ITEM CA12
CABINET
– 17 JANUARY 2006
REAL TIME
INFORMATION SYSTEM ON BUS ROUTES
Report by
Head of Transport
Introduction
- This report updates
members on progress towards implementation of a Real Time Information
(RTI) System on trial bus routes between Oxford and Kidlington/Bicester
within the context of the County Council’s long term Premium Routes
strategy, and recommends expanding the system across the County and
adding additional facilities.
- The report includes
an assessment of current RTI system performance, outputs from public
consultations and an analysis of future investment options for the period
of the next Local Transport Plan (LTP) for 2006-2011. A series of recommendations
are made based on a study undertaken by our term consultants Halcrow
and other survey work. The Executive Summary from Halcrow’s report is
attached (Annex A) (download
as .doc file) and addresses the key areas for decision. Also
attached (Annex B) (download
as .xls file) is a revised Resource Appraisal which updates
the financial information given in the project appraisal approved by
the Executive in November 2002. Copies of the full Halcrow report and
of the November 2002 Executive report and project appraisal are in the
Members’ Resource Centre.
Background
- Most RTI systems
use satellite technology to track the location of buses thus providing
valuable real time and historical management information for operators
and local authorities to assist in schedule planning and in the setting
and monitoring of punctuality targets. Predicted bus departure times
are generally made available to the public through on-street signs and
‘virtual’ website displays although some local authorities also offer
mobile phone text messaging or WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) internet
services. RTI systems can also facilitate more reliable bus journey
times by allowing priority at traffic signal junctions and dynamic fleet
management.
- TAS Consultancy
in July 2005 reported that the provision of RTI systems for bus passengers
continues to grow at around 20% a year, with around 71 UK systems now
in place, the leading domestic supplier being Advanced Communications
& Information Systems Ltd (ACIS).
- In November 2002,
the Executive approved a Detailed Project Appraisal (H168) for the provision
of an RTI system in Oxfordshire and also authorised officers to place
a tender notice for the Oxford to Kidlington Premium Routes corridor
as a trial scheme with prices sought to extend the project county-wide
over time.
- The objective
of the project was to contribute to the Council’s objectives of increasing
bus patronage as part of a package of Premium Routes measures encompassing
improvements to stop/shelter infrastructure, bus priority measures and
information provision. The Executive report identified a number of ways
in which delivery of a RTI system could contribute to improving bus
services. These were:
- Improving
actual timetable adherence and thus reliability;
- Enabling
operators to manage their fleet more efficiently and therefore enabling
them to match demand and supply more effectively within a given level
of resource;
- Providing
reassurance to passengers, empowering them to make decisions about
their journeys;
- Increasing
the convenience of bus use by enabling users to check the availability
of a service before proceeding to the bus stop.
- Through fitting
of Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) equipment bus operators now have
the potential to improve management of their fleets by responding proactively
to delays on the highway network, reallocating vehicles to ensure more
regular and reliable services, and refining schedules over time via
analysis of management data. At an early stage both Oxford Bus Company
(OBC) and Stagecoach in Oxfordshire committed to working in partnership
with the County Council to deliver a working system, contributing significant
capital investment to the project.
- RTI also helps
facilitate journey planning for bus users and provides reassurance in
a number of ways. On-street predictions increase passenger confidence
whilst a website allows individuals to check on departure times for
a particular stop while at work or at home. Waiting time at bus stops
can potentially be reduced.
- Following receipt
of tenders, the County Council in March 2004 awarded a 5 year contract
to ACIS Ltd, with an initial trial specified for the Oxford, Kidlington
and Bicester bus routes. The core contract included provision for 20
on-street displays (16 within shelters and 4 free-standing displays),
AVL equipment on 74 buses, a website, operator workstations for the
County Council, OBC and Stagecoach, the modification of a traffic signal
junction (Langford Lane, Kidlington), and all central communications
infrastructure.
- In addition, both
Oxford Bus Company & Stagecoach requested fitting of further vehicles,
with OBC installing AVL and radio control equipment on all of their
fleet including London and Airport services. The initial contract cost
has increased in line with the bus companies’ own investments to approximately
£1.1 million, the bus companies contributing around 50% of this total
as against the 30-40% anticipated for the pilot scheme in the original
Project Appraisal.
Progress
on Delivery of a RTI System in Oxfordshire
- The original trial
routes were chosen primarily on the basis that the County’s two main
bus operators provided a reasonably matched service in terms of frequency
along Banbury Road and the opportunity existed to work in partnership
with both companies to improve bus service reliability in the Kidlington
area in the face of major congestion problems. Delivery of a working
system was intended to complement other Premium Routes measures including
introduction of significant bus priority and stop upgrades.
- In practice, it
has taken longer to deliver the range of improvements than originally
envisaged. In the case of the RTI system this has been for a variety
of reasons including the need for ACIS to develop new products and software
to meet the stringent specification developed by the County Council
and its project consultants (Halcrow), and difficulties ensuring the
accuracy of the initial timetable data provided by both bus companies.
TAS Consultancy research has highlighted the considerable problems generating
accurate predictions of bus arrival times in congested urban areas such
as Oxford where high frequency bus services operate.
- However, testing
of all elements has now been completed with the system available to
the public via the County Council’s website (www.oxontime.co.uk)
and through provision of on-street displays in Oxford and Kidlington
and along the Banbury Road. Nine new RTI-compatible shelters have also
been installed as part of this initial trial. Both OBC and Stagecoach
in Oxfordshire are now resourced to provide high-quality timetable data
to drive the system and a process has been agreed with the County Council
to ensure the reliability of information provided to the public, particularly
over bank holiday periods. The bus companies have also trained their
drivers in the correct procedures to follow to enable predictions to
be generated at RTI displays and on the Council’s website. However,
it is clear to officers that the bus companies still need to do more
to improve the number of vehicles being tracked at any given time. Officers
are in regular contact with the bus operators to ensure that performance
is maintained and improved upon in this area.
- On bus priority,
the installation of traffic signals in Kidlington at the junction of
Yarnton Road/Oxford Road and the linking of the signals here with those
at Lyne Road and Sterling Road is going ahead following local consultation.
ACIS bus priority is required at these sites to assist bus movements
to/from Banbury Road and Oxford Road, Kidlington. This will help to
ensure traffic flows as smoothly as possible along Oxford Road. The
County Council is also developing detailed proposals for a southbound
bus lane adjacent to the Sainsbury’s store, scheduled for implementation
in 2006/07.
- It has also taken
longer than anticipated to upgrade bus stops and shelters on the Premium
Routes network, although in the case of stops, a contract was let in
August 2005 to Externiture/GS Building Services, a supplier of high
quality flags, poles and timetable cases. Approximately 180 stops are
being upgraded to Premium Route standard this financial year. However,
following a tendering exercise early in 2005, no firm bids were received
for a county-wide bus shelter advertising contract. It is believed that
complications arising from the existence of several ongoing shelter
agreements between other local authorities in Oxfordshire and advertising
companies had discouraged potential bidders. Following discussions with
local authorities and our procurement officers, it is intended to re-tender
the County Council shelter requirements in 2006 under the authorisation
previously given by the Executive.
Evaluation
of the Trial Scheme
- This evaluation,
undertaken by officers and Halcrow project consultants in November and
December 2005, incorporated:
- Qualitative
surveys of bus users and pedestrians, in Oxford City Centre, Summertown,
Kidlington and Bicester.
- Consultations
with local councils, members, trade organizations and educational
establishments in Oxfordshire.
- Benchmarking
of performance on the Oxfordshire RTI system as a whole, particularly
in terms of the accuracy of on-street and website departure predictions
and the reliability of monitoring equipment/software and communications
infrastructure.
- Research into
key areas for system expansion, building on the experience of other
local authorities
- In addition, a
review of Oxfordshire RTI system performance was undertaken by County
Council officers covering the following areas:
- Analysis of
comments/suggestions forwarded to the County Council via the ‘oxontime’
website, and also questionnaire feedback from associated initiatives.
This follows the successful completion of a trial bus stop upgrade
scheme on the Witney-Oxford Premium Route. As part of the trial, a
questionnaire was included in the Witney Area Local Travel Guide seeking
the public’s views on the new, high quality bus stop units and the
possible provision of RTI facilities on the route. Feedback from 180
responses indicated that at-stop RTI displays would encourage 63%
of respondents to use the bus more, while only 3% indicated a negative
view of RTI. These responses reflect the findings of TAS Consultancy
that passengers do value RTI, especially as part of a ‘comprehensive
high quality information strategy’.
- Feedback to
the ‘oxontime’ website has suggested ways in which the service can
be improved, e.g. adding further bus routes to the system or providing
SMS (Short Message Service) and/or WAP facilities. The County Council’s
website
also enables
members of the public to raise system faults with officers.
- Extensive surveys
of all on-street RTI signs from August to November 2005, focused on
the length of time it took for predictions to ‘clear down’ from on-street
displays. Approximately 90% of observations were recorded as being
within 30 seconds of a bus arriving or departing an RTI equipped stop
and this figure is increasing over time. A limited number of outstanding
‘clear down’ problems are being addressed by ACIS through two software
trials, commencing in December 2005, after which it is predicted that
performance will improve yet further.
- A review of
ACIS statistics which shows that the percentage of vehicles being
tracked in Oxfordshire is also one of the highest of any UK ACIS system
with approximately 83% of buses generating at-stop and website predictions
throughout November 2005. County Council staff are actively reporting
bus faults and highlighting to the bus companies instances of equipped
vehicles being allocated to non-RTI routes. It is hoped, therefore,
that this level of performance will be improved upon progressively
over the next year.
- The key objectives
of the study undertaken by Halcrow were:
- To review the
effectiveness of the trial scheme implementation.
- To supply a
report with costed options for future system expansion and recommendations
drawing on information from Halcrow’s study and the consultants own
experience in RTI. The scoping and future recommendations for bus
priority and selective vehicle detection (SVD) at traffic signals
is considered to have both technical and policy implications requiring
a separate paper to Cabinet at a later date. However, for the purposes
of this paper and the revised Resource Appraisal (Annex B)
(download as .xls file),
it is assumed that ACIS Bus Priority at traffic signal junctions will
be fitted on all AVL equipped routes over the course of the next LTP
period.
- To assess the
capacity of ACIS to deliver agreed programmes to schedule and to meet
the County Council’s contract specification and further technical
requirements, and the cost-effectiveness of quotations received from
ACIS for key system enhancements such as SMS & WAP.
Future
Expansion
- RTI systems can
include provision of WAP and SMS technology, enabling RTI to be accessed
remotely by users via their mobile phones. In addition greater reliability
of bus journey times can be achieved by modification of additional traffic
signal junctions to interface with the AVL system. The further roll-out
of the RTI system to include some or all of these facilities requires
member approval due to the cost and policy implications involved. A
detailed evaluation was completed by Halcrow in December 2005 into options
for system expansion (see further the executive summary of their report
at Annex A.) (download as .doc
file)
- RTI signs could
only legitimately be justified on AVL equipped routes, thus facilitating
maximum benefit to bus users in terms of the number of vehicles being
predicted at stop. The number of buses on such routes may vary over
time due to vehicle withdrawals/transfers or simply through commercial
decisions affecting the routeing of services. Likewise, the County Council’s
own area reviews of subsidised bus services may result in a change of
operator on an RTI equipped route. Currently all OBC vehicles are fitted,
with a limited number of Stagecoach services (Kidlington, Bicester and
Brookes Bus routes) also equipped.
- As the original
report to Executive emphasized, the commitment of operators to investing
in the Oxfordshire RTI system varies significantly with many smaller
operators being less willing or able to contribute financially. However,
it has been recognized that the County Council might need to consider
bearing a larger proportion of overall project costs via a formula which
would, therefore, encourage all operators in Oxfordshire to participate
in the scheme.
- In light of these
points, Halcrow was asked to consider an appropriate scope and roll-out
strategy for the Premium Route network over the course of the next LTP
including coverage of subsidised services and how to involve smaller
bus operators.
- It is also expected
that bus operator or business led initiatives will become common during
the lifetime of the five year contract. External organizations or indeed
other local authorities may make their own suggestions for location
of RTI signs in the future e.g. within shopping centres or hospitals,
even though it is essential that all RTI procurement in Oxfordshire
should be channelled through the existing County Council contract. Likewise
the revised Resource Appraisal (Annex B) (download
as .xls file) assumes that vehicles will be fitted on all Premium
Routes at the operator’s own expense over the course of the next LTP
period in line with the current project partnership model.
- It will be important,
therefore, for the County Council to have a clear strategy for any future
system expansion and to react positively to the commercial decisions
of bus operators to fit AVL equipment to their vehicles. For the purposes
of a full system roll-out on all Premium Routes the essential requirement
would be for approximately 110 vehicles (in addition to the 210 already
fitted) to be equipped on Stagecoach, Thames Travel and Arriva routes.
It is anticipated that all Premium Route vehicles (and also all Stagecoach
buses operating on subsidised routes) will be RTI enabled by the end
of the next LTP period.
- As mentioned above,
it is intended to re-tender for a county-wide bus shelter advertising
contract during 2006. The procurement of shelters is an important consideration
when determining future policy with regard to roll-out of RTI signs
in Oxfordshire. The public acceptability of flag signs and the information
displayed is addressed in the full Halcrow report available in the Members’
Resource Centre.
- Following further
discussions with other local authorities, Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach
in Oxfordshire, key investment priorities for 2006/07 have been identified
as follows:
- Delivery of
an SMS texting facility enabling RTI to be made more widely available
to members of the public. The County Council should also investigate
the longer term possibility of providing a WAP service.
- Fitting of displays
at Park & Ride sites, and in the Headington area, and adding to
the current number of on-street signs on other RTI equipped routes
- including those areas planned to be subject to major highway works
or likely to be affected by development/housing growth.
- Expansion of
Traffic Signal Priority.
- Improvements
to the ‘oxontime’ website.
- In addition, a
number of key principles have been established for further RTI investment
following public survey, namely that shelter-mounted displays should
be installed in preference to flag-mounted signs where possible; and
also that bus operators in Oxfordshire should continue to be encouraged
to invest in RTI/AVL equipment, and to meet the costs of maintaining
such equipment thereafter.
- Whilst RTI is
likely to be installed largely on routes served by well-used commercial
services, often the same roads and bus stops will also be used by subsidised
bus services on their way "out of town" to some less populous destination.
It would undermine the credibility of the RTI system and lose an opportunity
to encourage more use of the subsidised service, were these subsidised
services not also to appear on RTI screens. All costs incurred in the
provision of subsidised services are met by the Council, either directly
or through an increase in tender price (and in officers’ view, many
of the smaller subsidised service operators would consider the extra
driver discipline, plus the use of more sophisticated ticketing equipment,
to be a challenge for which a significant price increase would be appropriate).
A further complication in the case of these services is that the operator
of, and vehicle used on, the service is liable to change every four
years upon retendering.
- It is therefore
proposed that RTI operation generally be made a condition of contract
upon retendering, but only for subsidised services which run along a
corridor equipped – or planned to be equipped during the life of the
contract – with RTI screens. Very minor services, running for less than
20 hours per week, should be excluded to minimise the cost impact. It
is proposed that the County Council should pay directly for AVL tracking
equipment for sufficient buses to cover the contract service (including
appropriate spare vehicle cover); other costs, and the necessary management
control to ensure effective use, to be met by the operator. It is likely
that in a few cases this will result in the County Council paying for
equipment which would otherwise have been paid for commercially.
- Another key recommendation
is that the County Council should, wherever the relevant Section 106
agreement permits, use developer monies to fund the capital costs of
at-stop displays, traffic signal priority equipment, off route signs
(such as in new shopping centres etc), and all reasonable revenue costs
for a period of 5 years, including maintenance. The revised Resource
Appraisal (Annex B) (download
as .xls file) assumes a commitment of £100k for the LTP period
2006/07 to 2010/11, from developer contributions.
Financial
Implications
- The Project Appraisal
appended to the Executive Report of 26 November 2002 indicated an overall
capital requirement of £2.4 million having taken into account all anticipated
fees and developer contributions, and assuming that the RTI system would
be rolled out across many of the County’s main bus routes over an 8
year period. This Project Appraisal only showed the costs for which
the County Council would be liable whereas the Resource Appraisal (Annex
B) (download as .xls file)also
includes anticipated contributions from bus operators. Annex B reflects
the overall investment made by the County Council thus far and is supplied
in order to provide an indicative programme for the period of the next
LTP (2006-2011), for which the overall net requirement has been reduced
to £2.2 million, largely as a result of the significant contribution
that has been secured from operators.
- The costs of procuring
and maintaining RTI-compatible bus shelters before any eventual county-wide
shelter contract is agreed also needs to be considered. The original
RTI Project Appraisal estimated that the County Council would need to
fund 50% of the cost of new shelters and their maintenance through such
a contract, assuming that advertising revenues available to the supplier
would cover the remaining shelter costs. Negotiations with a number
of advertising companies in 2005 suggests that officers are unlikely
to achieve significantly better contract terms than indicated above
through any county-wide advertising arrangement.
- Bus stop infrastructure
and other development costs mean that the overall net capital cost to
the County Council for the RTI system is therefore likely to be similar
to the sum originally envisaged in the Executive report of November
2002, although reduced by around £0.2 million.
- The RTI revenue
budget currently covers ongoing communication costs for the core system.
The procurement of additional real time signs and bus priority units
will mean that the County Council’s maintenance obligations will increase,
but within the provisional revenue budget for 2006/07 when the maintenance
contract will need to be finalized. It is intended that any shelters
bought outside of the proposed county-wide scheme will pass into the
ownership of the relevant local authorities for ongoing maintenance
purposes. Therefore, there would be no associated revenue implications
for the County Council.
- At the time at
which the contract was signed, both bus companies agreed to meet their
share of revenue costs during Phase One (Pre Completion Test) and Phase
Two (One Year Defects Liability Period) and to negotiate on an appropriate
allocation of ongoing revenue & maintenance costs (based on a percentage
of equipment/services procured) when the maintenance contract is finalized.
In addition BT communication costs have thus far been much lower than
anticipated.
- Many of the investment
options proposed by Halcrow (see Annex A) (download
as .doc file) and in this report also have revenue cost implications
attached to them. In particular, the process of updating RTI system
data when timetable changes take place is relatively complex and requires
a high degree of co-operation between County Council, bus operator and
ACIS staff to ensure that there is no detrimental impact on bus passengers.
As the number of AVL equipped buses increases over time, the potential
for timetable changes will also increase; therefore an allowance has
been made in the revenue profile accordingly.
- This report includes
a suggested balanced programme of capital investment for the 5 years
of the next LTP (2006-2011) based on Halcrow’s study recommendations
(see Annex A) (download as .doc
file). In the provisional LTP, a lower allocation has been made.
Rate of expansion of the system will depend on the funding allocated
in the final Plan, which will be determined each year by the Cabinet.
The priorities for 2006/07 are set out in paragraph 26.
- Following satisfactory
completion of most aspects of System Acceptance Testing (SAT), and corresponding
milestone payments to ACIS, a Supported Capital Expenditure allocation
of £48,000 is now available for a limited extension of the existing
trial during 2005/06. Such expenditure would allow for:
- Installation
of two flag-mounted RTI displays as part of a wider Premium Route
upgrade for the Kennington bus route. At the same time a number of
shelters are being replaced in this area and traffic calming measures
are being modified to improve the quality of bus services between
Oxford, Abingdon and Didcot. Not all shelters are structurally capable
of supporting RTI displays however, and there are often difficulties
in arranging power supplies to the shelters themselves and lengthy
lead-times when procuring new shelters. Therefore, even though public
surveys have indicated that shelter-mounted displays are more popular
than flag-mounted signs, the latter are still suitable for a limited
number of locations. The unit charge for a flag-mounted display is
also approximately 40% less than the combined cost of a new shelter
with a bracket-mounted sign. Hence, it is considered appropriate to
fit flag-mounted displays at two Oxford bound stops in Kennington
(Kenville Road & St Swithun’s School) in 2006.
- Implementation
of bus priority units at all three linked signal junctions along the
Oxford and Banbury Roads in Kidlington plus the Bicester Road junction
which caters for a significant number of bus movements on the Oxford
to Kidlington Premium Route. Intelligent bus priority is also proposed
at the Water Eaton Park & Ride junction plus three other pedestrian
crossings along Banbury Road in Oxford. These installations will enable
the County Council to better assess the impact of ACIS bus priority
on an area/route basis, informing its future policy along other Premium
Route corridors.
- During the current
financial year other capital funding has permitted simultaneous provision
of high-quality bus stop pole units and associated accessibility improvements
to maximize the impact of Premium Route upgrades and RTI investments.
Staff
Implications
- Staffing implications
can largely be met from current resources, supplemented by our term
consultants with ongoing fees allocated to the RTI revenue budget. TAS
research indicates the need for on-going qualitative monitoring of all
aspects of an RTI system’s performance – for example, on-street displays,
the ‘oxontime’ website and the accuracy of system timetable data. The
County Council has employed agency staff to cover this role since April
2005. However, this role has since expanded to cover detailed monitoring
of system management information including the analysis of bus journey
times across Oxford. This work is informing the target setting and monitoring
process for the next LTP. In addition, the County Council envisages
a more cost-effective process for managing RTI timetable changes in
future with work currently undertaken by ACIS being brought in-house.
A staffing requirement of one Full Time Equivalent post from April 2006
has therefore been included in the revised Resource Appraisal (Annex
B) (download as .xls file).
The original appraisal envisaged a 0.5 FTE post being required. The
additional 0.5 FTE post identified above will be balanced by an equivalent
reduction in annual operating costs, and will therefore have a neutral
overall effect on the budget.
RECOMMENDATION
- The Cabinet
is RECOMMENDED to:
- note
the progress made on delivery of a Real Time Information System
in Oxfordshire and the system testing already undertaken;
- note
the outcome of County Council surveys into the performance of
on-street Real Time Information displays;
- note
the findings of the comprehensive evaluation of the Trial Scheme
implementation undertaken by the County Council and endorse
expansion of the system as set out in paragraphs 25 to 30 of
the report and in Annex A (download
as .doc file);
- approve
the revised Resource Appraisal at Annex B (download
as .xls file);
- approve
implementation of the Real Time Information System displays
on the Kennington Premium Route and traffic signal bus priority
measures on the Oxford - Kidlington/Bicester Premium Routes
as described in paragraph 38 of the report utilising the £48,000
Supported Capital Expenditure available in the remainder of
2005/06;
- endorse
the priorities for investment in 2006/07 set out in paragraph
26 of the report and the outline phasing for the next Local
Transport Plan period, subject to the required funding being
allocated by the Council and the Cabinet in the capital programme
for 2006/07 and subsequent years;
- instruct
officers to include a requirement in all tenders for significant
subsidised services which will, during the life of the subsidy
contract, serve corridors with Real Time Information equipped
boarding stops:
- that
operators should fit Automatic Vehicle Location equipment,
to be supplied by the County Council, to sufficient vehicles
to cover the service;
- that
operators must ensure that the vehicles are fitted with suitable
ticket machines; and
- that
drivers are trained and managed to ensure that they use the
equipment correctly.
STEVE
HOWELL
Head of Transport
Background
papers: Nil
Contact
Officer: Chris Spry, Senior Transport Planner, Tel (01865) 815711
January
2006
Return to TOP
|