4 July 2011

Bus info to come... years from now...

| johnboy
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buses

Simon Corbell has announced that the long awaited real time bus timetabling system is coming… in 2013.

Development of a real-time passenger information system, that will provide the travelling public with instant timetable information for ACTION bus services is underway, Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Simon Corbell, announced today.

Mr Corbell said the system will provide the community with instant information via the internet, mobile phones, touch screen displays and on bus visual displays.

“The ACT government remains committed to improving the delivery of public transport services to the Canberra community,” Mr Corbell said.

“The Government has allocated $12.5 million in last year’s budget, over the next three years, to allow for the design and roll out of a real time passenger information system for use on ACTION buses in Canberra.

KEMA Pty Ltd have been engaged to do the work.

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I wonder how much it would have cost to have just bought TramTracker (and adapted), or simply released the data in open source and let some bright developers compete to make the best app (rather than whatever staid app ACTION are likely to come out with).

One really does wonder given (as already posted) they haven’t even managed to do much with their static timetable data…

Waiting For Godot4:04 pm 06 Jul 11

damien haas said :

A private organisation (the MyBus people) was planning on doing this for *free* and action wont supply the data, but are willing to *pay* $12 MILLION to do it in THREE YEARS time ?

Those point to point cameras cant come in quick enough to finance this.

Sounds a bit like the way Revolve – a local, not for profit charity – was kicked out of Mugga Lane tip and replaced by shady Gold Coast outfit Aussie Junk (what an appropriate name!) which promptly went broke within a year. When bureaucratic pride rears its ugly head, no amount of rationality or commonsense will counter it.

Thoroughly Smashed1:59 pm 06 Jul 11

molongloid said :

Madness! Where do I find the requests for tender on these things?

http://www.procurement.act.gov.au/

The contract is there but the RFT isn’t. According to http://www.onbid.org/bids/ICT-Consultancy-Real-Time-Passenger.sq6019611.htm it closed last December.

This is ridiculous! The IT, infrastructure and maintenance should have been spec’d and tendered for separately. And then there are those who were offerring to do some of this work for free if they could just get the data.

And if it’s two more years before we get this service, how many more years before ACTION starts making good use of MYWAY data?

Madness! Where do I find the requests for tender on these things? The ANU MyBus solution has been mentioned. Our lab is booked out with US jobs at the moment but would like to submit for work like this in the future to have a local client base. 6 figures not 8 figures surely. The government is incompetent for getting it wrong by orders of magnitude. Who are their technical advisors?

‘Crimes’ update from the MyBus Imagine team:
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/students-offered-bus-tracking-months-ago/2215353.aspx
I seriously wonder what other deperately needed projects could be ticked off the Govt list with the better part of this $12m….? Meanwhile, rego et al went up on 1 July…..

The systems really are useful, the ones in europe for buses, trams etc are great. Thing is i’m guessing we’ll only get LCD displays at interchanges… Still would be great if they fixed the main reason nobody catches the buses and that is how long it takes to get from A to B.

damien haas said :

A private organisation (the MyBus people) was planning on doing this for *free* and action wont supply the data, but are willing to *pay* $12 MILLION to do it in THREE YEARS time ?

Those point to point cameras cant come in quick enough to finance this.

It does seem extremely unfortunate that a faster method to something usable – even as a stop-gap -can’t/won’t be used due to ‘politics’ or typical PS bureaucracy dithering…. 🙁
Especially as it would cost taxpayers less! Sigh…

Is ACTION able to be hit with an FoI request for current (static) route, stop and timetable information in machine readable format?

A private organisation (the MyBus people) was planning on doing this for *free* and action wont supply the data, but are willing to *pay* $12 MILLION to do it in THREE YEARS time ?

Those point to point cameras cant come in quick enough to finance this.

>can’t they just slap up an iPhone app in the medium term

… or they could just finish the Google Transit integration that was first announced to go live in _June 2009_:
http://google-au.blogspot.com/2009/06/google-australia-opens-doors-to-our-new.html
“public transit information for […] Canberra’s bus network (ACTION buses) will be available in Google Maps later in June”

To achieve that, all ACTION needs to do is give accurate timetable data to Google in a standard format. Then it would “just work” with most smartphones (including iPhone), and with Google Maps in regular web browsers.

… or they could give their timetable data to the MyBus students, who already made an app:
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/01/21/3118300.htm

One has to ask: If ACTION doesn’t have accurate computer-readable _static_ timetable & stop location data in 2009 or in 2011, what are the realistic chances of having accurate dynamic realtime data in 2013? You have to walk before you can run.

I know it would only really help the younger demographic, but can’t they just slap up an iPhone app in the medium term? One similar to the fantastic TramTracker in use in Melbourne would be great.

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