National Express West Midlands (NXWM) is extending its partnership with CitySwift by another three years. The technology company has enabled the operator to improve results year-on-year, enhancing bus punctuality and efficiencies.

Since September 2023 NXWM’s use of CitySwift’s advanced data technology has led to a reduction of more than 20% in late running, customer wait times have been reduced and passengers per journey have increased. This follows strong results from previous years and consequently NXWM is now rolling out CitySwift’s platform across its entire fleet of over 1,400 buses.

NXWM has worked collaboratively with CitySwift to develop transport solutions that analyse passenger and service data in an attempt to drive optimum performance and deliver a more efficient use of resources.

In the Spotlight

The latest CitySwift solution is Spotlight, an intelligent recommendation engine for bus network enhancements designed to aid in the building smart cities and regions of the future. NXWM is the first UK transport operator to adopt Spotlight, which CitySwift says has resulted in faster, more customer-centric choices that balance resources, passengers, cities and operators.

Ed Rickard, Network Director at National Express, said: “Our collaboration with CitySwift to deliver Spotlight for the benefit of bus users across the West Midlands, and in major cities across the UK, is a groundbreaking achievement for the National Express West Midlands and CitySwift teams. We are delighted to continue working in partnership with CitySwift over the coming years and proudly leading the charge in the UK when it comes to the use of AI-powered data and insights that are key to an efficient, cost-effective delivery of bus service performance for customers across our network.”

Spotlight is designed to improve scheduler decision-making by providing insights into performance and resource considerations such as timeliness, cost and vehicle numbers. It scans the entire network, delivering service optimisation options and efficiency improvements.

An Irish company, CitySwift opened its first UK office earlier this year in London and announced additional partnerships with Transport North East, Transdev Blazefield and trentbarton.