Public Transport Apps

[ezekial]

I think those screens have been there for some time (installed in connection with the Spring Hill loop IIRC).  Was it one of the loop buses?

Just an ordinary bus (T 20xx it was) doing the 412

[James]

Just an ordinary bus (T 20xx it was) doing the 412

Ah - all the T20xx buses are ex-CitySights buses, so the screen up the top is a relic from their preious use, not to do with real-time info.

[ezekial]

Ah - all the T20xx buses are ex-CitySights buses, so the screen up the top is a relic from their preious use, not to do with real-time info.

Those lucky tourists! - I had no idea about that

[ozbob]

MyTransLink app

--> http://translink.com.au/about-translink/connect-with-translink/mytranslink

Introducing MyTransLink! Available free from the App Store and Google Play

MyTransLink puts bus, train, ferry and tram information in the palm of your hand with customisable features so you'll always get the updates that matter to you.

Easy to use features include:

    My Stops – no need for a paper timetable anymore. Simply save your usual stops to My Stops for quick and easy access to service information and times.
    Alerts – just select your end stop, and you'll receive an alert around 400 metres before you get there.
    My Services – you'll know exactly when to go with the latest service or disruption information.

More >> http://translink.com.au/about-translink/connect-with-translink/mytranslink

MyTransLink app conditions of use

http://translink.com.au/about-translink/connect-with-translink/mytranslink/conditions-of-use

[ozbob]

Acting Minister for Transport and Main Roads
The Honourable Andrew Powell

Real-time technology for Sunshine Coast buses

Sunshine Coast passengers can track the next bus from the palm of their hand with the Newman LNP Government's roll out of real-time info starting on the Sunshine Coast today.

Acting Transport and Main Roads Minister Andrew Powell said the new technology was one of the biggest changes to public transport technology since smart card ticketing in 2008.

Passengers can visit the TransLink website or the MyTransLink app to see when their bus is due to depart their stop," Mr Powell said

"We've made public transport more frequent, reliable and affordable and now the Newman LNP Government is delivering 21st century travel on the Sunshine Coast.

"At the swipe of a touchscreen, passengers can now check if they've got time for another coffee before they head off to the bus stop.

"Our strong plan for public transport is making travel more convenient than ever before – ensuring Queenslanders can spend more time doing what they want, instead of waiting for the next bus."

GPS technology shows up-to-the-minute departure times of exactly where the bus is, with information updated every 30 seconds or better.

Assistant Minister for Public Transport Steve Minnikin said real-time technology has the ability to transform the way people use public transport and is easy to access.

"To coincide with the launch of the new technology, TransLink developed a new app available to download free from the App Store and Google Play for iOS and Android users," Mr Minnikin said.

"Real-time data is also available to third-party app developers as part of the Queensland Government's Open Data initiative and I look forward to seeing what exciting and innovative apps might be developed as a result."

Real time technology was delivered on the Sunshine Coast with the support of the local council.

Sunshine Coast Council Transport Portfolio Councillor Rick Baberowski said the new real-time system was a big change in the public transport service on the Sunshine Coast.

"We will wonder how we did without it. It's the start of new era of seriously useful information that can make the difference between choosing to use a bus rather than your car," he said.

Passengers travelling on Brisbane Transport buses and Brisbane City Council ferries will be the next to benefit from real-time information, with all other operators to follow by early-2015.

For more information about real-time or about the MyTransLink app, visit http://translink.com.au/ or call 13 12 30, anytime.

[ENDS] 22 December 2014

[ozbob]

[dancingmongoose]

Pity no windows phone app

[dwb]

The mobile website still does many of the same things... The bit that has been missing is the bus locations!

[BrizCommuter]

Pity no windows phone app

Well if people buy a phone with an OS that has a poor number of apps and low market coverage, then they have to expect that certain apps will not be available.

[dancingmongoose]

That's a rather obnoxious comment, less does not equal poor, and the only reason there is less is that it is newer than the others. Not providing one is just narrow minded

[pandmaster]

That's a rather obnoxious comment, less does not equal poor, and the only reason there is less is that it is newer than the others. Not providing one is just narrow minded

Perhaps it is uneconomical at this point due to the number of Windows Phone users in SEQ.

[James]

With all due respect DM, BrizCommuter is right. Apps would have been designed for OS's with maximum coverage. Windows phones are very uncommon - I only know one or two people who own them out of hundreds of phone users. Well behind iOS and Android.

[BrizCommuter]

That's a rather obnoxious comment, less does not equal poor, and the only reason there is less is that it is newer than the others. Not providing one is just narrow minded

It's not obnoxious, it's a fact.

For a free app with no return on investment to TransLink, it is not cost effective to spend money on programming an app for an OS used by very few people.

[dancingmongoose]

Its not cost effective to make a free app with no monetization period so what's your point? By that logic we should just leave out the Doomben line.

[Stillwater]

SC Daily is asking why the SC Council paid $100,000 for the roll-out of the app first on the Sunshine Coast when it is being made available in other council areas free of charge in 3-4 weeks.  Story and video:

http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/trial-of-bus-app-costs-ratepayers-100000/2493385/

[bcasey]

SC Daily is asking why the SC Council paid $100,000 for the roll-out of the app first on the Sunshine Coast when it is being made available in other council areas free of charge in 3-4 weeks.  Story and video:

http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/trial-of-bus-app-costs-ratepayers-100000/2493385/

Was the $100,000 used for the real-time information, or for the development of the app? The sunshine coast buses had the real-time DCU's installed first and were the ones involved in the real-time feed beta test that was run earlier this month. From my understanding, this is what the $100,000 would have been used for, and I think it was money well spent.

The $2 million spent on this version of the real-time system is a bargain compared to what they probably would have paid to have the previous system, which was installed on the CityGlider and Logan buses, rolled out to all the buses on the network. In the current financial and political climate, it probably would never have happened, or at least taken a lot longer to be rolled out. While I still have reservations about how good the data will be from this new system, some real-time data is better than no real-time data.

If the $100,000 was solely for the development of the app, then I think Translink got ripped off. I've seen more fully-featured and better looking apps developed by students while I was working at QUT. In my opinion, Translink (and any transit agency for that matter) shouldn't be in the app development business, they should be more focused on making sure the data they provide is as accurate and timely as possible, and let 3rd party developers produce the apps that consume this data.

[SurfRail]

It wouldn't be the app, it would be a contribution to the rollout of the new machines on buses and therefore preferential access to the data (ie before the other regions) for locals.

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> New MyTranslink app allows users to track public transport in real-time

[ozbob]

SEQ Real-time info is here

--> http://translink.com.au/travel-information/service-notices/25611/details

[BrizCommuter]

Not a bad app, and will be considerably better when real time info is available.
It will bump the mediocre Go Brisbane off my iPhone front screen.

[pangwen]

Another benefit of the new real-time system is that, with all buses connected with 3G, tap-on and tap-off data are now uploaded much quicker than before I've logged on to the go Card system within minutes of hopping off a bus (which was at least another half hour from the depot or terminus), and the trip information was already online. Bus trip data used to take hours (if not days) to show on the go Card website.

[ozbob]

Media Statements
Acting Minister for Transport and Main Roads
The Honourable Andrew Powell
Monday, December 22, 2014

Real-time technology for Sunshine Coast buses

Sunshine Coast passengers can track the next bus from the palm of their hand with the Newman LNP Government's roll out of real-time info starting on the Sunshine Coast today.

Acting Transport and Main Roads Minister Andrew Powell said the new technology was one of the biggest changes to public transport technology since smart card ticketing in 2008.

Passengers can visit the TransLink website or the MyTransLink app to see when their bus is due to depart their stop," Mr Powell said

"We've made public transport more frequent, reliable and affordable and now the Newman LNP Government is delivering 21st century travel on the Sunshine Coast.

"At the swipe of a touchscreen, passengers can now check if they've got time for another coffee before they head off to the bus stop.

"Our strong plan for public transport is making travel more convenient than ever before – ensuring Queenslanders can spend more time doing what they want, instead of waiting for the next bus."

GPS technology shows up-to-the-minute departure times of exactly where the bus is, with information updated every 30 seconds or better.

Assistant Minister for Public Transport Steve Minnikin said real-time technology has the ability to transform the way people use public transport and is easy to access.

"To coincide with the launch of the new technology, TransLink developed a new app available to download free from the App Store and Google Play for iOS and Android users," Mr Minnikin said.

"Real-time data is also available to third-party app developers as part of the Queensland Government's Open Data initiative and I look forward to seeing what exciting and innovative apps might be developed as a result."

Real time technology was delivered on the Sunshine Coast with the support of the local council.

Sunshine Coast Council Transport Portfolio Councillor Rick Baberowski said the new real-time system was a big change in the public transport service on the Sunshine Coast.

"We will wonder how we did without it. It's the start of new era of seriously useful information that can make the difference between choosing to use a bus rather than your car," he said.

Passengers travelling on Brisbane Transport buses and Brisbane City Council ferries will be the next to benefit from real-time information, with all other operators to follow by early-2015.

For more information about real-time or about the MyTransLink app, visit http://translink.com.au/ (external site) or call 13 12 30, anytime.

[dwb]

And yet when I asked Translink if the busway station screens will have the live info they said it's early days (ie not sure/no answer/no comment).

I don't see what possible reason they could have not to know or not to want to say, it's not exactly an "announceable".

[SurfRail]

There is a tender out somewhere for the replacement of a bunch of PIDS in a number of places off the rail network in specific places (which I believe included the screens up as part of the TripTracker trial throughout Logan).  One would hope the contractors will need to supply equipment which can plug into the feed from TransLink's real-time data.

[dwb]

Go Brisbane? Lol! Try Next There, Triptastic or even vTranit

[bcasey]

I asked a few questions on the google groups developers forum for Translink Data yesterday, specifically to do with some pieces of data that haven't been included with the real-time feed to date, but are catered for in the GTFS-realtime spec. They are the following:

1) The inclusion of actual arrival/departure times in the recent past. Currently the real-time feed only provides predictions of arrival/departure times in the near future. At the moment, its 2 hours, although they also put out another notice on the forum today that they are reducing that to 1 hour, which I think is reasonable, since a lot can happen in 2 hours that will make the prediction very inaccurate.

2) The inclusion of real-time occupancy information, aggregated from the go-card data. The GTFS real-time spec currently has an experimental field (i.e. not yet formally in the spec) called occupancy status, which can contain a number of different values, such as Empty, Many_Seats_Available, Full, etc. I asked if some kind of real-time occupancy information could be provided, be it this occupancy status, or a precise figure of how many people are on board, along with the capacity.

3) The inclusion of a vehicle label that could be used to physically identify the vehicle along with the vehicle ID that is currently provided. The vehicle ID is only really useful to developers to be able to track the vehicle within their backend process, but doesn't have any relation to the actual vehicle that could be used to identify it physically (I suspect the ID would be based on the DCU, so I imagine if it has to be replaced, the vehicle would have a new ID with the new DCU). The GTFS-realtime spec does allow for additional fields to be provided, such as a label or license plate, which could then be used by a passenger to identify the vehicle, or could be used by apps using information from websites like http://www.btbuses.info/ or http://fleetlists.busaustralia.com/ to obtain details about the bus, and provide extra functionality to their users.

The translink team was very quick to respond, and provided the following answers to my questions this morning:

1) There are currently no plans to publish historical/actual times in the GTFS real-time feed as the feeds purpose is to provide forward predictions for customers

2) Regarding the experimental occupancy-status field, we cannot populate this at the moment as the raw information is not being fed into TransLink in real time. There is immense value in providing this information and it will be considered as a future enhancement.

3) Vehicle number support via the GTFS RT 'label' field has been added today and will appear in the production GTFS real-time feed in the next few weeks. Please note that the same vehicle ID/label is not unique and different operators within one GTFS region may utilize the same value.

I'm a little disappointed in the response to question 1. Not providing the recent historical information will make it more difficult for RBOT to use the data source as a way to obtain on-time running information. We could still use the last predictions seen for a stop/service as the arrival time, but it won't be as accurate as having the actual historical data. But I understand that their primary objective for the feed is to provide customers with more information in order to improve their experience, and to adjust their code to include this extra data may be a significant change to implement, particularly if the DCUs themselves aren't designed to send the actual arrival/departure event times in real-time.

The response to question 2 is promising, in that they understand the usefulness of that information to improve customer experience. Its a pity that the information isn't currently available in real-time though.

I'm happy with the response to question 3, its a pretty easy thing to provide, and should help app developers provide extra functionality. I was expecting that the labels would not be unique, I don't think that should be a huge issue.

[SurfRail]

^ On no. 3 - Mt Gravatt might be interesting seeing all of their vehicles are named (eg Jacko, Mulga, Diana etc).

There should be a common fleet numbering scheme for SEQ to make it easier to identify vehicles.

[red dragin]

Is the system capable of *your bus is here* output when it actually arrives? If it was, could you possibly grab the data generated at that point and compare the result against the timetable?

It might go a bit messy if buses don't show up at all, throwing out the entire day possibly. Though that could encourage them to then add the feature when the press gets a hold of the (albeit inaccurate) data.

It might get you your question 1 results.

[ezekial]

It seems there will be a gizmo on every vehicle by end of April, but when the info will be available to punters is less clear...
Article in Courier Mail today (16.03.15)
http://imgur.com/izO2XiJ

[James]

I seem to recall the 27th of January being noted as a launch date for real-time data in Brisbane on the TransLink website - but its obviously been removed since before that date or so. It was pretty much the only thing I was looking forward to about returning to Brisbane after spending time in Vancouver.

'Early 2015' is marked as the launch date - early 2015 is rapidly coming to an end or is almost over, depending on your definition of 'early'. The new machines have been around for a while on Toowong/Sherwood depot routes, and seem to have been on almost every bus. Should really be happening sooner rather than later - it would be helpful knowing the timetable online is accurate rather than a guide (like it is now).

[SurfRail]

It seems there will be a gizmo on every vehicle by end of April, but when the info will be available to punters is less clear...
Article in Courier Mail today (16.03.15)
http://imgur.com/izO2XiJ

Calling a snap election does tend to have a chilling effect on anything the executive arm of government does.

[ozbob]

It seems there will be a gizmo on every vehicle by end of April, but when the info will be available to punters is less clear...
Article in Courier Mail today (16.03.15)
http://imgur.com/izO2XiJ

^ thanks!

[bcasey]

Someone recently asked on the Open Data google groups forum what the timeframe for the rollout of real-time data would be. Translink gave the following reply:

Thanks for your realtime rollout enquiry.

We are currently in the final stages of testing. To date all buses have been fitted with the tracking technology and are reporting information. However as you can imagine with 2,500 buses we need to complete some robust testing before releasing information to the public.

TransLink will be publishing release dates in the near future, targeting completion by end of April/early May for both buses and ferries.

So if everything goes well, we might be seeing this data in about a month or so.

[ozbob]

^ Thanks   

[ozbob]

Real-time info update

>> http://translink.com.au/travel-information/service-notices/25611/details

Latest news:

Real-time information is now available for services in the Sunshine Coast, Moreton Bay (Northern) and Ipswich/Springfield (Western) regions. This means you can get up-to-the-minute service information on the following buses:
Sunbus (Sunshine Coast)    Hornibrook Bus Lines
Kangaroo Bus Lines    Thompson Bus services
Brisbane Bus Lines services    Bus Queensland Lockyer Valley
Park Ridge Transit    Westside Bus Company

TransLink is currently testing the system with Caboolture Bus Lines and Bribie Island Coaches. Real-time information will be made available for these services once the testing is complete.

[ozbob]

^ Working for the 524!  Hallelujah, fuking hallelujah!!   

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

11th April 2015

Real-time information improved

Greetings,

Some excellent news!

Real-time information is now available for bus services Sunshine Coast, Moreton Bay (Northern) and Ipswich/Springfield (Western) region.

See > http://translink.com.au/travel-information/service-notices/25611/details

This is very valuable for bus users in these regions as in general frequency of the services is not great.  So now users will be able to actually check in real time where the bus is relative to a user's bus stop.

Following bus operators are now real-time enabled:

Sunbus (Sunshine Coast)   
Hornibrook Bus Lines
Kangaroo Bus Lines   
Thompson Bus services
Brisbane Bus Lines services   
Bus Queensland Lockyer Valley
Park Ridge Transit   
Westside Bus Company

Best wishes
Robert

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track http://backontrack.org

[red dragin]

^ Working for the 524!  Hallelujah, fuking hallelujah!!   

MyTransLink is showing real time for Thompson as well.

[Golliwog]

^ Working for the 524!  Hallelujah, fuking hallelujah!!   

MyTransLink is showing real time for Thompson as well.

Brisbane Bus Lines has it too, looks like they made fake bus stops at most intersections for the 399 seeing as it's hail n' ride beyond Samford Village.

[ozbob]

http://translink.com.au/travel-information/service-notices/25611/details

Surfside    
GoldLinQ (trams)

now real time too ..