Poole Borough Council
Live Departures to Mobile SMS service
Poole Borough Council has maximised its existing RTI investment by deploying Kizoom's Live Departures to Mobile SMS service to deliver real-time information into the pockets of bus passengers.
The challenge
With its stunning natural harbour, bustling quay and beautiful beaches, Poole is a natural choice for visitors to Dorset's South Coast. This historic seaside town has a population of 140,000, swelling to an incredible 2.2 million in the tourist season. Whilst delivering healthy economic growth, this annual surge in visitors impacts heavily on the local transport infrastructure.
Bus travel in Poole has changed beyond recognition in the past thirty years. Passengers today board a luxury air-conditioned vehicle, experience better customer care and enjoy a vastly improved service. However, the gap between the onboard service and the perceived reliability of bus travel needed to be addressed to encourage passenger uptake and support Poole's drive to modal shift.
With burgeoning traffic congestion, tightening emissions regulations and ever limited parking, getting people to embrace public transport is a priority for most local authorities. Setting the bar high, the transport department of Poole Borough Council aims to have one in five journeys on a sustainable form of transport, which in the main means making bus travel an attractive and compelling proposition.
The solution
In the autumn of 2007, the Borough of Poole turned to Kizoom to implement its Live Departures to Mobile SMS service in partnership with Traveline. This simple, but revolutionary technology allows the Council to capitalise on its existing investment in real-time data feeds, harnessing it to deliver real-time information to any device, thereby putting control of the bus journey directly into the pockets of passengers.
How it works
Each bus stop is allocated a unique and clearly-marked seven-digit code on special glow-in-the-dark plaques. Passengers simply text this code to 84268; seconds later, they receive a message back listing the next three departures from that stop, and when they are due. There's also the option to include a specified bus number in the original message.
Codes have been put on 350 Poole bus stops, covering 55 individual services, operated by seven different bus companies. Kizoom developed the Live Departure to Mobile SMS service in partnership with Traveline, to unite both scheduled data and the real-time data feeds, for a fully comprehensive service providing information on all routes run by the local bus operators.
Liberating the travelling public
This easy-to-use system cuts the dependence on old-fashioned paper timetables and makes waiting at the bus stop a thing of the past. Passengers don't need to be at the bus stop to text, they can simply note down the stop code and send the message from any location; from the office to the beach - freeing people to elect when to travel and to no longer be at the mercy of 'the wait'!
An impressive 27,000 texts were sent by passengers in Poole in the first 12 months of the service. As testament to the popularity of the service, the bus stop in Arne Avenue, Parkstone, has been named the busiest stop in the UK by Traveline. In recognition of it registering over 1,000 text messages, the Council has given Arne Avenue 'golden bus stop' status, awarding it a new shelter for its dedicated patrons!
Nick Phillips, Accessibility Team Leader for Poole Borough Council is adamant that both local authorities and bus companies need to work together to make a focused effort to get people out of their cars, and onto public transport:
"Whilst bus operators have vastly improved the onboard passenger experience, waiting at bus stops can be cold, wet and singularly unappealing in isolated areas, particularly after dark.
"Even with improved services running at 10 or 15 minute frequencies, it still seems a long time to wait if you've just missed the bus or it's delayed in traffic. In rural areas with sparser services the problem is even more acute. However by checking first how the buses are running the wait at the stop is minimised and the whole bus journey product becomes far more marketable - even when compared with the convenience of the car on the drive. With Kizoom's intuitive Live Departures to Mobile SMS service, Poole's residents and visitors no longer face this problem; with a simple text, they are in control of their journeys before they even step outside.
"The system makes buses an easier and more convenient option for every day travel, helping contribute to modal shift. We hope the success of this first year will encourage more people to give it a go."
Promotion for Success
Recognising that the service would only be truly effective if it was well promoted, Poole devised a clever low-cost, high-impact marketing campaign. Distinctive mobile phone-shaped signs advertising the text code were placed at eye level at each stop. Marketing students from Bournemouth University were asked to design a theme for a major leaflet drop across the town. Entitled Cut out the Wait, eye-catching promotional leaflets were widely distributed through the town and displayed in public buildings. The service was officially launched with a creative photo-call for local press on Sandbanks Beach generating widespread local media coverage.
"The highly impressive uptake of Kizoom Live Departures to Mobile SMS in Poole perfectly demonstrates how valuable real-time travel information can be when delivered easily and conveniently direct to the travelling public.
"There is no doubt that awareness was significantly boosted by the promotional campaign; an inspired strategy by a progressive council and a champion of bus travel!" says Guy Wolfenden, Director of Products and Services, Kizoom.