. That might make Traveline a one-stop-shop for all bus-type travel. And it might bring scores more hits.
4. Widen Scope
Could Traveline adapt its software and its bus-related data to offer bespoke journey planning solutions? What about car sharing? This might take Traveline outside its original remit but it’s not a totally alien product. Another one-stop solution?
5. WAP
Not being sure whether WAP is the next big thing or whether it's had its day, it’s difficult to say whether Traveline should get into it. But mobile internet and phone-based browsing is here and it’s perhaps the logical next step from txt based information.
6. Electronic Registrations
These have been on the cards for a while and the trials currently in Scotland and Cambridge will indicate whether these are a successes but the possibilities of more seamless and therefore timely information at reduced cost seem logical. And it reduces the possibilities of human error.
7. Fuzziness
Not all Travelines operate a successful fuzzy search. Regional sites react differently to others in relation to typos and people genuinely not knowing how to spell their destinations.
8. Interfaces
Some regional Traveline web sites could do with a bit of a makeover. And some journey planners default to all modes when for many, searches by “ferry” and “tube” are less likely to be options. For the less regularly used modes, it’s better to opt in than have to have to opt out. This often makes no difference to the result but users are tempted to pause, think and uncheck.
Wednesday, 14 November 2007
Traveline: Where Next?
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7 comments:
As someone who works in a Traveline call centre - I do agree on most of these points, we are continually asked for fares. Rumours abound that we are going to be doing fares soon, but nothing official. TBH our crappy Atkins system (crappy is the mildest way I can describe it) struggles to cope with simple A-B journeys and often we have to break the journey down in to stages. It often throws up tortuous jouneys, yet chose the next bay at the bus station and it finds a direct route. We have about 10 services with missing timetables at the moment, Post Code look ups take 5 minutes per postcode! I wish they'd sort it out!
As for the number change - we have no idea why, the old one was easier to remember :)
The other big thing they could do is work with online maps. The Google Transit system would be a great extension of this service. Google Transit is indeed already up and working for 'Traveline South East' so maybe this is the start of a national roll out. the rather long link to the site is here - its certainly worth a look!
http://www.google.com/transit?ie=UTF8&ll=51.200000,-0.098877&spn=1.073924,2.186279
Travelines are very variable.
In my area we span two - one is very good indeed...All data is checked for accuracy by the bus companies before posting online (and companies are consulted about the best way to display data)...the results are professionally displayed with maps etc.
The other Traveline area is dfferent - there is no direct liaison with operators - in general they will only deal through Councils - if a bus company contacts them direct to point out errors they get (sometimes quite rudely), cold-shouldered...only the basic package is used (no mapping)...suffice it to say they are piss-poor in terms of results...
Entrusting the latter to provide accurate fares data fills me with horror...they can't/won't even combine joint-operators timetables on a co-ordinated headway...
Until travelines use a realistic internal penalty/weighting system for modal change, then sensible answers will be hard to come by in places...
At a site near me, a simple bus journey between a and b on a 10 minute headway route of about half hour duration simply isn't shown. ...instead an unrealistic change from bus to train, then later back from train to bus is proposed...
Clearly in reality, the penalties (both financial and peace of mind) mean that nobody will actually do this, and travel by public transport is actually discredited if not deterred...
People generally do not like connections or too many mode changes...it is just one more uncertainty which tends to make them lack confidence (particularly since VOSA will now penalise operators who wait more than five minutes for a connection)...this is not rocket science
I guess, like the people at VOSA, the people who designed the Traveline software never actually use public transport.
Ultimately I can only imagine that Traveline and Transport Direct will merge. I know Transport Direct has its problems; I certainly stick to Traveline SE for my planning, but ultimately I cannot see why a number of regional websites would continue while a national version exists. Hopefully the best of Traveline can be merged into Transport Direct. A timetable search feature would be a start!
It certainly helps when the staff at your "local" Traveline appreciate the bus industry and even know their area's geography. It means that when Traveline's computers throw up something that's odd, the operator will know it. Traveline areas are so huge that the chances of an operative having this vital local knowledge is quiteremote. Compare this to the situation pre-Traveline when you phoned your local bus garage for information.
Regardless of the journey planning capabilities, the bus timetables in themselves can be more useful than what you'd find from the operator's site. For a start, you can work out exactly where the bus goes ('Tube'-style maps currently favoured by Go-Ahead companies are useless).
Second, they can be more up to date. (e.g. Damory Coaches 387 timetable hosted by Wilts and Dorset site is out of date.)
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