Moovit Joins Forces with UK Department for Transport to Help Riders Plan Journeys with Confidence
The Department for Transport is working closely with Moovit who has started accessing and using the Bus Open Data Service, a project standardising data from bus operators across the UK in order to help riders better plan their journeys.
Moovit, an Intel a company, a leading Mobility as a Service (MaaS) solutions provider and creator of the #1 urban mobility app, is announcing its collaboration with the UK Department for Transport to begin utilising the Bus Open Data Service (BODS), a central source of timetable, bus location, and fare data of every bus operator across England. Operators are now committed to openly publishing and storing transport information in BODS’ standard format, which will empower passengers with the most precise and updated bus information so they can plan their journeys with confidence, understand costs in advance, and ultimately save time and frustration.
Head of Passenger Experience (Buses and Taxis) at the Department for Transport, Meera Nayyar, said:This will significantly further the ability of BODS to digitally transform the delivery of bus services and, ultimately, the passenger experience. Moovit will help revolutionise the way in which the DfT, and other stakeholders, collect and analyse bus data, enabling us to identify network optimisations more easily and help us support operators in reporting their on-time performance statistics.
Public transport is the backbone of societal life and has significant social, economic, and environmental benefits. But, according to the Bus Passenger Survey by Transport Focus, UK ridership has been on the decline, preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, largely due to the lack of journey planning information available.
With Moovit’s assistance, the BODS pioneer project from the Department for Transport is standardising and openly publishing bus operator data so that passengers across England will be able to better plan journeys down to the minute, know how much their bus ride will cost in advance, and save time waiting for the bus. It will also enable developers to add BODS’ information into existing or new apps and products meant to provide riders all they need to more easily plan and ride efficient and accurate journeys.
Moovit, which has guided over 910 million users worldwide in getting around town effectively and conveniently, is leveraging its technical expertise to help guide the Department for Transport in making BODS information usable for Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platforms. Moovit is also working with local transport authorities of all sizes to integrate their BODS data into the Moovit app, providing passengers with precise journey planning, fares, disruptions data, and real-time arrival information.
UK Partnerships Manager at Moovit, Luke Redfern, said:Moovit and the Department for Transport share a vision of simplifying urban mobility for millions of UK residents. We are delighted to work at the forefront of the development of the world-leading BODS system with the Department for Transport, and bring confidence back to public transport riders as they navigate their journeys.
Moovit recently collaborated on a similar project with Transport for the North (TfN), the subnational transport body representing the North’s twenty local transport authorities, on TfN’s Open Data Hub. The open-source fares and disruptions data for developers, has enabled the essential workers riding North England’s public transport services with the tools they need to more easily plan and ride efficient, accurate, and safe journeys during a time when timetables consistently change. The Open Data Hub is an initiative of TfN’s £150m Integrated and Smart Travel programme.
Bus operators are legally required to provide timetable data by the end of 2020 and fare, ticket and location data by January 2021. The regulations aim to boost passenger confidence, as well as help keep fares down via greater transparency across different operators.
This article was originally published by Moovit.
