Yahoo Finance UK Government announces £4m to overhaul rural bus systems
Rural bus services across the UK are set to be overhauled by a new £4m ($5.3m) digital system, the government has announced.
According to the Department for Transport (DfT), the system will allow app developers to utilise data from GPS trackers, which are already fitted to 97% of buses, to provide information about times, locations and fares.
These services, which are already available in some major cities, will give people in rural areas the ability to plan their journeys more easily, it added.
This new funding is part of the department’s Future of Mobility strategy, which examines how people will use transport in the future and how new technology can make journeys better.
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Research shows one of the barriers to young people using buses is not having information readily available on their phones. But with bus times and fares “at their fingertips,” uncertainty will be cut out of bus travel, the DfT said.
The drive towards improved and accessible data for bus services across England is the first step in cutting the barriers to public bus use.
The government hopes this will “revolutionise bus travel incentivising customers to move away from personal vehicle use.
There may also be a shift to ‘on-demand’ bus travel – already available in Liverpool where it is run by ArrivaClick. Routes are not fixed, determined by where passengers want to go within an area between the city centre and John Lennon Airport. These services are driven by data and computer-based algorithms.
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Buses minister Nusrat Ghani said: “People expect to turn up to a bus stop knowing when their next service will arrive, particularly in rural areas.
“We’re investing in systems to make it easier for people to find out where their bus is, how much it will cost and how long it will take. This will save the time people waste waiting, give more people certainty over services and help increase passenger numbers.”
