Regular readers of this blog will know that I have been searching for any tools to enable users, operators and regulators of public tranport to be capable of collaboration on service design. I have taken to writing to software companies and university research departments setting out the problem and asking for their suggestions on how this can be achieved.
The international Trapeze Group has kindly informed me that their National Public Transport Database Manager software does allow playback of both real-time and scheduled data and so allows you to see where every vehicle goes so that 'what if' scenarios in route and schedules can be visualised.
Interestingly the NPTDM information sheet highlights exactly the point I am trying to make:
Working with other local authorities is the key to NPT Data Manager. You can share data with other authorities, improving your own service by seeing how neighbours’ services affect yours...However, their director of sales advises me that to use this tool we are talking in terms of "some tens of thousands (of pounds) for the product".
I have replied that tens of thousands of pounds would be out of the question for an individual town council or CTO but ensuring that communities have this capacity is in the national interest so I would lobby government to enable it. I see no reason either that the need for collaborative public transport design doesn’t apply to transport world-wide.
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